California-based MeUndies took to Reddit where it announced it would sell the Yuga Labs‘ Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT it had announced purchasing on Twitter in late January. In the announcement, the company admitted it had a made as mistake that was at odds with the values of its community. When MeUndies announced the purchase of a BAYC NFT on Twitter, the response was broadly negative with some stating they would no longer buy from the brand.
Admitting the company had made a decision at odds out of step with its consumer, the announcement read, “We’ve made the decision to cancel our partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club and sell our NFT. Since our announcement, we’ve spent time researching and educating ourselves on the NFT space, and most importantly, listening to our community. We’re not immune to making mistakes, and we own this one.”
The announcement noted that MeUndies had purchased the BAYC NFT because it was planning to create a merchandise featuring the illustration. The company specifically purchased a BAYC NFT because Yuga Labs is one of the few that NFT companies that grants owners a license to sell derivative merchandise based on the art. “For us, buying an NFT was similar in terms of cost and strategy to our other licensing and partnership agreements, and simply put, those prints are very popular. For our purposes, BAYC seemed like the right place for us to start,” the announcement read.
In addition to community backlash, MeUndies said that after researching the matter, the company realized NFTs and cryptocurrency are not aligned with its plan to reach net-zero carbon emissions.
Currently the BAYC NFT announcement is still live on Twitter.
We couldn’t keep this primate—sorry, private. #BAYC #apefollowape @BoredApeYC pic.twitter.com/2OueChlQap
— MeUndies (@MeUndies) January 27, 2022
