Latest Meebits News

In its latest play test, Yuga Labs invited Meebits holders to use their Meebit avatars in the Otherside for the first time. 

The Deets

• Concept Art Peek: Play-testers in Berlin experienced new concept art from the Otherside team.
• Meebit Avatars: Completely rebuilt and optimized avatars specially crafted for Otherside.
• Meetropolis Introduction: A novel island in Otherside where nature combines with voxel elements.
• Community Involvement: Participants provided crucial feedback and celebrated with Meebits-themed refreshments.

The Bulk

During a special play-test event in Berlin, a select group comprising 40 Meebits and Voyagers were introduced to several groundbreaking concepts being developed by the Otherside team. The group was treated to exclusive glimpses of the latest concept art which provided insights into the visual direction Otherside is pursuing.

Among the unveilings was Meetropolis, a newly crafted island located within Otherside with inspiration from Meebits. 

📊 By the Numbers

The Meebits floor price is up 9% in the last week to 0.98 ETH. 

🔜 What's Next

A full play test trailer is expected to better showcase the Meebits Otherside adventure. 

For more web3 and NFT news, visit the Lucky Trader newsfeed.

The Meebits partnered with WarpSound to release a full musical album on all major streaming services, according to an announcement from the project. 

The musical album, "Meebits Turn On," contains 22 musical numbers, including "Arm Krust Kola," "Not My Kidz," and "Trashkitball."

While the album is available to listen to for free on major streaming services, Meebits holders can claim a digital collectible album that is playable on OpenSea and "other HTML-based NFT platforms." 

The claim is available to those holding a Meebit as of yesterday (Dec. 20), at 12:16 p.m. ET. Eligible wallets will have until Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m. to do so. 

Holders of the digital collectible album are free to use any of the music from the Meebits Turn On album in any way they see fit. Holders can download the official song files at news.yuga.com.

Yuga Labs announced a bug bounty program through HackerOne on Wednesday, offering rewards of up to $50,000 for those who find vulnerabilities and issues in the company's platforms, social accounts, and communications channels. 

HackerOne is a security platform that connects businesses with ethical hackers and cybersecurity testers. Yuga Labs had previously run the bug bounty program since July on an invite-only basis with "a network of 800+ responsible hackers", but is now opening it up to the broader public. 

Rewards will be provided for "valid vulnerability reports that impact our services, websites, social accounts, and Discord servers" and "anything that can cause disruption to our community – like taking over, manipulating content, or injecting arbitrary code into our websites," according to the blog.  

The payout structure is broken into the following brackets:

• Low severity issues: $250-$1,000
• Medium severity issues: $1,000-$5,000
• High severity issues: $5,000-$25,000
• Critical severity issues: $25,000-$50,000

Yuga Labs reminded all Meebits owners that there is just one more day left to claim their MB1.1 physical prints, via tweet this afternoon.

Yuga "turned on" the Meebits on Nov 3, providing a glimpse at a 10-phase roadmap. The first phase, MB1.1, included turning on the Meebits and the ability to claim a free physical print (plus the cost of shipping), along with a Certificate of Authenticity.

For users who miss the deadline, there will be a mechanism to download the image for use on social media.

Read more about "turning on" the Meebits in this primer.

The Meebits floor reached a local high of over 3.5 ETH on Nov. 3 on the back of this announcement but has since retraced. The floor is 2.75 ETH at the time of writing, down 5 percent on the week and 10 percent on the month.

Each day after midnight ET, Meebit holders in the Meebits Discord can use the command "#?" in the commands channel to draw for a random Meebit number. The first holder to draw a Yuga-owned Meebit each day will win a physical print of that Meebit.

Each holder only has one opportunity a day to win — and you can only win once. Winners pay for shipping. 

Meebits holders can now get a new, fresh PFP file for their respective Meebit NFT after a new feature was added to the Meebits app online. 

To do so, Meebits holders can sign in to meebits.app, navigate to the Meebits they own, and find individual download files for a handful of Meebits utilities. 

The upgraded PFP image can be found labeled as the "MB1.1 Portrait png File," according to the instructional video that was shared with the announcement. 

To download the file, users will need to sign a gasless transaction to verify they own the Meebit in question. 

Meebits brand lead Danny Greene shared an example of the upgraded PFP images in response to the announcement. 

The fresh PFP images come just a few days after Yuga Labs announced it was "turning on" the CryptoPunk companion. 

