Daniel Alegre, chief operating officer and president of video game giant Activision Blizzard, will join as the new CEO of NFT leader Yuga Labs, according to the blog. Position.
Alegre will become effective in the first half of 2023 and will replace the company’s current CEO, Nicole Muniz, who will remain a partner and strategic advisor.
Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow said in a statement: Strategic Partnerships — These are all key aspects of an immersive web3 world built by and for creators. “
Alegre’s departure from Activision filing last Friday, FTC sued to block Microsoft’s $69 billion acquisition of the “Call of Duty” publisher.
Founded in April 2021 with the release of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) collection, Yuga Labs is one of the most prominent players to emerge from the NFT boom.
By the end of 2021, investors had spent nearly $41 billion on NFTs. One of his most popular segments is a collectible token created or acquired by Yuga that serves as his social profile picture for his media. Acting as proof of authenticity and stored on the blockchain, NFTs act as receipts for digital goods such as Metaverse media, works of art, and real estate.
Yuga in March of this year Got 2 other popular NFT collections, Crypto Punks and Meebits have launched their own cryptocurrency, ApeCoin (APE). ApeCoin is down more than 80% from his late April peak.
Closed in the same month $450M funding round led by a16z And it was joined by other companies such as FTX, the now bankrupt exchange, which donated $50 million to help Yuga Labs reach its $4 billion valuation.
Along with the funding, the company also announced plans for a “gamified metaverse” project, Otherside.
“The company’s products, partnerships and IP pipeline represent a huge opportunity to define the Metaverse in a way that empowers creators and gives users identity and true ownership of their digital assets,” blogs Alegre. said in the post.
October report Bloomberg has learned that Yuga Labs is facing an investigation by the SEC over whether its sale of digital assets violates securities laws.
Weekly sales of NFTs peaked at around $1.5 billion, or 561,501 ETH, in the first week of May, according to a blockchain analytics platform, after increasing through the first quarter of 2022. Nansen.
NFT sales surged in July following the crypto plunge this spring triggered by three major deleveraging events in the crypto market, including the Terra Luna explosion and the collapse of hedge fund Three Arrows. , and continued to decline throughout the second half of the year. This year’s.
Ethereum-based NFT sales hit their lowest point for 2022 in the first week of December, with $68 million worth going into smart contracts, down 95% from their May peak.
But last week release Former President Donald Trump’s Trump Collect Card brought NFTs into the mainstream conversation for the first time in months. A collection of 45,000 different images of the former president, sold out quicklywhich may have brought some life back to the market.
As one NFT collector told Yahoo Finance: Having dinner with the former president of the United States is one of the best utilities he could get from the NFT collection. “
David Hollerith is a senior reporter at Yahoo Finance covering cryptocurrencies and stock markets. Follow him on Twitter. @DsHollers
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