Larva Labs is probably one of the best-known names in the crypto community. But who are Larva Labs and what has this team done? Read on for a complete guide to everything you need to know about Larva Labs!

Who Are Larva Labs? 

Larva Labs is a software and NFT development team consisting of software developers Matt Hall and John Watkinson. Founded in 2017, this New York-based duo has worked on just about any kind of software you can think of – this includes web infrastructure, genomics analysis, video games, a repository of legal documents, crypto projects, and blockchain applications. 

However, Larva Labs is probably best known for its crypto-art projects, namely CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs. CryptoPunks is known as one of the largest NFT collections in existence alongside CryptoKitties and Bored Ape Yacht Club. One piece was even sold for a whopping $11.75 million at Sotheby’s, a London auction house. 

CryptoPunks: Larva Labs’ Most Famous Project 

Even if you haven’t heard of Larva Labs, you’ve no doubt heard of CryptoPunks. CryptoPunks is a collection of 10,000 uniquely generated NFT pieces, which means that no two pieces are exactly alike. 

Larva Labs co-founder Matt Hall said that this project was influenced by various aspects of the “punk” aesthetic – namely the London punk scene, cyberpunk, and electronic artists Daft Punk. 

Like many generative art NFTs, some traits are rarer than others – making those pieces more expensive and sought after by collectors. Among the 10,000 pieces, almost all of them are human, except for 88 zombies, 24 apes, and 9 aliens. 

Unlike more recent NFT projects, CryptoPunks aren’t designed to foster a community. It was simply an experiment made by Hall and Watkinson. Demand just started to grow, and community building happened organically as more and more people got into crypto and NFTs.

When it launched back in 2017, it was free to claim for anybody with an Ethereum wallet. Now, CryptoPunks boasts several celebrity owners like Jay-Z and Jason Derulo. 

CryptoPunks isn’t just a wildly successful art project in and of itself – it’s also often credited as one of the cornerstones of the 2021 NFT craze, alongside other early NFT projects like CryptoKitties and Bored Ape Yacht Club. In fact, this project influenced the ERC-721 standard used in many NFTs nowadays.

Another interesting recent development is that an anonymous person donated their CryptoPunk #5364 piece to the Ukraine government to help its defense against the Russian invasion, in a show of NFTs being used for charitable causes.

Larva Labs’ Other Projects 

Larva Labs isn’t just known for CryptoPunks. Some of Larva Labs’ other notable projects include:

• Meebits is an NFT collection consisting of 20,000 3D characters. This project comes with its own zero-fee marketplace. Owners also get full 3D files of their collectible characters that they can use as an avatar or as animated characters.
• Autoglyphs is a set of 512 generative art blocks created by a code implemented on the Ethereum blockchain.
• Road Trip is an endless driving game where your car can’t slow down.
• Androidify is a now-defunct app that lets you create custom avatars out of the iconic Android robot.
• Slide Screen and FlowHome are a pair of new Android home screen experiences.

Yuga Labs Acquisition 

In March of 2022, Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs reported that it acquired the intellectual property rights to CryptoPunks and Meebits. This means that Yuga Labs now owns the brand and the logo for both CryptoPunks and Meebits. However, Yuga Labs also announced that it will transfer all licensing and commercial rights to individual NFT owners.

Closing Thoughts 

As one of the earliest cornerstones of the NFT craze, CryptoPunks by Larva Labs are now valued for hundreds of ETH on the secondary market. With Larva Labs’ acquisition by Yuga Labs, there’s no telling what other radical developments it has in store for the crypto community.

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