In addition to the PFP image, users can also claim a free print of their Meebit NFT up until Nov. 17. 

The Yuga Labs team is "turning on" Meebits, according to a tweet from the team this morning and an accompanying blog post from Danny Greene.

The team teased "What does this ON button do?" back in July, and now we have the first update. Meebits can be activated via the new activation website, as the first step in their journey into the interoperable metaverse.

The new website features an ON switch, and when clicked plays techno music from Warp Sound and features a dancing Meebit character. In the left corner, users can see this is labeled Meebit 1.1 "unlocked", with Meebits 1.2-2.0 all "locked," indicating there is more to come. There will be 9 more releases, which will include experiences, activations, and/or opportunities.

Meebits holders can connect their wallets to view their own personal Meebits unlocked and dancing to Warp Sound techno.

"Meebits were designed as 3D characters, but like an unused toy, they've been stuck in the box, gathering dust for too long," Danny Greene, Meebits Brand Lead, says in the blog post. "It’s time for them to break out, come to life, and start exploring the world around them." 

Each holder will also receive a 1-of-1 physical print of their Meebit, along with a Certificate of Authenticity. Holders have just two weeks from today (Nov. 3) to order the print, with the price of the cost of shipping. For users who miss the deadline, there will be a mechanism to download the image for use on social media.

The team has set up a claim checker, and anyone purchasing a Meebit in this next two-week window is encouraged to verify if the print has been claimed before buying (if relevant to them).

Meebits have seen 22 ETH in trading volume in the past 15 minutes since the news, but the floor is even at 3.4 ETH (on Blur).

Yuga founders Garga (Greg Solano, @CryptoGarga) and Gordon (Wylie Aronow, @GordonGoner) made a special appearance on today’s Rug Radio show, which was fittingly "rugged" halfway through the interview.

The pair talked through how they met, the BAYC origin story, growing the company, fundraising and VCs, advice for other founders, managing their various assets, and what to expect in the near future.

Here is a recap of the conversation for those who missed the show.

How They Met

Gordon and Garga grew up in Miami and met at a bar several years ago. They started talking about books and got into a 1.5-hour argument over David Foster Wallace before Gordon left to go flirt with the bartender.

The pair texted on and off over time, bonding over their love for MMORPGs (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games). Their dream was to create the ultimate MMORPG, which they think is ultimately a metaverse.

Their relationship formed digitally, and Gordon commented that when he thinks of Garga, he thinks of him as his World of Warcraft avatar (of course now by his BAYC).

The BAYC Origin Story

Originally they hoped BAYC could become "a web3 Supreme," or a really cool fashion brand.

From their perspective, there wasn't much utility in the NFT space when they started, and that felt like a gap.

They started designing a project around a bathroom, and if you were a token holder, you could drop an image on this collaborative art board. Like in a public bathroom.

They had this beautiful vision of this great collaborative art, and then got feedback that the first thing people will do is "draw a giant penis." That idea hit home and helped inspire the dive bar bathroom concept, which is central to the early BAYC lore.

The pair honed in on what utility could look like, and built out a "ten-page rambling essay" of ideas, which included the words "Bored Ape Yacht Club." Not all of the ideas in the essay stuck, but the name did, and they "were off to the races."

They commented on how they were one of the first projects to give away IP rights and to have a roadmap, and that set them apart. As early as day two, holders were starting to use their rights to make derivatives, and then the excitement started building around the merchandise milestone, and it all snowballed from there.

Credit was given to the early Discord community as well, which was "fun" and had a "different spirit" in their terms, as well as the early NBA Top Shot community which came over and rallied around the project to help build early momentum.

Growing The Company

Garga mentioned that his only regret is not scaling sooner. In January 2022, they were still under a dozen people and they feared losing their culture and arthouse vibe with expansion.

Fast forward to now, and they have a team of nearly 90 people. At this point, when Gordon and Garga come up with an idea, they have other successful people to take the ideas and run with them (i.e. Creative Director).

The two are very proud of how they've managed to keep their culture as they've scaled. Both commented on how surreal it is to be leading such a large company after a such short time. Gordon said, "it hit him at Ape Fest, when The Strokes came on (one of his favorite bands), just how big they had gotten."

And then the next day it was back to work.

Fundraising and Venture Capital (VC)

The Rug Radio team asked the pair about raising at a $4B valuation and how it has helped them. Gordon mentioned how he feels good about how and when they raised capital. 

