Yuga Labs has finally broken its silence over the conspiracy theory that alleges the team embedded alt-right and Nazi memes/imagery into the artwork and branding behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
As Cointelegraph previously reported, the BAYC conspiracy theory was once again brought into the limelight on June 20 after YouTuber Philion published a video exploring the supposed evidence that artist Ryder Ripps initially compiled at the start of this year.
In a Medium blog post shared via Twitter on June 25, Yuga Labs co-founder Gordon Goner said that the team finally decided to clear the air after the theory had gotten so much attention that one of their favorite podcasters was talking about it.
“We’ve not responded in further detail to these allegations because frankly they are insanely far-fetched.”
“That said, we woke up this morning to a podca///ster we respect talking about this conspiracy theory, and that was pretty surreal. Made us feel like it was time to come out and put an end to all this,” he added.
In particular, Ryder Ripps alleged the BAYC NFT artwork featured racist caricatures of Black and Asian people, and the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbology and language. The artist also made a BAYC derivative NFT collection called RR/BAYC as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs.
While the team didn’t address all of the points outlined against the BAYC, it flat out denied the allegations that its logo was derived from the Nazi Totenkopf (skull and crossbones) symbol. It also reiterated that using Apes in the BAYC is a nod to crypto degens and not a racist troll. However, not everyone was pleased with their response, as several points went unaddressed.
dude’s like ‘we’re minorities’ and gets some sham cover from the ADL. Well I’m a jew and descendant of holocaust survivors and this imagery offends me but keep gaslighting pic.twitter.com/kbJlJaEYE4
— jpəġ jəđ (@h0listicrypto) June 24, 2022
In an update later that day, the Yuga Labs team also…
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