The world of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) is always advancing and there is always something new and exciting to be discovered. This week it’s Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company responsible for popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), having announced the upcoming launch of a Bitcoin-based NFT project called TwelveFold.
TwelveFold will consist of 300 limited-edition generative art pieces each inscribed to the Bitcoin blockchain. Internally referred to as “base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid,” the project is an ingenious combination of 3D graphics and hand-drawn features that demonstrates the relationship between time, mathematics, and variability.
While the entries for TwelveFold may come as a surprise to some – given that all other projects of Yuga Labs have been based on the Ethereum blockchain – the rationale for the collection’s launch is firmly rooted in the recent success of Ordinals. Issued on the Ethereum-layer 2 scaling network Polygon, Ordinals have proven to be immensely popular on the blockchain, so much so that the NFT collective Vocabulary even hosted a YouTube series in their honour.
Those interested in TwelveFold will be provided with a guide to acquiring the tokens, which will involve running a self-custodial Bitcoin wallet and submitting a bid through the network. It’s unclear what benefits, if any, TwelveFold holders will reap during the acquisition process, however Yuga Labs did state that their “royalties will be paid in full”.
The level of interest in NFTs from the public in general appears to have cooled off in recent months according to Google Trend data. The keyword “NFTs” between Feb. 19 and Feb. 25 scored a mere seven out of 100, which hasn’t been seen since early-to-mid January 2021.
But contrary to this apparent lack of interest, February’s NFT trading volume has skyrocketed, with a whopping $997.14 million worth of global sales. Moreover, a man who won the Golden Key NFT for posting the highest score on the BAYC-affiliated Dookey Dash game has sold the token for 1,000 Ether (ETH), or roughly $1.63 million, which further adds to the success stories of the NFT market.
The NFT mania shows no sign of slowing down, and its presence can be seen all over the world, from Japan to South Korea. In particular, Japanese tech companies have agreed to forward the creation of the “Japan Metaverse Economic Zone”, with an emphasis on building a open metaverse infrastructure called “Ryugukoku”.
Furthermore, the NFT platform Metajuice has surveyed its users on which reasons play a part in the acquisition of NFTs, with nearly three out of four respondents stating that their motivation for collecting is status, uniqueness and aesthetics, whereas the remaining 13% are interested in reselling them in the future.
NFTs have evidently become a significant source of income for many as well as a vibrant world of art, fascination and entertainment. With Yuga Labs having taken a first-time leap into Bitcoin NFTs by introducing TwelveFold, it will be interesting to see how the product is received and if the hype surrounding NFTs is here to stay.
