Hadeswap NFT Exchange Acquires Solana Monkey Business

On Feb 18, 2023

Hadeswap, an NFT marketplace, has acquired one of the earliest and most prominent NFT projects on Solana. This is according to an announcement made at the start of the week. In a statement, Hadeswap notes that it intends to respect the legacy of the Solana Monkey Business while “bridging the gaps of its shortcomings.” Also, there are plans to make the project more accessible to a broader audience. And in the future, the project will be integrated with the Hades token ecosystem.

Solana Monkey Business launched 20 months ago, initially releasing 205-pixel collectibles that showed a monkey in space. Then there was a Gen2 collection that comprised 5,000 NFT profile pictures (PFPs), which became a hit with Solana NFT collectors overtime.

Data from CryptoSlam shows that SMB has managed to generate more trading volume than any other project on Solana, with over $159 million in sales so far. However, despite this success, the project hasn’t been without its problems.

Hadeswap acquires SolanaMonkeyBusiness🐒
→ @Hadeswap transfers ownership to HadesDAO to lead the initiative
→ Dedicated team of contributors, ops, devs and culture leaders to reinforce the SMB brand
→ Involvement in @Hadeswap‘s DAO funding & proposals
Full Press Release ↓
— SolanaMonkeyBusiness 🐒 (@SolanaMBS) February 13, 2023

It’s Unclear Whether MonkeDAO Will Accept The New Solana Monkey Business Owners

The project creators have had issues with NFT owners, who proceeded to form a MonkeDAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). Their intention was to further the SMB project and expand its ecosystem.

One of the key issues was getting these creators to recognize and fund DAO initiatives. And when the creators appeared not to be keen to recognize and support the DAO, the NFT owners threatened to wrap their NFTs, thus turning them into new assets. By doing this, they would get rid of creators’ secondary sale royalties, which is how creators generate revenue, and redirect those funds into the DAO.

However, the issues would be resolved amicably. But with the sale of its IP rights to Hadeswap, it remains to be seen how the DAO will react. Interestingly, MonkeDAO was engaged with the project creators to purchase its IP rights. And this sale comes as a blindsight.

In a tweet, MonkeDAO member Ariel Givner notes that “The MonkeDAO team is just as surprised as you are with the Hadeswap SMB acquisition. After months of discussions with the SMB devs, unfortunately, it did not pan out.”

Whether the DAO embraces the new Solana Monkey Business owners or branches out on its own remains to be seen.