On June 24, Wylie Aronow, better known online as Gordon Goner, co-founder of Yuga Labs, the startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club ( BAYC ) collection, took to Twitter to address the “misinformation campaign” that claims he and his team are “super-secret Nazis.”
Goner said that while he had paid attention in the past to what he called “incredibly lopsided” accusations, he hadn’t provided as detailed a response as he did today after a YouTuber has posted an hour-long video of an alleged 6-month investigation documenting what he believes is a connection between BAYC’s corporate image and Nazi symbolism.
“We’ve not responded in further detail to these allegations because frankly they are insanely far-fetched. That said, we woke up this morning to a podcaster we respect talking about this conspiracy theory and that was pretty surreal.”
So far, the video has nearly 900,000 views and has sparked quite a debate among those who have watched it.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club Has Jews, Turks, Pakistanis And Cubans
Goner began his thread by explaining that the founders of BAYC are a group of Jewish, Turkish, Pakistani, and Cuban friends. Even Goner’s wife is Mexican-American. Because of this, he argues it would be ridiculous to think that the Bored Ape yacht Club or its members have anything to do with the Nazi movement.
Goner said all these accusations were a “lie” promoted by an anti-BAYC activist named Ryder Ripps, who created a copy of his NFT collection under another name and sold nearly $3.5 million on OpenSea before. his account is suspended for violating intellectual property laws. .
Ryder Ripps currently has 29K followers on Twitter and defines himself as an artis, satirist and phunk. A thread with his accusations on Goner is pinned on his account.
Yuga Labs was created by a group of lightweight gamers
Goner noted that Yuga Labs was named after a Zelda video game villain who can transform himself and his friends into 2D art, which made sense given the NFT collection they wanted to create, and that he and his friends were a bunch of nerds who love MMORPG video games like Warcraft.
As for the BAYC logo, he explained that they never intended to take the logo so seriously, and that’s why the look itself is “ramshackle and dive-y,” assuring that everything about BAYC was created in a spirit “of irreverence and absurdity.” Which is a far cry from Ripps’ views.
Goner even posted the email sent to the logo’s creator, saying the club’s inspirations referenced his tastes in punk, skateboarding, navy flags, and more. There was never a mention of anything Nazi-related.
Controversial or not, BAYC remains the collection of choice for celebrities and socialités, so much so that today Eminem and Snoop Dog released a video where they become two of their very own bored apes as they begin to sing.
