Anonymous accused Bored Ape NFT of extremism

The world’s most notorious hacker group has stated that «without a shadow of a doubt» both BAYC and Yuga Labs deliberately label their products with esoteric symbols associated with Nazism and other extremist ideologies. Yuga Labs denies all allegations.

«Right now, we want to announce that without a shadow of a doubt, Anonymous is confident that Bored Ape and the Yuga Labs brand are infected with not one or two, but dozens of examples of esoteric symbolism that reflect support for Nazism, racism, and pedophilia,» — say the hackers

The story began on June 24, when Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against conceptual artist Ryder Ripps. The company accused the artist of false advertising and trademark infringement. Ripps created an RR campaign for BAYC a few weeks before the lawsuit was filed. «My work on NFTs has centered around provocation and questions about the origins of NFTs and digital property rights. Provenance has always been a crucial aspect in establishing the value of a work of art,» the artist once stated.

Ripps has repeatedly emphasized that the lawsuit from Yuga Labs is an attempt to silence his statements about BAYC’s connection to Nazism. For example, the artist emphasized the similarity of the BAYC logo to the emblem of the Totenkopf, an elite unit of the Waffen-SS, a combat unit of Nazi Germany.

so you’re telling me a fully tattooed hindu jew who only eats cheeseburgers named his company «yuga labs» after the «kali yuga», a term neo nazi richard spenser has been discussing for 7 years, and the logo for the company looks like a nazi emblem… just by coincidence? lol. pic.twitter.com/ySBlaqAg0c

— RYDER-RIPPS.ETH? (@ryder_ripps) August 5, 2022

In turn, Yuga Labs strongly denies the accusations and calls Anonymous' revelations a «crazy disinformation campaign.» The audience is divided into two camps — on the one hand, there are those who assume a «conspiracy theory» of Yuga Labs aimed at promoting Nazism, and on the other hand, there are those who see a scheme aimed at discrediting the company and the famous NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. So far, we can only watch the developments as the famous hackers have promised that they will not limit themselves to «digital activism» but will also provide real evidence to support their accusations.

Despite the tension around BAYC, the rating of the most popular non-fungible tokens was once again topped by a collection of bored monkeys. At the beginning of September, it reached its historical high, with the minimum value of the NFT amounting to 176,989 ETH.