Solana-based y00ts NFT collection launches; developers raise $7M in seed round

The highly anticipated Solana-based y00ts NFT collection is finally live, with 6,500 owners minting the collection within the first 24 hours, according to OpenSea data.

The collection’s floor price rose to as high as 186 SOL ($6138) before retracing to 172 SOL ($4300) at press time.

The y00ts NFT collection was meant to launch on Sept. 4, but the team detected a blocker bug.

We are running into a blocker bug at the last minute.

Due to the nature of this bug, we do not feel comfortable bringing the mint live right now.

The mint will likely be around 24 hours from now.

We’ll keep you updated along the way.

— y00ts (@y00tsNFT) September 4, 2022

According to the team, the nature of the bug did not make it feel right to proceed with the mint on the earlier proposed date.

However, the delay did not dampen the morale of the community, who have pushed the collection to the top of OpenSea’s volume ranking with a total of 171,800 SOL($5.6 million) within the last 24 hours.

There are 15,000 NFTs in the y00ts collection, and users require DUST, the native token of the ecosystem, to mint the NFTs. With one DUST valued at $2.46 after a 16% drop in the last 24 hours, collectors will have to spend around $835 to mint one y00ts NFT.

Y00ts is one of the most highly anticipated NFT collection mints on Solana. Its whitelist included celebrities like retired football legend Wayne Rooney, former basketball star Allen Iverson, and rapper Lil Baby.

Welcome @lilbaby4PF.

Your application for @y00tsNFT has been accepted. pic.twitter.com/kAF0qGeOTQ

— y00tlist (@y00tlist) August 28, 2022

Meanwhile, some community members have claimed that the interest from celebrities is paid hyped under table promotion rather than organic interest.

Frank and DeGod team rewrote the NFT marketing playbook in 2022

– paid influencers shills disguised as applications or outrage (e.g. @cobie)
– creating as much controversy as possible
– engagement farming

Here is what won’t change for plebs:
– they will be exit liquidity again https://t.co/mxMS0AB3v6

— fuckyouandfuckoff.eth (@buythedipagain) September 3, 2022

Y00ts developer raises $7 million

The NFT collection developer Dust Labs also announced that it raised $7 million in a funding round that included FTX Ventures, Magic Eden, Big Brain Holdings, Hello Moon, Solana Ventures, Jump, Chapter One, etc.

Dust Labs is responsible for one of the biggest NFT collections on Solana, DeGods, and many have been anticipating its new project.

The firm announced this development on Sept. 6, tweeting that it would host an AMA session on Sept. 8 to discuss the funding.

We would like to announce that we have raised a strategic round of $7M to build out the $DUST ecosystem.

AMA with @frankdegods & our CEO @kevindegods on Thursday, September 8th. pic.twitter.com/VxzdZeu3P0

— Dust Labs (@dust_labs) September 6, 2022