Nonfungible token (NFT) conglomerate Yuga Labs is facing some criticism from the cryptocurrency community, including the creator of Bitcoin Ordinals, over how it plans to auction its new Bitcoin NFT collection.
On Mar. 5, Yuga opened bids for its “TwelveFold” collection which will see 300 NFT-like images inscribed on Satoshis using the Bitcoin-native Ordinals protocol, with 288 from the collection sent to the highest 288 bidders.
According to a Mar. 5 press release, those participating in the bidding process will be required to send their entire bid amount in BTC to a unique BTC address controlled by Yuga. Winners would simply pay up the BTC they bid, while Yuga said it would return the BTC to those unsuccessful in placing a top bid.
Such a plan however has earned the ire of some within the crypto community, with some pointing out that having to manually conduct refunds for unsuccessful bids is like the “stone age.”
The user behind an Ordinals-focused Twitter account “ordinally” called the auction model a “scammers dream” and added while they doubt Yuga would keep the BTC from failed bids, the way it carried out the auction sets a “REALLY bad precedence.”
The post even saw a response from Bitcoin Ordinals creator himself Casey Rodarmor, who hotly weighed in on the discussion telling Yuga to “get fucked” and called the conduct of the auction “degenerate bullshit.”
He added if Yuga were to conduct a similar auction he would encourage others to boycott the project.
Other users pointed out the shortcomings of the auction system, saying it’s possible some could overpay for a TwelveFold due to a possible significant price discrepancy between the highest and lowest bids in the top 288.
Despite the criticism from some, many were happy to see a large project such as Yuga — who rose to prominence due to multiple Ethereum-based NFT collections — bridge across to Bitcoin.
Related: Luxor Mining acquires OrdinalHub amid Bitcoin-based NFTs hype
Ordinally, who earlier criticized the collection, later tweeted appreciation of “the fact Yuga took the effort to attempt [to] go a Bitcoin route when setting up this auction.”
An Ordinals-based collection, Ordinal Pizza OG, expressed excitement at Yuga’s BTC collection and called it a “massive net positive for Ordinals.”
The criticisms weren’t enough to stop cashed-up bidders from wanting to try to cement a top spot to nab Yuga’s first BTC collection.
At the time of writing the top bid was 1.11 BTC (around $25,000) according to the TwelveFold website with the lowest bid registered showing as 0.011 BTC, or around $250.
