BAYC #1626 NFT Forever Removed from Circulation by Owner

On Feb 15, 2023

A valuable Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) #1626 was permanently removed from circulation by its owner, Jason Williams, at the weekend.

Williams, better known as @GoingParabolic on crypto Twitter, aimed to symbolically shift the asset’s underlying blockchain from Ethereum to Bitcoin.

BAYC #1626 is an Ape from the most valuable project in the NFT space, and its most recent sale on OpenSea took place last November when it sold for 108 Ethereum, which was almost $432,000 at the time, or $169,000 at today’s valuation.

The ownership of BAYC #1626 is linked to a digital token that is recorded on the Ethereum network, where it could also be traded. Digital tokens can be permanently removed from circulation through a process called burning.

This means the NFT cannot be restored and will be forever unreachable, preventing it from being sold ever again, at least on Ethereum’s network.

Wanna see the lowest burned and inscripted Bored Ape ever?
Here it is ~ “The Blonde Don” Inscription #5353
This is the genesis Ape. It is rare. I was bored. pic.twitter.com/496Jmbd97h
— Jason A. Williams (@GoingParabolic) February 14, 2023

‘Teleburn’ Your NFTs Onto Bitcoin

The burning process used a newly developed feature for Ordinals called Teleburn, which creates a unique location with each new Inscription to which NFTs can be burned.

The term ‘Teleburn’ is a blend of the words ‘teleport’ and ‘burn’, and it allows owners to assign an existing asset from another network to a Bitcoin Inscription while removing it from circulation on its parent chain.

The location of the BAYC #1626 burn is linked to an Inscription made through Ordinals. This project allows videos, images and other content to be assigned to individual satoshis, allowing the content to permanently exist on Bitcoin’s network.

Burning BAYC #1626 was the first time that Ordinal’s Teleburn function was used for a digital collectible. The process was overseen by Rob Hamilton, who collaborated with Casey Rodarmor, the creator of Ordinals, to develop the Teleburn function.

Hamilton believes the Teleburn function will catch on as a way for people to bridge their digital collectibles, noting that Rodarmor plans to extend Ordinal’s Teleburn support to assets on other chains aside from Ethereum, such as Tezos and Solana.

But Is It Really So?

A digital representation of BAYC #1626 may live on the Bitcoin blockchain, but Yuga Labs‘ co-founder Greg Solano claims the Inscription linked to BAYC #1626 was an unlicensed reproduction of the original NFT, and Williams effectively gave up his license.

It’s not “gone from ETH forever.” It’s basically the same as any other transfer: If you transfer your ape to an address you no longer control (even if it’s the ‘burn’ address), you have effectively given up your license.
And no, before someone asks, that doesn’t mean that anyone… https://t.co/E52b7ZjWbu
— Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) February 13, 2023

Yuga Labs’ spokesperson later confirmed that the Inscription of BAYC #1626 was not a legitimate Ape. Only NFTs minted from the Ethereum contract it resides on are legitimate, meaning they can never again be reached.

The move by Williams to ‘teleburn’ his valuable BAYC is controversial and brave, because as Yuga Labs co-founder says, if it can’t be reached on Ethereum, it can’t be reached.

Only time will tell whether NFTs on Bitcoin really take off, but eradicating a digital asset from its blockchain and putting a representation of it on BTC is a brave move in these unknown times.