Yuga Labs and the Bored Ape Yacht Club are the targets of Anonymous's numerous accusations

By: Henry Felix

September 28, 2022 7:11 AM

The Internet hacktivist group issued a plea for public figures and major corporations to make their voices heard.

Hacking collective Anonymous released a video on September 26 criticizing Yuga Labs, a blockchain technology firm, and Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT-driven social club (BAYC).

There was a laundry list of accusations in the group's statement about Yuga Lab's alleged use of esoteric symbolism in BAYC's art, which Anonymous believes demonstrates the company's support for a wide range of controversial subjects, including Nazism, racism, simianization, and pedophilia.

After conducting extensive research and conducting interviews with key figures, the hacktivist group claims it can confirm "without a shadow of a doubt" that the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Yuga Labs are guilty of hiding these esoteric symbols in plain sight, a conclusion that the company and the project both openly protest.

People who dismiss the group's claims as "conspiracy theory" are "simply ignorant," "not versed," or "worse," according to the statement, because they have a "financial conflict of interest." A representative of the internet hacktivist group shared:

"Anonymous has been confident that perhaps the BAYC collection and Yuga labs company have always been infected with a plethora of esoteric symbolism and dog whistles mirroring Nazism, Racism, Siminization, and Pedophilic support."

It was suggested by Anonymous that the owners of these artworks are also targets of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs' trolling, and the owners were urged not to remain silent in order to safeguard their financial interests.

"Your forefathers surely owe you more than this. Many people who aren't part of BAYC still murmur, You've been deceived in a way that's both unprecedented and unforgivable."

The group demanded that companies and public figures denounce Nazism, racism, simianization, and pedophilia. They specifically mentioned Andreessen Horowitz, Mark Cuban, Dez Bryant, Tom Brady, Ben Simmons, Neymar Junior, Kevin Hart, Drake Bell, Shaquille O'Neal, and Lion Tree, Adidas, Tiffany & Co.

On June 24th, Greg Solano, co-founder of Yuga Labs, wrote a Medium post denying these allegations, saying:

"As a diverse group of people including Jews, Turks, Pakistanis, and Cubans, we have been the focus of a wild disinformation campaign that claims we are all secret Nazis."

At the time, Solano insisted that the racism claims leveled against his multicultural team were baseless.