Quick take:
- Participants include Foundation Capital, Solana Ventures, Metaplex, and others.
- Funds will be used to build out DUST, the utility token of the DeGods ecosystem.
- DeGods’ Y00ts NFT collection captured the attention of many celebrities.
NFT software company, Dust Labs, today announced that it has raised $7 million in seed funding with participation from Foundation Capital, Solana Ventures, Metaplex, Jump, FTX Ventures and Chapter One.
The announcement came during the much-anticipated y00ts NFT mint on Monday. Originally scheduled for Sunday, th mint was delayed last minute on Sunday due to a “blocker bug”, the team explained in a Twitter thread.
A Dust Labs representative told CoinDesk that the investment was a 50/50 split between company equity and the DUST token, the utility token of the DeGods ecosystem. Funds will be used to build out the DUST ecosystem.
DUST Labs was founded by DeGods and y00ts founder Frank and Kevin, who serves as the company’s CEO. It provides NFT tooling to Ethereum and Solana projects. The company’s first product is a “scholarship” whitelisting tool that was put to the test for the y00ts mint.
DeGods is one of the most valuable Solana NFT collections on both Magic Eden and OpenSea. The y00ts NFT is an extension of the DeGods ecosystem, with a supply of 15,000 NFTs. To mint a y00ts, users would have to apply for the scholarship.
The hype around the collection attracted celebrities including soccer player Wayne Rooney, rapper Lil Baby and former basketball star Allen Iverson. Bitcoin maxi Udi Wertheimer, who has 143,900 Twitter followers, also jumped on the wagon.
gonna mint a @y00tsNFT tmrw
— Udi Wertheimer (@udiWertheimer) September 5, 2022
What’s unique about Y00ts is that it runs on a licensing model different from CC0 or NFT projects like Bored Ape and World of Women which have transferred full ownership to holders.
Its copyright is governed by the NFT collection itself, which keeps track of people who are approved to use the NFT’s IP via a registry. The team plans to implement this new licensing model starting with the y00ts store, a custom marketplace for y00ts traits that can be applied to the NFTs.
Despite the crypto winter and Solana’s unsavoury reputation, y00ts is performing well. As of this writing, the y00ts mint has seen 161,000 SOL volume over the last 24 hours, with a floor price of 140 SOL on Magic Eden and a 156,000 SOL volume and a floor price of 146.5 SOL on OpenSea. However, DUST is down from its daily high of $3, currently sitting at $2.28.
Dust Labs and DeGods founders Kevin and Frank will be hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) this Thursday, Sep 8, to answer questions about the project.
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