Yuga Labs’ first Bitcoin NFT auction nets $16.5M in 24 hours

The auction for Yuga Labs’ inaugural Bitcoin Ordinal nonfungible token (NFT) collection has ended, netting the firm $16.5 million in just 24 hours.

A total of 288 bidders won one of the Bitcoin NFTs from the “TwelveFold” collection. Yuga said the winners will receive their inscription within one week, while the unsuccessful bids will have their bid amount returned within 24 hours.

The TwelveFold auction has ended. Congratulations to the top 288 bidders – you will receive your inscription within one week. Valid bids that did not rank in the top 288 will have their bid amount returned to their receiving address within 24 hours.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 6, 2023

According to NFT collector ‘tropoFarmer’, the auction yielded 735 BTC worth an estimated $16.5 million at current prices. The highest of the 288 bidders paid just over 7 BTC or $161,000 for one of the pieces.

the TwelveFold auction just concluded, earning a total of 735 BTC / $16,500,000 in 24 hours, with the highest bidder paying $161k. biggest bear market drop by a mile, and it wasn’t even on Ethereum

I’d say the Yuga ordinals experiment was a massive financial success. pic.twitter.com/DUC2cKrZxo

— tropoFarmer (@tropoFarmer) March 6, 2023

Yuga announced the collection in late February, describing it as a “base 12 art system localized around a 12×12 grid, a visual allegory for the cartography of data on the Bitcoin blockchain.”

It comprises a limited edition collection of 300 generative pieces inscribed on Satoshis on the BTC network.

As reported by Cointelegraph, Yuga Labs received backlash over the weekend from the crypto community who identified flaws in how it conducted the auction for the Ordinals collection.