Mega NFT marketplace, OpenSea, has flexed its significant powers once again by removing two parody collections from its platform for featuring recycled images from the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Launching first, the Phunky Ape Yacht Club (PAYC) took the original ape drawings, flipped them on the horizontal and minted them as new NFTs. Then, just days later, PHAYC, a wondrous wordplay on the word “fake” did exactly the same thing. Both collections sold out within hours, raising an impressive amount of ETH in the process.
What resulted is a Twitter feud of comedic proportions, where both collections battled over the right to call themselves “the original knockoff BAYC.” Insults were exchanged, banter reverberated and arguments made, all before daddy OpenSea stepped in, deemed them in breach of copyright, and promptly booted them both off their platform.
Judging by the Twitter feed, PAYC launched as an apparent protest to the Bored Apes, stating that they are a “flex for rich douchebags,” while PHAYC just went with the tagline “PHAYC it until you make it.” Despite all of this, Yuga Labs, the creator of the original collection has refrained from getting involved. Now however, PAYC has moved its operations over to NFTrade while PHAYC is trading its wares on the Mintable marketplace. And so, the battle between the left-facing monkeys rages on.