Anonymous , an internet hacktivist group, released Monday. It addressed Yuga Labs, a blockchain-driven social club, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and its nonfungible token (NFT).
Anonymous claims that Yuga Lab used esoteric symbolsism in BAYC’s art to support controversial subjects like racism, Nazism and simianization.
Hacktivists claimed that it could prove “without a shadow or doubt” that BAYC (and Yuga Labs) were guilty of concealing these esoteric symbols from plain sight after conducting extensive research. This conclusion was openly opposed by both the company and project.
The group warned against reducing its accusations to “conspiracy theory.” They also said that those who do so are “simply ignorant”, “not versed or worse at a financial conflicts of interest,” and shared this:
“Anonymous is certain the Yuga Labs brand and the BAYC collection are infected not with one or two, but with dozens upon esoteric symbolsism and dog whistles reflecting Nazism.
Anonymous suggested that these art owners are also victims to Yuga Labs’ trolling by Bored Ape Yacht Club. He urged owners to not keep silent out of financial interest.
“Don’t you think your founders owe more to you than this?” Many people outside of the BAYC community continue muttering about how they were deceived in a way that is both unforgivable and unprecedented.
The group called on partners, investors and celebrities like Dez Bryant and Mark Cuban, Dez Bryant and Tom Brady to voice their concerns about Nazism, racism and simianization.
Greg Solano , co-founder of Yuga Labs, denied similar claims in Medium post on June 24.
“We have been the target of a disinformation campaign that accuses us — a group consisting of Jewish, Turkish and Pakistani friends — of being super secret Nazis.”
Solano stated that racism allegations against his diverse team were completely unfounded at the time.
Cointelegraph published a class-action lawsuit on July 25 that claimed Yuga Labs “inappropriately incited” the community’s purchase of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs as well as the project’s associated ApeCoin ( AP). According to the proposed class-action lawsuit, Yuga Labs used endorsements and celebrity promoters to “inflate” the cost of the BAYC NFTs as well as the APE token.
Cointelegraph reached Yuga Labs, but was not able to get a response at the time of publication.
