With a recent migration to the biggest and most competitive NFT chain, there has been speculation about the potential success or failure of DeLabs' DeGods and y00ts.

Can they compete with Ethereum's major players and generate enough trading volume on Polygon?

This article will examine the history of DeLabs, DeGods, and y00ts, evaluate their current performance on their respective chains, and delve into DeLabs’ runway.

Article Outline

• The History: DeLabs’ Rise to the Top

• The Present: How Have Both Collections Performed?

• The Future of DeLabs

• Project Runway Analysis

• Closing Remarks

The History: DeLabs’ Rise to the Top

On October 8, 2021, DeGods minted on Solana's blockchain at a cost of 3 SOL each (~$475 USD at the time).

Despite the project's team generating anticipation for the collection, there was a lot of controversy leading up to and following the mint.

The team had offered allowlist spots to community members through "bounties," which involved filming themselves doing push ups or promoting the project. However, bots interfered with the minting process, causing the project to sell out in under ten seconds, and leaving many unable to participate.

Consequently, the community accused the project of being a rug pull, and the floor price plummeted.

In an attempt to revive the project, the team launched various products, including de.xyz and DePalace. However, the project's floor price continued to fall, causing some developers to consider abandoning it in November 2021.

DeGods eventually discontinued its “Paperhand Bitch Tax” in January 2022 and introduced the $DUST token, which was followed by the DeadGods art upgrade relaunch where DeGods holders could use their newly acquired $DUST to create a DeadGod, leading to a turnaround for the project.

The leadup to the DeadGods launch “DeGods III” saw the collection jump from a floor price of 10 SOL to an all-time high of 100 SOL (~$10,000 USD at the time).

The project’s DAO, DeDAO, would also announce the purchase of a basketball team in April 2022 which sent the DeGods collection’s floor price all the way up to 343 SOL (~$34,000 USD at the time).

This also placed DeGods among the top players in the NFT space, with its value competing with that of many bluechip NFT collections on Ethereum and establishing it as the largest project on the Solana blockchain.

The team made another announcement in May 2022 about their next NFT mint, y00ts. The minting of y00ts took place in September 2022 and was revealed in November 2022. The project’s founder, Frank (Rohun Vora, his IRL name), would also doxx himself through a video that would go viral on Twitter.

In December 2022, Frank announced that DeGods would be moving to Ethereum and y00ts to Polygon, and as a result, DeGods' floor price would revisit its previous all-time highs. In Q1, 535 DeGods were minted on Bitcoin Ordinals, and both DeGods and y00ts collections migrated to their new respective chains. The floor price of DeGods would reach a new all-time high of 680 SOL (~$13,600 USD) before migration.

Although DeLabs (DeGods’ parent project and team) went through numerous highs and lows in the past, they have always managed to emerge stronger than before. One of Frank's tweets is particularly noteworthy as it effectively captures the project's perseverance and ability to innovate:

The Present: How Have Both Collections Performed?

DeGods on Ethereum

Before migrating to Ethereum, DeGods stood at a floor price of around 600 SOL (~$12,000 USD). While DeGods NFTs pumped on migration day, with migrated NFTs selling at a heavy premium of 10.5 ETH (~$18,900 USD), their floor price has since readjusted down to 8.49 ETH (~$16,000 USD), which still implies a pump from their original price on Solana.

NFTstatistics.eth also highlights that non-bridged DeGods and y00ts that are still on Solana now have a price premium of approximately 10-20%.

DeGods has been able to capture 1.5% of the total collection volumes when compared to other leading collections on Ethereum.

Of the two collections, DeGods has seen its floor price move down -20%, while y00ts saw a price increase of +11.11% since its migration onto Polygon.

Y00ts on Polygon

In comparison, y00ts has performed significantly better, whilst grantedly being on a less competitive chain.

It has dominated the NFT volume on Polygon, capturing 36.9%, thereby distinguishing itself from other collections on the chain by a significant margin.

Moreover, y00ts have had a higher success rate with migration compared to DeGods, with more than 91% of y00ts already bridged, as opposed to over 80% for DeGods, although both collections have achieved considerable success.

Many argue that DeGods' poor performance can be attributed to their choice of partnering with Blur as their recommended trading platform. Blur has pushed forward the hyper-financialization of the NFT space and placed much of the power in the hands of some of the biggest wallets. As a result, we’ve witnessed a significant amount of airdrop farming and higher price volatility, which could be the reason behind DeGods' underperformance.

The Future of DeLabs

DeGods and Y00ts had the largest ecosystem on Solana, to the extent that they dominated 32% of the entire past 30-day volume on Solana.

When comparing DeGods' dominance on Solana to its dominance on Ethereum, the collection has given up 95% of its dominance by migrating to a new chain.

