TwelveFold Auction Raises $16.5 Million: The Full Story

The auction for TwelveFold, YugaLabs’ much hyped foray into the world of Bitcoin Ordinals, came to a conclusion late last night, raising over $16.5 million during the 24 hour bidding event.

Since Yuga announced their intention to capitalize on the buzz around Ordinals, the creators behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club have come both under fire from some purists, but also welcomed by others in the space who see Yuga’s interest as a solidification of the emerging technology.

What Is TwelveFold?

On February 27th, YugaLabs introduced TwelveFold for the very first time. Describing the project as “A limited edition collection of 300 generative pieces, inscribed on satoshis on the Bitcoin blockchain,” it soon became apparent that Yuga was dipping their toes into the world of Ordinals.

“TwelveFold is a base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the Bitcoin blockchain. The collection includes highly-rendered 3D elements as well as hand-drawn features which serve as an homage to the ordinal inscriptions currently done by hand. 

“All of these choices are a departure from what’s expected from Yuga. But, you know. Fuck doing expected things.” – YugaLabs

In order to participate in the auction, users were told they would need two Bitcoin addresses; one to receive the Ordinal inscription and another to send funds to place their bids. The top 288 bids at the end of the auction would be able to claim a TwelveFold, and all losing bids would receive their funds back within 24 hours.

Controversy Creeps In

It was once the mechanics of the auction were revealed that things really started to get heated. Some Ordinal OGs were critical of the fact bidders needed to send funds and trust Yuga to send it back, should they be unsuccessful.

One person who was particularly upset was @rodarmor, the father of Ordinals, in a rather strongly worded tweet where he lambasted the Web3 giant for their alleged “degenerate bullshit.”

To give context, it’s fair to say nobody thought Yuga was about to disappear with everyone’s Bitcoin, but the argument was that it may encourage bad actors to adopt this method and scam innocents later on down the line.

The Otherside of the Sat

On the flip side, there were many who stood firm in Yuga’s corner and brought focus to what their involvement meant.

@FractalFl0wers, replying directly to Casey Rodarmor’s first tweet at Yuga, said: “As much as I agree that the idea is unsavory, gotta admit, having a $4 billion dollar company that is quite literally the leader of the NFT movement (even if the reason they are successful is floor manipulation and wash trading) adopting your technology is incredibly bullish!”

Furthermore, during an Ordinal’s Twitter Space held mere hours before the auction concluded, SappySeals founder, Wab.eth remarked that he does understand the concerns held by those who oppose Yuga’s tactics, but the technology isn’t there yet to execute a better way and that the message – although he somewhat agrees in parts – could have been delivered with a softer touch from Rodarmor.

How The Auction Went Down

There were a total of over 3000 bids placed during the auction, with the highest one clocking in at a staggering 7.1159 BTC – $160,000 in USD. The lowest winning bid scraped in at 2.2501 BTC – which amounts to just over $50,000 itself.

What’s Next For TwelveFold?

TwelveFold has been declared by Yuga to be a separate entity from its ETH based efforts, with no promise of future utility. Essentially, TwelveFold is purely art.

On that note, an interesting tidbit of information is that the artist behind the collection is none other than Michael Figge, the founder of the Yuga owned storytelling NFT project, 10KTF.

We’ve covered 10KTF a couple of times here at Influencive, and you can read back via the links below if you missed them:

• How To Get Exposure To Yuga Labs Without Breaking The Bank
• 10KTF Revisted: G Tags And Kagami

It was announced on Tuesday that all losing bidders had been sent back their funds, and now the wait begins for the winners to be sent their inscriptions.

While it’s anticipated that Yuga may incorporate TwelveFold into it’s plans in the future, everyone is still guessing as to how – and really, if at all. Either way, the coming weeks should be very interesting to see how TwelveFold fares on the secondary market!