Yuga Labs has defended itself against claims that Nazi imagery was embedded into the artwork of its popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.
Artist Ryder Ripps alleged earlier this year that the digital apes depict racist caricatures of black and Asian people, while drawing comparisons between the project’s logo and the Nazi Totenkopf skull and crossbones symbol.
After YouTuber Philion published a video exploring the supposed evidence, Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner said the team decided to clear the air.
“We’ve not responded in further detail to these allegations because frankly they are insanely far-fetched,” he said on Medium.
“That said, we woke up this morning to a podcaster we respect talking about this conspiracy theory, and that was pretty surreal. Made us feel like it was time to come out and put an end to all this.”
Ripps links to his dossier of ‘evidence’ at the website – gordongoner.com – from his Twitter account, labelling BAYC as ‘racist’.
Yuga Labs said it had taken legal action and filed a lawsuit to “stop the continuous infringement, and other illegal attempts to bring harm” to the firm and community, although there were no further details on who or what it had taken the action against.
Ripps has created his own collection of NFTs, branded RR/BAYC, satirising the BAYC apes. Despite being removed from NFT platforms such as OpenSea and Foundation, the 10,000 pieces sold out, earning him an estimated $1.8 million. Yuga Labs said this was “ill-gotten profit”.