On September 26, internet hacktivist group Anonymous posted a video targeting blockchain technology company Yuga Labs and its NFT-powered social club Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
The group’s statement included a list of accusations about Yuga Lab’s alleged use of esoteric symbolism in BAYC’s art, which the group says demonstrates the company’s support for numerous controversial issues, including Nazism, racism, Simianization and pedophilia.
The hacktivist group claimed that, after extensive research and interviews with key figures, it can confirm “without any doubt” that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Collection and Yuga Labs are guilty of hiding these esoteric symbols in plain sight, a conclusion that the company and the project openly protest.
The group warned of the danger of relegating its accusations to an unsubstantiated “conspiracy theory,” adding that the people doing so are “simply ignorant” or “uneducated, or worse, have a financial conflict of interest.” A representative of the internet hacktivist group shared:
“Anonymous is certain that the BAYC collection and the Yuga labs brand are infected with not one or two, but dozens of examples of esoteric symbolism and dog whistles that reflect Nazism, racism, siminization and pedophile support” .
Anonymous suggested that the owners of these pieces of art are also being trolled by Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs, and urged the owners not to remain silent out of a desire to protect their financial interests.
“Does their founders owe them no more than this? Many outside the BAYC community continue to whisper how they have been duped in an unprecedented and unforgivable way.”
The group called on investors, partners, and high-profile celebrities such as Andreessen Horowitz, Mark Cuban, Dez Bryant, Tom Brady, Ben Simmons, Neymar Junior, Kevin Hart, Drake Bell, Shaquille O’Neal, and big brands like Lion Tree, Adidas, Tiffany & Co, to speak out and take an official position on the practices of Nazism, racism, simianization and pedophilia.
The 24th of June. Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano denied similar claims against his company in a Medium post, saying:
“We have become the target of a harebrained disinformation campaign that accuses us – a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani and Cuban friends – of being top-secret Nazis.”
Solano then firmly stated that the accusations of racism leveled against his diverse team were totally unfounded.
On July 25, Cointelegraph reported on a class action lawsuit proposal alleging that Yuga Labs “improperly induced” the community to purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection and project-affiliated ApeCoin (APE) token. . The proposed class action lawsuit suggested that Yuga Labs used celebrity promoters and endorsements to “inflate the price” of BAYC NFTs and the APE token.
Cointelegraph reached out to Yuga Labs, but did not receive a response at the time of publication of this note.
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