- The Sewer Pass NFT, Yuga Lab’s new collection, has a total of $6 Million within hours of launch.
- The new NFT collection has raised over 13,000 ETH as the floor price increases to over $3000.
- It is a portal to Yuga Labs’ interactive skill-based game Dookey Dash.
There is no doubt that Sewer Pass, the latest drop from Yuga Labs, has taken the NFT market by storm. The collection is trending number one on OpenSea, with a trading volume of 13,049 ETH at the time of writing.
Yuga Labs issued the release of its Sewer Passes for minting on Wednesday after announcing the release of a new NFT project within the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, yielding over $6 million (4,000 ETH) in total sales within just hours of its release.
Upon release, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) or Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders were eligible to claim a free Sewer Pass, which serves as the key to playing the skill-based game Dookey Dash.
The Gateway to Dookey Dash
From January 19 to February 8, those with a Sewer Pass NFT (whether minted or bought in the secondary market) can play Dookey Dash. Scores earned during gameplay will be used later in a more extensive narrative experience called “Chapter 1.”
The Sewer Pass NFTs were divided into four tiers based on whether the holder of a BAYC or MAYC NFT also possessed a Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT. Currently, the floor price for a Tier 1 Sewer Pass on the secondary marketplace Opensea is 2 ETH (approximately $3,200), while prices for Tier 4 passes are listed for up to 69 ETH.
No Pass on Creator Fees
In a tweet on January 18, Bored Ape Yacht Club announced that the Sewer Pass collection was available for secondary purchase on OpenSea.
The Sewer Passes NFT notably included certain conditions coded in its smart contract, such as a blocklist of specific wallet addresses, which sparked conversations on Twitter about the move. In addition, many blocked addresses have been associated with major secondary markets such as LooksRare and NFTX.
This may be getting more attention than it deserves because it reflects Yuga Lab’s decision to impose a 5% creator royalty fee on OpenSea.
OpenSea’s developer guide says, “OpenSea supports the on-chain enforcement of creator fees if you want to enable them for your new project. This works by adding a simple code snippet to NFT contracts that restrict NFT sales of your project to only marketplaces that enforce creator fees.”
LooksRare, one of the platforms ostensibly affected by the change, made royalties optional in October. Several other major platforms, including X2Y2, have adopted this structure as part of a larger initiative by these platforms to court sellers looking for the best deal on their NFT purchases. Meanwhile, creators have resisted the change, claiming that it jeopardizes their ability to profit from their artistic creations in the long run.
Support For Creator Fees
A spokesperson for Yuga Labs reaffirmed the company’s belief in safeguarding creator royalties in a statement provided to CoinDesk. We have always put creativity at the forefront of our business and believe that creators’ royalties must be protected.”
They added, “The Sewer Pass free claim will only be traded on platforms that respect creator’s royalties.”
Wylie Aronow, aka Gordon Goner, co-founder of Yuga Labs, has also been very vocal about the importance of protecting creator royalties. He stated in November that the company was looking into the possibility of using allowlists coded into smart contracts to determine wallet addresses that could transfer NFTs.
He mentioned that externally owned accounts, EOAs are a type of cryptocurrency wallet not utilized by marketplaces, making it easier to distinguish trades between private users and marketplaces.
He says, “Coding something like this into your NFT smart contract will make it so that creators can ensure that they collect their royalties.”
