- GM Frens Lootbox
- Posts
- Yuga Labs Struck With Class Action Lawsuit
Yuga Labs Struck With Class Action Lawsuit
Mark Kennedy
December 14, 2022
GM Frens! Today we have some crazy topics we found digging in the ol' Web3 mineshafts. What can beat SBF being arrested? Let's find out.
Yuga Labs struck with a class action lawsuit
BTC being used to drive retention
The Sneakies
Yuga Labs Struck With Class Action Lawsuit
A class action lawsuit has been filed against Yuga Labs (Otherside - BAYC). The lawsuit claims that Yuga used undisclosed celebrity endorsements to artificially pump the price of the NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), breaking several US laws at the state and federal levels.
Let's spill the beans on the details of the lawsuit
The lawsuit itself has a whopping 37 defendants and is being brought to the US District Court in California.
The list of celebrities caught up in it is vast and spans several industries. Names like Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Madonna, Serena Williams, Alexis Ohanian (Reddit), Paris Hilton, and more were included.
Some business entities also got caught in the web of the lawsuit. Universal Television and Adidas, among others.
So what exactly did Yuga Labs "allegedly" do to merit such a lawsuit? According to the class action lawsuit itself:
"Yuga, a highly-connected Hollywood talent agent (Defendant Guy Oseary), and a front operation (MoonPay), who all united for the purpose of promoting and selling a suite of digital assets,"..... "together devised a plan to leverage their vast network of A-list musicians, athletes, and celebrity clients and associates to misleadingly promote and sell the Yuga Financial Products."
Of course, the word from Yuga is that it is all hogwash. An attack on the company even. A representative of the company had this to say.
"In our view, these claims are opportunistic and parasitic,"...."We strongly believe that they are without merit, and look forward to proving as much."
Our take
While there isn't a whole lot of information to find on this hot issue, I'm sure more will be revealed with time. Did Yuga fail to tell the public, that its celebrity holders were paid, advertisers? If so, to what extent was this insidious plan carried out? We will keep following the case and keep you informed.
To see the filing click here.
User Retention, Crypto Rewards, and Hyper Casual Games
Last week we stumbled across a thread by @VaderResearch, showing how they added BTC rewards to one of their game products. The thread was titled "Casual & hyper-casual games can integrate crypto rewards to potentially improve unit economics", and showcased the results of the experiment quite well. Both the experiment and the implementation are intriguing. Check It Out.
Casual & hypercasual games can integrate crypto rewards to potentially improve unit economics 🧵
"We added Bitcoin earning element in Apr 2022, 3 days after the Bitcoin reward launch we had 60k US installs, 70% D1 retention and 90-minute session lengths"
@pau@pau1westp— Vader Research (@VaderResearch)
2:23 PM • Dec 5, 2022
The experiment took place in a F2P game called Bitcoin Miner. Unlike other P2E or Web3 games - @BitcoinMinerFG doesn't have a native token, currency, or NFT. Players can get up to 10 Cents a day in BTC for playing. Pretty simple rewards huh?
We could say the daily earnings are insufficient for players to deem it worth their time. Yet these Bitcoin rewards have resulted in higher retention and organic growth for the game. They also saw higher LTV (Lifetime Value) and lower CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost).
"It is by far the highest retaining game we've ever built - it doubled D30 retention of our last best game Merge Monster and I think the earning part has a play in that"
Our take
Clearly, the opportunity of small BTC rewards was a strong attraction to the game that mobile gamers couldn't pass up. F2P devs who aren't ready to go full Web3 should take note of @BitcoinMinerFG as a case study for increasing retention rates and user value through a simple BTC rewards system.
Listen to the whole Podcast.
The Sneakies
Animoca Brands Makes A Move On The Web3 Music Industry: Animoca Brands has secured a majority stake in California-based company Pixelynx, expecting it to expand the integration between Web3 gaming and communities.
BinaryX To Launch Incubator Fund: BinaryX has launched a new 220,000 BNX Cyber Incubation Fund with the purpose of driving the adoption of Web3 games.
Before you go...
Want to be sure to get every single email?
Drag this email to your primary inbox and add this email address to your contacts. Otherwise, the void of your unopened spam will devour it, costing you the most up-to-date news in web3 gaming.