Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs started in 2021 when four friends decided to make an NFT. Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, known as Gargamel and Gordon Goner, brought in two coders, No Sass and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, for the smart contracts. Their first release, Bored Ape Yacht Club, came out on Ethereum in April 2021: 10,000 cartoon apes, each also a membership card for a private club. BuzzFeed News published Solano's and Aronow's names in February 2022.

A companion set of dogs, Bored Ape Kennel Club, followed. In August 2021 the company sent ape holders vials of mutant serum and sold 10,000 more apes to the public, which together make up Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

In March 2022 Yuga bought the CryptoPunks and Meebits IP from Larva Labs, adopted ApeCoin, a token issued by the separate ApeCoin DAO, as its main currency, and closed a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. In April it sold land deeds for Otherside, its metaverse game. They now trade as Otherdeed Expanded beside the Kodas. Later it bought WENEW, the studio behind 10KTF, launched the Dookey Dash game and the HV-MTL mechs, put TwelveFold on Bitcoin and signed a multi-year deal with Gucci.

From 2024 the company narrowed its focus. It sold HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara to the studio Faraway, then the Meebits IP to MeebCo and the CryptoPunks IP to the Infinite Node Foundation in 2025. Moonbirds, bought with PROOF in 2024, went to Orange Cap Games. In March 2025 Yuga said the SEC had closed the inquiry it opened in 2022. Nicole Muniz ran the company until Daniel Alegre, formerly of Activision Blizzard, was named CEO in December 2022. Solano returned as CEO in February 2024, and in April 2026 he became chairman, handing the role to chief product officer Michael Figge.