Yesterday, Yuga Labs‘ highly-anticipated auction of its first-ever Bitcoin NFTs, TwelveFold, ended. With 288 bidders successfully acquiring such digital assets, the non-fungible tokens totaled to $16.49M BTC, proving another successful sell-out for the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club.

Quick Takes: 

• Yesterday, Yuga’s TwelveFold auction generated $16.49M of BTC, thanks to 288 successful bidders acquiring digital assets from the collection.
• 300 NFTs were released, and all bidders will receive their inscriptions throughout the week.
• However, the bidding process caused controversy, with the creator of Ordinals warning that unscrupulous project creators could exploit the procedure to steal funds from bidders.
• Data shows that the market for Bitcoin NFTs expects to reach $4.5B by 2025 regardless.

Why Yuga Labs’ TwelveFold NFT Collection Sets Record

Starting Sunday and ending yesterday, TwelveFold NFTs generated 288 successful bid for its Bitcoin NFTs, with the highest being 7.1159 BTC (roughly $159,500). On the other hand, the lowest bid was 2.2501 BTC (more than $50k).

All bidders will receive their inscriptions sometime this week. Although the last 12 digital assets from the collection of 300 are held on contributors — distributed as parts of Yuga’s “Philanthropic Programs”. 

Contributing factors to the NFT project’s popularity include all previous Yuga Labs NFTs being on Ethereum. Of course, Yuga also has a large part to play in favor, releasing world-famous OG collectibles Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Otherside virtual land plots, and acquiring CryptoPunks, and Meebits from Larva Labs.

Another factor is that, typically, Yuga Labs NFT projects come in collections of 10,000. However, this time around, the NFT company released just 300 assets to test the Blockchain network. Thus, making them all the more desirable over being limited-edition.

Controversy Following the Bidding Process

Despite this project’s success, it has yet to become controversy-free. On Monday, Yuga Labs bidding process caused a stir. To be considered in the auction, those interested in acquiring an NFT were required to deposit the total amount of their bids directly to Yuga. In addition, the NFT company promised to return rejected proposals within 24 hours of the auction.

However, the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, Casey Rodarmor, criticized this bidding process, saying that the procedure is unsafe. Following on, he posted a Tweet expressing dissatisfaction, warning that he will cut ties with Yuga Labs and encouraging others also to do so if similar practices continue:

This bidding process indicates a gap between the demand for Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs and the digital infrastructure needed for this burgeoning medium. Nevertheless, more than 325k have been created since Ordinals launch in January this year, including a project by the ever-so-famous DeGods.

Galaxy research also predicts the market for Bitcoin NFTs will reach a whopping $4.5B by 2025. Consequently, a comprehensive suite of products and services expects to follow this emerging summer.

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