The team behind y00ts and DeGods were paid $3m to move their collections off Solana and onto Polygon, according to a January 6 announcement from the company. The statement was made on Discord and copied to Twitter by Frank III, founder of the two projects.<\/p>\n
The developers had previously announced on Dec. 27 that the projects would be moving to Polygon. This was widely seen as a possible death blow to the Solana network, as the network was already under pressure due to fallout from the collapsed FTX exchange. However, there was no evidence at the time that the y00ts team had received money in exchange for making the move<\/p>\n
Vitalik Buterin has since argued that claims of the death of Solana may be exaggerated.<\/p>\n
Related: <\/strong>Polygon partners with Warner Music, LGND to create Web3 music platform<\/strong><\/p>\n In this new statement from Frank III, the y00ts and DeGods founder claimed the team was offered even larger sums than it got from the Polygon deal, but decided to partner with Polygon anyway because it would be the best platform for the projects. Frank also attempted to preemptively respond to criticism that would arise from revealing the compensation received, stating:<\/p>\n “We didn\u2019t take this deal for the money. That\u2019s just a nice bonus and we will use it effectively. We did this because it\u2019s the most exciting direction for y00ts as a project. Also, if you are really upset \u2014 all I ask is to just channel that energy into genuine questions before just automatically assuming the worst.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Frank III also stated that he will \u201cnot be purchasing any lambo\u201d with the money. In other words, the team will not be using the money for their own consumption. Instead, the funds will allegedly go into hiring new employees for \u201cbusiness development, graphic design, content creation, and events coordination,\u201d which he said will allow the projects to gain more mainstream acceptance.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Solana may have recovered from the exodus of y00ts and DeGods, at least for now, as meme coins like Bonk are attracting trading activity back onto the platform.<\/p>\n