y00ts NFTs Migrate to Polygon

Anyone well versed in NFTs- beyond the world of Ethereum that is- will most certainly of heard of y00ts.

The 15,000-asset PFP generative art collection was launched in September 2022 by Web3 outfit DeLabs. In wake of its sell out mint, the project quickly went on to establish itself at the summit of Solana NFTs, where simultaneously, it would sit alongside DeLabs’ most prized non-fungible creation, DeGods.

However, after six months of residing on Solana, the project has now initiated its landmark migration to Ethereum Layer-2 protocol Polygon. Such move comes after DeLabs’ official announcement of the endeavour back in December 2022.

The Rationale

As is the case with many projects built on Polygon, the rationale behind the move is centred around the network’s ever-famous capabilities in processing speedy and more economic transactions.

Through this, DeLabs hopes that the collection will become more accessible and visible due audiences, due to the increase in interoperable opportunities it’ll receive. Through this, the company hopes that more eyes will be drawn to the collection, which will not only help add value to holders’ assets, but also offer them a better user experience in general.

The Process

The process of migrating the 15,000 assets to Polygon involves the use of a cross-chain multi-bridge.

It began earlier this week on Tuesday 28th March, with y00ts holders being tasked with migrating their NFTs manually. To do so, they must visit the project’s website and link their Solana-supported crypto wallet.

For added guidance throughout such process, y00ts has partnered with multi-chain wallet solution ‘Phantom,’ which has published a Twitter thread that outlines everything holders need to know.

Holder Incentives

To incentive holders to migrate their y00ts NFTs over to Polygon, DeLabs waived network fees for the first 24 hours of migration activity.

Perhaps more interestingly, the team will also be airdropping an Ordinals-based DeGods NFT to a lucky holder who completed their NFT migration in the first 24 hours. Such asset comes from the replicated DeGods NFT collection that’s been built on the new Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. Not only has this collection consistently occupied ‘top spot’ when it comes to the most popular Bitcoin Ordinals collections on the market, but it also has a whopping floor price of 0.88 BTC.

The final ‘rewards-based’ incentives are the removal of staking fees for y00ts holders, as well as the distribution of $5 (in USDC) to anyone who lists one of the Polygon-residing NFTs on Magic Eden.

On the flip side, DeLabs is also incentivising NFT migrations through enforcing fines onto those who fail to participate. Here, holders who don’t complete the migration before April 3rd (i.e. Monday of next week) will be subject to a 33.3% ‘Paper Hands Bridge Tax,’ which will manifest as a fine that’s payable by increased royalty fees.

The Risks

DeLabs’ infamous leader ‘Frank’ has never been shy of conveying his thoughts and feelings to holders, which, in turn, has been a factor in the NFT empire’s success.

Intuitively, he’s had a lot to say about the ongoing migration, which is why he took to Twitter to say this:

Of course, on the optics side of things, the potential risks in play regard the collection’s value, popularity and overall perception, whilst on the technical side of things, there may be the chance of a bridging contract exploit.

For now, however, none of the above risks have come to haunt DeLabs thankfully- as in-fact, many community members are perceiving the outlandish move as a signal of company’s adaptiveness and future-thinking prowess.

As showcased by the likes of Doodles in recent times, tapping into such attributes has become increasingly important for projects throughout these unnerving market conditions.

That being said, any losses felt by DeLabs throughout the migration process (and moving forwards) can be offset- albeit partially perhaps- by the $3 million grant in which Polygon provided to help facilitate the move.

Be it airdrops or indirect marketing ploys, we can hope that such funds will somehow make their way into holders’ hands if things were to go wrong.

Moving Forwards

At the time of writing (Wednesday 29th March), stats show that around 11,500 of the 15,000 y00ts NFTs have made the move to Polygon thus far.

From now on, the collection will be priced in ETH across Polygon-supported NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea and Magic Eden, with its current floor price sitting at 1.8 ETH.

And with the migration of y00ts now in full swing, the infamous DeGods collection is next to make the move away from Solana. Here, the landmark move will see Solana’s apex NFT collection migrate to the non-fungible haven of Ethereum.