- NFT exchange Hadeswap has acquired Solana Monkey Business, a leading NFT project on Solana
- Hadeswap intends to attract more SMB collectors by addressing the project’s shortcomings while respecting its legacy
- SMB leads in trading volume on the Solana blockchain
NFT exchange Hadeswap has acquired the intellectual property (IP) rights to Solana Monkey Business (SMB), a leading NFT project on the Solana blockchain, less than two years after its launch in June 2021. Hadeswap intends to attract more SMB collectors by addressing the project’s shortcomings while also holding on to its legacy, considering that SMB leads in trading volume when compared to other digital collectibles on Solana. However, the project’s original creators haven’t always been on good terms with a section of collectors who joined hands to create MonkeDAO to push SMB’s boundaries.
A Second Collection with 5,000 Collectibles
In an announcement, Hadeswap noted that it is armed with a dedicated team to help push the NFT project forward. SMB is among the inaugural collectibles on Solana and initially featured 205 pixelated monkey images before later releasing another collection dubbed Gen2 which had 5,000 artworks.
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
CryptoSlam records show that the project has generated a total of around $159 million since its launch. However, its acquisition by Hadeswap faces some challenges since SMB has a semi-independent decentralized autonomous organization ( DAO) called MonkeDAO, which SMB creators had agreed to fund its efforts.
MonkeDAO Unsuccessfully Tried to Acquire SMB
The NFT exchange disclosed that they’re engaging MonkeDAO with hopes of getting them on board and helping them actualize their vision of extending the SMB ecosystem. According to MonkeDAO, the acquisition doesn’t affect access to the DAO and doesn’t automatically give HadesDAO a seat at MonkeDAO’s governance table.
We have been informed that HadesDAO has purchased the Solana Monkey Business (SMB) NFT project and its IP.
HadesDAO reached out to the MonkeDAO Executive Team, and we had our first meeting to discuss their acquisition of SMB on February 12th. We have not formed a partnership… https://t.co/4I7spiOGGZ
— MonkeDAO🍌 (@MonkeDAO) February 13, 2023
The acquisition also comes when MonkeDAO has already announced plans to launch its own NFT project, with the DAO suggesting that it had previously tried to acquire the SMB project without success. With Hadeswap’s announcing that its own decentralized community, HadesDAO, will take over developments, it’s yet to be seen whether the exchange and MakerDAO will enter a partnership.
