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Yuga Labs Names Activision Exec as New CEO

Last Updated: January 11, 2024
The announcement of Activision Blizzard COO and president Daniel Alegre taking over leadership of the Web3 brand comes as another group of Bored Apes was stolen.

There is much going on in the Bored Ape Yacht Club universe lately, and the Web3 project’s parent company just got a new leader around the same time another significant NFT theft was revealed.

Daniel Alegre has been named the new CEO of Yuga Labs, the company shared on Monday. The announcement comes three days after the former gaming exec stepped down as president and COO of Activision Blizzard. Alegre succeeds Nicole Muniz, who served as the lab’s first CEO since January 2022. Muniz will continue working with Yuga Labs as a partner and strategic advisor.

“Daniel has held one of the highest level roles at one of the largest gaming companies in the world,” Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow said in a statement. “He brings valuable experience across entertainment, e-commerce, and global strategic partnerships, all of which are critical aspects of an immersive web3 world built by creators and for creators.”

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Yuga Labs explicitly noted in its official news release that Alegre will “become Yuga Labs’s new CEO in the first half of 2023,” which means this could be more of a short-term plan. Still, Alegre joins the web3 giant with an extensive resume that includes leadership roles at Google, Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Candy Crush. The web3 company’s new CEO will be most charged with bringing Yuga Labs’ gamified metaverse project Otherside to fruition. Alegre will step down from his post at Activision on March 31, 2023, and join Yuga Labs full-time.

As part of his new role, Alegre will use Mutant Ape #3850 as his new profile picture.

Alegre is taking over leadership of Yuga Labs during a tumultuous time for the brand following the filing of a class action lawsuit and the recent theft of roughly 14 Bored Apes.

Another Bored Ape Scam

The recently stolen Bored Apes were valued at a combined $1 million, and all of them have already been sold off, according to their owner, Twitter user @_sevenseason_. The collector fell victim to a scam that didn’t require the scammer to pay any gas fees. The former BAYC holder thought he was signing a licensing deal with web3 social IP platform The Unemployed. Instead, 14 Bored Apes were stolen due to a contracts loophole on OpenSea.

The holder, who also owns 10 Mutant Apes, according to OpenSea, is still attempting to recover the stolen NFTs.

This isn’t the first Bored Ape scam, and it probably won’t be the last.

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Michelai Graham

Michelai Graham is Boardroom's resident tech and crypto reporter. Before joining 35V, she was a freelance reporter with bylines in AfroTech, HubSpot, The Plug, and Lifewire, to name a few. At Boardroom, Michelai covers Web3, NFTs, crypto, tech, and gaming. Off the clock, you can find her producing her crime podcast, The Point of No Return.