Confirming the rumor that had been growing over the last two months, DeGods and Y00ts, two of the leading NFTs in the Solana ecosystem, will be leaving for the Ethereum and Polygon network respectively, early in the new year.
“It’s been difficult to grow at the pace we want to grow (meaning in Solana). If Ethereum is where we need to go to continue to grow, that’s what we need to do,” said DeGods head Rohun Vora, aka Frank.
Among the most popular collections
These two collections are two of the most popular in Solana’s NFT market, with DeGods having a bottom price of 515 SOL (about $5,750), making it the most expensive in the Solana ecosystem. Y00ts, considered the sister PFP collection to DeGod’s PFP, has a minimum price of 148 SOL (about $1,660).
Sales of DeGods increased after this news, with the collection’s bottom price increasing by 12%. Sales for Y00ts remained relatively flat, with the bottom price increasing just 5 SOL (about $55). In the week prior to the announcement, sales of DeGods and Y00ts accounted for nearly 70% of all Solana NFT sales, according to Magic Eden data.
Criticisms and celebrations
The move was preceded by months of tension on NFT Twitter, with some manufacturers in the Solana NFT sector condemning the exit of the two collections, while collection owners instead celebrated the move.
In early December, at the Art Basel festival in Miami, rumors circulated that the DeGods team had asked the Solana Foundation for the sum of five million dollars to remain on the Solana platform. However, the DeGods team denies this claim.
Another victory for Polygon
The move of Y00ts to Polygon seems to have come at a price for the network, as it is reported that Polygon will pay for the move with a grant from its cooperation fund. This grant is said to last for a year or two.
The Y00ts move is Polygon’s latest victory, after a fairly long streak of winning partnerships. Most recently Polygon has moved on to deals with Starbucks (SBUX), Nike (NKE), Reddit, Instagram and DraftKings.
