Yuga Labs to focus on building Otherside following restructuring: CEO

Yuga Labs CEO Daniel Alegre said today that the company's restructuring is complete — and the team will focus on developing its metaverse extension, Otherside, while supporting existing communities.

In a social media post on X, Alegre addressed the concerns and feedback from Yuga Labs’ various NFT communities after the NFT maker earlier this month announced a restructuring and staff cuts. “As difficult as it has been, that restructuring is complete and we now begin the task of refining the focus with our new team configurations,” Alegre said.

Following the restructuring, Alegre added that the team has three priorities — supporting existing communities, focusing on the execution of Otherside and leveraging partnerships.

Alegre said that when he joined Yuga about six months ago, he was aware of the “strained” relationship between Yuga and CryptoPunks — an NFT collection it acquired last year — and the team has “tripled down” on efforts for community support.

“The relationship between Punks and Yuga when I joined was, I have to say, strained. What we continually heard was that Yuga didn’t care – while at the same time there was a strong desire to be left alone,” Alegre wrote. “As a result, we expanded our engagement with top-tier museums to elevate the already strong stature of CryptoPunks, to broaden the art collector appeal for the brand. We doubled-down… tripled-down even… on community support.”

Picky on partnerships

For its blue-chip NFT project, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs will continue to support offline events, as “we know that supporting unique IRL events and getting us all together is critical,” Alegre said.

When it comes to partnerships for BAYC, Alegre noted that Yuga has been selective in its engagements, such as “our multi-year engagement with Gucci and our recently announced BAPE® collaboration.”

He added that there are a few more collaborations in the pipeline that will be announced soon.

Continued focus on Otherside

Alegre has also made it clear in his earlier restructuring note that a big focus of Yuga will be on the development of Otherside. He reiterated in his X post today that Yuga is “accelerating the development and building out unique and differentiated digital experiences that are supported with strong and scalable tech.”

“Building an immersive metaverse platform is hard – both technically and creatively,” Alegre added. “You have undoubtedly noticed a constant drumbeat of announcements recently – from the partnerships with Hadean and Big Rhino, to the acquisition of Roar Studios – which are all aligned towards accelerating the evolution of Otherside, so it can be the digital connection and experience platform for our Yuga family of communities and beyond.” 

The floor price of BAYC collection fell 64.5% so far this year to 24.69 ETH ($38,830) on Oct. 17 from 69.49 ETH on Jan. 1, according to The Block’s data.