The team had previously announced the move but had not disclosed the monetary terms.
According to a January 6 announcement from the company, the team behind y00ts and DeGods was paid $3 million to move their collections off Solana and onto Polygon. Frank III, the founder of the two projects, made the statement on Discord and copied it to Twitter.
The developers announced on December 27 that the projects would be moving to Polygon. This was widely regarded as a potential death blow to the Solana network, which was already under strain as a result of the fallout from the collapsed FTX exchange. However, there was no evidence at the time that the y00ts team had been paid to make the move.
Since then, Vitalik Buterin has argued that claims of Solana’s death may have been exaggerated.
In a new statement, Frank III, the founder of y00ts and DeGods, claimed that the team was offered even larger sums than the Polygon deal, but chose to partner with Polygon anyway because it would be the best platform for the projects. Frank also attempted to anticipate the criticism that would follow the disclosure of the compensation, stating:
“We didn’t take this deal for the money. That’s just a nice bonus and we will use it effectively. We did this because it’s the most exciting direction for y00ts as a project. Also, if you are really upset — all I ask is to just channel that energy into genuine questions before just automatically assuming the worst.”
Frank III also stated that he will not “buy any lambo” with the money. In other words, the team will not spend the money on themselves. Instead, the funds will allegedly be used to hire new employees for “business development, graphic design, content creation, and event coordination,” allowing the projects to gain more mainstream acceptance, according to him.
Meanwhile, Solana appears to have recovered from the exodus of y00ts and DeGods, at least for the time being, as meme coins like Bonk are reviving trading activity on the platform.
