MonkeDAO to Purchase Rights to Solana Monkey Business (SMB) NFT Collection

MonkeDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) launched in 2021 on the Solana blockchain, has announced plans to purchase the rights to the popular non-fungible token (NFT) collection Solana Monkey Business (SMB).

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MonkeDAO, a Solana-based decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), has announced plans to purchase the intellectual property (IP) of the Solana Monkey Business (SMB) NFT collection from HadesDAO for $2 million in USDC.

The organization, which describes itself as "the first NFT DAO on Solana," was founded by enthusiasts of SMB, one of Solana's earliest NFT collections. Membership in MonkeDAO is contingent on owning an SMB NFT.

Launched in 2021, SMB has seen strong demand, with a floor price of 223 SOL (around $5,427) at the time of writing and over $1.8 million SOL (around $43 million) in total sales volume.

In February, decentralized Solana trading protocol Hadeswap acquired SMB from its original founders and placed its ownership under HadesDAO, promising to uphold the project's legacy.

On Thursday, HadesDAO passed a proposal to accept MonkeDAO's offer to purchase the SMB IP, which includes "all rights, assets, accounts and keys from HadesDAO" according to the proposal.

This covers any legal registrations for the brand, code for the SMB website, ownership of the SMB Twitter and Discord channels, among other assets.

"MonkeDAO believes the SMB project and all holders of the SMB Gen2 NFTs will benefit from this acquisition and that HadesDAO will benefit more from money in its treasury rather than maintaining ownership of the SMB project," the proposal states.

We did it. 🤝 pic.twitter.com/GV4tAZDp8u

— MonkeDAO🍌 (@MonkeDAO) April 13, 2023The announcement was met with largely positive reactions on Twitter, with some describing the purchase as "historic."

Speaking to CoinDesk, MonkeDAO legal counsel Ariel Givner said that SOLBigBrain, an active MonkeDAO community member, provided the organization with a $1 million USDC loan at 0% interest to aid in the acquisition.

She also noted that MonkeDAO will be launching its own NFT collection, titled The Monkes, in the near future to further supplement the funding.

A historic day for @MonkeDAO.

The quorum passed in HadesDAO. With the help of @SOLBigBrain, we can now officially buy the SMB IP. Monkes have achieved independence.

Thank you to everyone that made this possible. pic.twitter.com/rywKDiT6zC

— Ariel Givner, Esq. (@GivnerAriel) April 13, 2023

Since its launch, MonkeDAO has aimed to become the "premier Web3 community" by investing in and assisting to scale up emerging projects.

The community includes over 2,730 unique SMB NFT holders and has hosted community events around the globe.