Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold NFTs Fetch Over $16 Million, Auction Process Garners Criticism from NFT Community

TwelveFold, the latest NFT collection from Yuga Labs, has garnered millions in sales soon after its launch earlier this week. Out of the 300 NFTs that were part of this series, 288 were purchased for $16.50 million (roughly Rs. 135 crore). Yuga Labs conducted a 24-hour auction to sell TwelveFold NFT pieces that wrapped up on March 6 and witnessed a total of 3,246 bids. The remaining twelve NFTs are to be delegated to contributors and will be used for Yuga Labs’ philanthropic initiatives.

Previously, all of Yuga Labs’ collections, including the expensive Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs — were built on the Ethereum blockchain. The NFT pieces from this particular Yuga Labs’ series however, are special because they are inscribed on Satoshis — the smallest units of the Bitcoin blockchain. Such NFTs are classified as Ordinals. This new technology of inscribing NFTs on Satoshis is relatively new, and there is no NFT marketplace that sells Ordinals.

Despite earning a handsome sum from the sale of the TwelveFold NFTs, Yuga Labs did draw a heavy criticism from the NFT community for the way it conducted the auction. Customers who wanted to purchase NFTs from the TwelveFold collection, were asked to deposit the full amount of their bids directly with Yuga in order to be considered, Decrypt said explained in its report.

At the time, Yuga Labs said it would return the rejected bids within 24 hours of the auction’s conclusion. Many members of the NFT community including Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, criticised Yuga Labs for setting a wrong precedent with such an auction.

“They are taking custody of bidders’ Bitcoin with a promise to send back unsuccessful bids. Not doubting they’ll do that, but this model is a scammer’s dream, and credible players need to set [a] better example,” Twitter user @VeryOrdinally wrote.

When NFTs are built on blockchains like Ethereum or Solana, they can be sold on marketplaces like OpenSea and Magic Eden among others. This NFT sales mechanism is not available on the Bitcoin blockchain due to its limited smart contract ability. Yuga Labs is yet to issue a statement in response to the criticism from the NFT community over its recent auction.