Yuga Labs acquires PROOF
Nonfungible token (NFT) giant Yuga Labs’ recent acquisition of NFT conglomerate PROOF has gone off without a hitch — though trading activity in the lead-up to the announcement has raised some eyebrows.
On Feb. 16, Yuga announced that it bought PROOF and its Moonbirds, Oddities, Mythics, and Grails NFT collections for an undisclosed amount. PROOF’s assets, intellectual property and team will come under Yuga, and PROOF founder and CEO Kevin Rose will join Yuga as an adviser.
However, some observers have since noticed a spike in Moonbirds’ daily sales volume two days before the announcement, jumping to nearly $1.3 million — quadruple the volume from the day prior. This then continued to climb to $1.5 million on Feb. 15, bringing up the collections floor price along with it, per DappRadar.
Moonbirds’ 30-day chart shows a sudden increase in sales volume (blue), sales (white) and floor price (green) before Yuga’s announcement. Source: DappRadar
Sales also spiked, with over 300 NFTs sold on Feb. 14 — triple that of the just over 100 sold the day before.
The well-timed trades saw some X users crying foul. Pseudonymous developer “cygaar” noted the sales uptick and sarcastically posted on Feb. 16 that there was “definitely no insider trading here.”
Moonbirds chart before the Yuga acquisition tweet.
Nope, definitely no insider trading here. pic.twitter.com/UqV0DeXUr8
— cygaar (@0xCygaar) February 16, 2024
Pseudonymous trader “Cirrus,” said they found one wallet bought nearly 200 PROOF-associated NFTs in the days before Yuga’s announcement, adding the owner was “sitting on a couple hundred thousand in profit after the Yuga news.”
Found Nancy Pelosis NFT wallet
80 Moonbirds, 71 Moonbird Mythics, 28 Oddities, and 13 Mythic eggs bought in the last 7 days
Sitting on a couple hundred thousand in profit after the Yuga news pic.twitter.com/VqImNT77tA
— Cirrus (@CirrusNFT) February 16, 2024
Under the deal, PROOF’s collections will be folded into Yuga’s existing NFT lineup…
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