Moreover, when comparing the 30-day NFT volume on Polygon to that on Solana, Polygon represents only 44% of Solana's monthly volume.

What could motivate a successful team like DeLabs to move to a completely different blockchain where competition is intense on Ethereum and volume is limited on Polygon?

When the migration announcement was made in December 2022, Solana had recently experienced another significant drop in price due to the collapse of FTX. The blockchain was strongly linked to the disgraced founder of FTX, causing the token to lose 62% of its value overnight.

In addition, the NFT volume on Solana suffered a significant drop of 75% after the price dump of Solana, which is not an ideal situation for any project founder.

In contrast, Ethereum and Polygon’s prices were less affected, with ETH having lost 20% of its value by December, and Polygon 36% of its value. Additionally, whilst Solana continues to struggle to regain back, Ethereum is currently up 65% since the FTX collapse, and Polygon is 38% up.

When it comes to the low NFT volume on Polygon, DeLabs has another trick up their sleeve, as they have announced the launch of an NFT accelerator launchpad program on Polygon along with their Y00ts migration.

This indicates that the team recognizes the need for more builders and project founders to start establishing themselves on Polygon, as they cannot be one of a few notable NFT collections on the platform.

Although the migration to two new blockchains comes with significant risks and is expected to be challenging, I’d like to quote something Frank said during the migration announcement:

Moving forward, both collections will encounter several challenges. DeGods' primary challenge will be to compete for the top spot on the most competitive NFT chain against other mid-cap NFT collections. Conversely, Y00ts' main challenge will be to generate enough volume on a newer and smaller NFT chain with low current volume.

While the future of DeLabs is uncertain, it is clear that the team has consistently demonstrated their determination to push the boundaries of innovation in the NFT space.

Project Runway Analysis

In order to grasp the amount of funding needed to build a brand as large as DeLabs, it's important to take into account the team's available resources. DeLabs has created three collections and, in the past year, has raised a conservative estimate of at least $39.5 million USD.

As cryptocurrencies are known to be volatile, it would have been wise for the team to convert a significant portion of their SOL, BTC, ETH, and $DUST funds into stable currencies to protect their finances. However, in this analysis, we will assume that they kept all their funds in their original currencies, with royalties mainly in SOL and ETH and mints in both SOL, BTC, and $DUST currencies. These funds were then converted using the current exchange rate to determine their financial runway.

The team has considerably expanded the resources available to them by more than 25% through their $7 million USD seed round and their $3 million USD migration agreement with Polygon. The majority of their funds have been generated from their Y00ts mint.

DeLabs' treasury is considerably larger than those of many other leading collections in the NFT space. However, it is still only 2% of Yuga Labs' treasury, which is one of the largest in the industry.

Although Frank has been a vocal supporter of NFT projects seeking alternative sources of revenue beyond royalties, we can calculate that royalties account for 31.9% of DeLabs' treasury, or about $12.6 million USD.

Closing Remarks

TL;DR

Here are the summarized points made throughout this article:**
**

• DeGods initially faced controversy during its mint, but later recovered through various products and upgrades such as the $DUST token and DeadGods art upgrade. The project continued to thrive following its many announcements, including the acquisition of a basketball team, the y00ts mint, the migration of both of its collections to Ethereum and Polygon, and their Bitcoin Ordinals mint.

• After migrating to Ethereum, DeGods saw a price pump with migrated NFTs selling at a heavy premium, but the floor price has since readjusted down to $16,000 USD. DeGods captured 1.5% of total collection volumes on Ethereum and has seen its floor price move down by 20%. In contrast, y00ts has performed better on Polygon, capturing 36.9% of NFT volume and seeing a price increase of 11.11% since migration. DeGods' underperformance has been attributed by some to its partnership with Blur.

• DeGods and Y00ts dominated 32% of the total past 30-day volume on Solana, but DeGods have given up 95% of their dominance by moving to Ethereum. The NFT volume on Polygon is also limited compared to Solana. However, DeLabs has launched an NFT accelerator launchpad program on Polygon to attract more builders and project founders. Moving to new blockchains poses significant risks, but the DeLabs team has consistently demonstrated their commitment to innovation in the NFT space. The primary challenge for DeGods is to compete with other mid-cap NFT collections on a competitive chain, while Y00ts' main challenge is to generate enough volume on a smaller NFT chain.

• DeLabs has raised a conservative estimate of at least $39.5 million USD through their three collections in the past year, and their treasury is considerably larger than many other leading collections in the NFT space, but only constitutes 2% of Yuga Labs' treasury. The team has expanded their resources by more than 25% through a $7 million USD seed round and $3 million USD migration agreement with Polygon, while royalties account for 31.9% of DeLabs' treasury, or about $12.6 million USD.

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