The founders luckily had the foresight to see the bear market coming and prepared accordingly. They used fundraising to "signal we have a massive war chest" both to holders and other projects, and to assure holders that even if it's a "three-year bear market, we have the resources to outperform everyone else."

When they met with VCs early on, they didn't have a great idea of the VC world outside of the television show Silicon Valley (which they said is very accurate). They were hesitant to give away equity, as they did not want to lose control of the company and "get ousted" down the line.

They received advice that it is okay to say "No" to VCs, but not to one VC in particular - a16z. The Yuga founders met with a16z, were very impressed with them, and were ultimately happy to have them onboard as strategic advisors. 

In hindsight, they mentioned how a16z was "exactly what they needed." The founders had built BAYC in isolation, didn't really know anyone in crypto, and had virtually no connections. Thus a16z was perfect to help plug that gap.

In a note to listeners, they shared how they have received feedback on some team decisions and that the community blamed the move on VCs. Gordon and Garga were quite strong on this point not to blame the VCs, that the VCs own ten percent of the company and that the Yuga founders "do whatever the fuck they want."

Advice for Founders

As first-time founders, learning how to grow, they have been focused on protecting their creative energy. At the same time, the pair is aware of how rapidly the space is changing, indicating that founders have to stay nimble as it changes. In their words, "it doesn't matter your creative spirit if you can't stay ahead of the market."

Crypto is all about being first to something, and being the first to bring concepts together and go fast is very important.

It is also important for other founders to know that the Yuga team still struggles. They deprioritize and reprioritize all the time, and note how it's really hard, and they try to shield their employees from that "thrash." 

The pair shared their stories of burnout, how they were trying to do everything all at once and it hit them after Ape Fest this year. They made the conscious decision to slow down and build up the team, ultimately to avoid burnout and get everyone up to a high operating level by end of the year.

They also shared that what worked in the bull market won't work as well now. For instance, their BAKC drop worked, but Gordon called companion drops "dilutive" and does not think they work as well now. They also commented on their pseudo-anonymity, which in their words made since last year, but much less sense now.

On Managing Yuga Labs' Assets (Punks, BAYC, Meebits, The Otherside)

At a high level, they do hope to have the classic founder's dilemma one day where "they wouldn't be qualified" to work at Yuga. To that end, they have hired successful people to lead each of their brands.

Their goal with CryptoPunks is to preserve and steward that brand, and they feel Noah (@NonFungibleNoah) has been doing a great job.

BAYC will always be their baby, and they will always "be meddling" there. In fact, Gordon's title is Chief Meddling Officer. They feel the BAYC Creative Director has the hardest job in the company, because of that meddling.

The pair view Meebits as an important part of the brand, calling them the "first premiere, metaverse-ready" assets. Gordon talks about being on vacation and heading back to his hotel room to map out the whole long-term strategy for Meebits on napkins. He has been focused on what they look like three years down the line - though no spoilers were provided. 

The Otherside is described as their "passion project," one that each of the founders has personal ties to.

Gordon elaborated on being sick for ten years and only experiencing the world on this computer, digitally - and that is the person he wants to build The Otherside for.

What's Next?

Ape Fest was four months ago, and The First Trip (for The Otherside) was three months ago. So what's next? 

They recognize that the team has been moving slowly, but that is because they've been building the team up. That job is now done, and the team is working hard.

The market should anticipate Yuga-related items to heat up from December to January. They noted it will be more clear to the public who the leaders of which projects and brands are, as well. 

They pair know they have areas to improve, and communication is a major one. They promised the community will see that change dramatically soon.

For Gordon's closing comments, he shared how they are not interested in low-effort stuff, that they want higher-effort stuff, but it takes time. He wants the reactions to their next release to be “holy fucking shit this is the weirdest or coolest experience I’ve been a part of in web3."

Mic drop on that last comment. Catch the recording here.

Meebits holders will need to create a Sandbox account and then connect their wallet to use their Meebit in the game.

The Meebits announcement comes after Sandbox unveiled a playable environment for Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

Meebits is joining Worldwide Webb Land in pixel form according to a recent tweet.

Holders of a Meebits NFT will be able to use their characters as an avatar within the Worldwide Webb Land metaverse beginning on Aug, 23

This news follows Meebit holders receiving information from Yuga Labs in regards to IP rights just last week.

The floor of a Meebits NFT is currently 3.30 ETH according to the Lucky Trader Project Rankings.