One of the oldest and most valuable NFT projects on the Solana blockchain, Solana Monkey Business (SMB), now has a new owner. Hadeswap, a Solana NFT marketplace, said today that it has bought the project’s intellectual property rights.
Hadeswap, a unique type of marketplace that uses an automated market maker (AMM) and trading pools instead of traditional item listings, bought the rights to Solana Monkey Business from the original creators and plans to keep supporting the popular project.
On a webpage announcing the news, Hadeswap said that it plans to “respect the legacy” of Solana Monkey Business while “bridging the gaps on its shortcomings” and making the project more accessible to a wider audience. The platform also wants to add the project to its ecosystem of Hadeswap and HADES tokens.
Hadeswap acquires SolanaMonkeyBusiness
— SolanaMonkeyBusiness
→ @Hadeswap transfers ownership to HadesDAO to lead the initiative
→ Dedicated team of contributors, ops, devs and culture leaders to reinforce the SMB brand
→ Involvement in @Hadeswap's DAO funding & proposals
Full Press Release ↓(@SolanaMBS) February 13, 2023
Additional information about Solana Monkey Business
Solana Monkey Business was one of the first projects in the new Solana NFT space. It came out in June 2021 with 205 initial pixel collectibles that showed a monkey in space. The larger Gen2 collection included 5,000 NFT profile pictures (PFPs), which have become popular among Solana collectors over the last year and a half.
At the moment, the Gen2 assets have a floor price of about 283 SOL on Magic Eden, which is almost $5,800. After DeGods, that’s the second highest starting price for any Solana NFT project with at least 1,000 pieces.
But CryptoSlam data shows that SMB has generated more trading volume (in USD) than any other Solana project—about $159 million worth. In large part, that’s because it was popular when SOL was close to its peak price of $260 in late 2021, while it’s only worth about $20 now.
Even though the project is still popular, the people who started SMB have gotten a lot of pushback from NFT owners. Many of the people who own NFTs came together to make MonkeDAO, an unofficial online group or DAO, to help the project and grow its ecosystem.
Last year at this time, MonkeDAO and the people who made the project were in a public argument over who should get credit and how much money should go to DAO projects. Some members said they were thinking about “wrapping” their NFTs to turn them into new assets. This would let them get rid of the secondary sale royalty to the creators and put that money into the DAO instead.
In the end, the two sides reached a truce and buried the dispute without taking any precipitous action, with Solana Monkey Business agreeing to support DAO projects. Now that Hadeswap has taken control of the project, however, it is unclear whether MonkeDAO will be an ally.
What will happen next?
Hadeswap said on its announcement website that it is talking to MonkeDAO members and hopes to “work closely with one of the most powerful and efficient DAOs Web3 has ever seen.” But in a tweet today, MonkeDAO said that it and Hadeswap only talked about the acquisition for the first time on Sunday and that there is no alliance yet.
“We have not formed a partnership agreement at this time, but MonkeDAO is open to dialogue with the HadesDAO team to determine the best path forward for all interested parties,” it wrote. “The acquisition of SMB by HadesDAO does not change SMB holder’s access to MonkeDAO, nor does it grant HadesDAO access to MonkeDAO’s governance.”
MonkeDAO still plans to release its own NFT collection “in the coming months.” This collection seems to build on the original Solana Monkey Business vibe with a larger set of PFP designs and character traits.
“The MonkeDAO team is just as surprised as you are with the Hadeswap SMB acquisition,” tweeted attorney and MonkeDAO member Ariel Givner. “After months of discussions with the SMB devs, unfortunately it did not pan out,” she added, suggesting that the DAO itself had also tried to acquire the project.
Hadeswap, which recently began in the fall, asserts that its own HadesDAO community will drive future project growth. HGE, a pseudonymous NFT investor, built the Hadeswap platform.
Hadeswap doesn’t make traders pay creators royalties on sales, potentially cutting off further funding for MonkeDAO.
This move reminds me of something that happened in the Ethereum space less than a year ago, when Yuga Labs bought the IP rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits from the original creators, Larva Labs. Since then, Yuga has given CryptoPunks owners more control over their NFTs and built projects around the popular project.
Content Source: decrypt.com