Yuga Labs acquisition of Meebits NFT IP reopen talks of market manipulation

There are concerns about market manipulation at Yuga Labs these days Get This concern for Meebits and CryptoPunk IP stems from the observation that between March 5th and March 11th, several addresses purchased a total of 159 Meebits NFTs.

Since the acquisition by Yuga Labs on March 11th Minimum charge It’s more than doubled to over 6 ETH, which is about $ 15,000.

according to NFT Ethics On Twitter, most of the addresses that purchased NFTs during this period belonged to insiders.

It’s not very active these days as things are starting to become quite predictable in 1 / NFT space. Foreseeed BAYC’s acquisition of Larva Labs’ main IP (We look forward to Andreessen Horowitz’s further instructions and involvement :-)). https://t.co/XiAelDoBac

— NFT Ethics (@NFTethics) March 14, 2022

It was pointed out that Justin Taylor, head of consumer product marketing on Twitter, and former marketing head of TikTokNickTran purchased Meebits NFT prior to the acquisition. These were the people who were likely to know the plans of Yuga Labs.

It also states that other insiders may have created a new wallet to buy Meebits NFT.

Some people wonder if these are Ethereum The address belongs to an NFT investor who has taken the right action at the right time, and others believe that they are acting on the basis of insider information.

However, given market speculation about the acquisition of Yuga Labs before that happened, this is difficult to determine. Cryptographic space anonymity also makes it impossible to really know what is behind the purchase.

NFT space and market manipulation claims

This issue recalls speculation about market manipulation, a problem that has plagued NFT spaces. The volatility of the crypto market extends to the NFT space. That is, speculators must rely on their intuition and available public information to make a profit.

Neither the parties involved in the transaction, Yuga Labs or Larva Labs, have commented on the allegations.

It was difficult to identify market manipulation because there were no restrictions on the industry. If found, it is almost impossible to prosecute it.

This means that it’s up to the NFT platform to do anything about it. last year, High seas forbidden An employee who trades an NFT listed on the platform after one employee buys the listed NFT before it is published and then sells it for profit later.

Beyond insider information, another common form of market manipulation is Wash trade.. This includes raising the price of NFTs by trading NFTs between multiple wallets, all managed by the same person. These issues have added to the need for more regulation in the NFT space.