Layoffs hit Bored Apes creator: ‘Yuga lost its way,’ CEO says

Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano dismissed several employees Friday, telling staff the company behind the famous Bored Apes NFT collection had “lost its way” and was struggling under “labyrinthine corporate processes.”

It wasn’t immediately clear how many employees had been laid off, or what percent of the company’s staff was affected. The company had about 120 employees after an October restructuring.

Solano informed staff in an email Friday morning. He later shared a screenshot of that email on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“I am hellbent on transforming Yuga and getting us back to our roots, and that means making hard decisions,” he wrote on the social-media platform. “By far the hardest is saying goodbye to some talented team members.”

Solano, one of Yuga’s co-founders, took over as CEO in February, promising to “execute with a more cryptonative focus.”

Since launching the Bored Apes NFT collection in 2021, Yuga has grown into a behemoth.

At its peak in 2022, the cheapest Bored Apes were worth well over 100 Ether, about $400,000 at the time. That year, Yuga Labs closed a $450 million funding round at a valuation of $4 billion.

In addition to launching new NFT collections, a token, and Bored Ape-themed merchandise, the company began development of Otherside, a “gamified metaverse,” and purchased the rights to other premier NFT collections, including CryptoPunks and Moonbirds.

But Bored Ape holders became disillusioned with the leadership of Yuga Labs’ previous CEO, Daniel Alegre, an Activision Blizzard alum.

Since the collection’s high in the spring of 2022, its value has steadily dropped. On Friday, the cheapest Bored Apes were selling for 11 Ether, or about $40,000.

Alegre’s departure, and Solano’s return, were celebrated on X.

In Friday’s email to Yuga staff, Solano said the company needed to become “a team that does fewer things but does them brilliantly.”

“Yuga lost its way,” he wrote. “The creative-first spirit that drove this company from its inception has been getting muddied by labyrinthine corporate processes.”

When Yuga raised $450 million in 2022, the company was “playing on easy mode,” profiting from royalties on secondary sales of Bored Apes.

“Now we’re in hard mode,” he wrote.

Solano gave disillusioned employees an opportunity to leave, as well.

“Anyone is welcome to take the same severance that we are offering affected employees today and we can part ways on good terms,” he wrote.

Aleks Gilbert is a DeFi correspondent based in New York. You can contact him at aleks@dlnews.com.