Yuga Labs, the creators of the blue-chip non-fungible token (NFT) collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), announced that the team has completed its Ordinal Inscription auction with a total of 3,246 bidders. The Twelvefold collection of inscriptions generated 735.7 bitcoin, worth more than $16 million. The highest bid was 7.1159 bitcoin, equivalent to $160,000.
Individuals Complain About Yuga Labs’ Auction Model Despite Record Sales of Ordinal Inscriptions
Yuga Labs has concluded its Twelvefold auction after it went live at 3 p.m. PST on March 5 and ended at 3 p.m. PST on March 6. Schmigge Figge, the chief content officer at Yuga Labs, recently explained that Twelvefold is a base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, and the collection is composed of 300 inscriptions. “Each series maintains a theme spread across 12 unique pieces,” the Yuga executive detailed. “Every Twelvefold piece will be inscribed onto a satoshi with a satpoint ending in the number 12, and the ‘postage’ associated with each inscription will be 12121.”
According to a representative speaking on behalf of Yuga, the collection may hold the spot as the top Ordinal Inscription collection sale to date, as detailed in a note sent to Bitcoin.com News. The Twelvefold auction saw 3,246 total bidders, with the top bid at 7.1159 BTC, or $160,000, according to Yuga. The minimum bid to rank in the top 288 was 2.2501 BTC, and the auction generated 735.7 BTC from the top 288 spots, which equated to roughly $16.5 million. Yuga tweeted on March 7 that all bids that did not rank in the top 288 saw funds returned to their receiving address.
“Bidders who won an inscription and increased their bids after the final block of the auction should empty the receiving address before inscriptions are sent,” Yuga said.
Although the sale was successful, a few people complained about the way Yuga ran the auction. “Yuga is establishing REALLY bad precedence running an auction like this. They are taking custody of bidders’ bitcoin with a promise to send back unsuccessful bids,” an Ordinals inscription supporter named Ordinally wrote. “Not doubting they’ll do that, but this model is a scammer’s dream, and credible players need to set better example.”
At the time of writing, 341,711 inscriptions exist on the Bitcoin blockchain, indicating continued demand for Ordinals. Additionally, over the last seven days, Ordinal inscriptions have entered the NFT sales space and competed with NFTs minted on Ethereum and Solana. This week, Emblem Vault version 4 (v4) is the eighth-largest NFT collection in terms of seven-day sales. Emblem Vault v4 contains a swath of Ordinal inscriptions, such as Ord Rocks and Bitcoin Punks, and has generated $3,658,977 in sales. Emblem Vault v4 sales are up 59.87% from the previous week.
What are your thoughts on the success of Yuga Labs’ Twelvefold auction and the continued demand for Ordinal inscriptions in the NFT space? Do you think Yuga Labs’ auction model sets a bad precedent or is it a legitimate way to run an auction? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.