Yuga Labs acquires tokenproof to drive NFT innovation

Yuga Labs has acquired web3 tokenization provider tokenproof. Through the integration, it hopes to increase the adoption of blockchain, crypto, and NFT.

In a recent X post on December 3, Tokenproof founder and CEO Fonz O announced the integration of the web3 tokenization service into Yuga Labs. He noted that some of the Tokenproof team will join Yuga Labs’ research and development division, The Workshop.

“Thanks to our years of partnership, this transition will be seamless. I am confident that this is a great outcome for everyone, and I am excited to see our team succeed at Yuga Labs,” said Fonz O.

The Tokenproof founder emphasized that Yuga Labs and tokenproof have a long history of collaboration “many times” since 2022. Fonz O even went so far as to credit Yuga Labs’ annual event ApeFest as what inspired him and “jumpstarted” the event. The idea is to initially create an infrastructure to verify non-fungible token ownership in the real world.

While he won’t be joining the team at Yuga Labs, he vowed to stay in the crypto and NFT space even if he’s no longer known as the “token proof guy.”

“I will not move to Yuga Labs, but I will not leave this area. “I have an unwavering commitment to Web3 and look forward to continuing to hang out and rejoin ApeFest like a monkey,” he wrote.

Exciting news! I’m pleased to announce that Yuga Labs has acquired tokenproof technology and some of our talented team has transitioned to Yuga Labs.

When we started Tokenproof, our mission was to provide a secure way for crypto users to unlock the use of their tokens.

— Fonz (@FonzGm) December 2, 2024

Responding to a user who asked him about the price of the acquisition, Fonz O jokingly said that the value of Yuga Labs’ token-proof acquisition was somewhere between “the length of a foot on the subway and the net worth of Elon Musk.”

Yuga Labs co-founder and CEO Greg Solano noted that blockchain has enjoyed collaborating with the tokenproof team over the years and that the integration between the two companies will bring “a bunch of exciting things that will make crypto and NFTs more accessible.”

“Tokenproof and I overcame a number of thorny issues so your monkey jpeg can get you to a worldwide festival safely and effectively,” Solano said in his post.

He also announced that following the acquisition, the tokenproof team will join Yuga Labs’ R&D division, known as The Workshop.

In April 2024, the company behind popular NFT collectibles like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks announced a series of layoffs as part of its restructuring efforts.