In traditional art, there is often a hidden meaning behind every famous artwork. Let’s call it a hidden message an author strives to communicate to the audience. The same we can see in the NFT world. In this material, we would like to share with your the results of the recent investigation related to the Bored Ape Yacht Club Collection. The results may be shocking for you (either in a positive or negative sense, depending on your expectations). So, read carefully, every detail matters.
Intro
This is the most interesting NFT mystery: on his Twitter page Fedor Linnik suggested an interesting theory under which the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection may be linked to the Nazis and alt-right.
Fedor Linnik is known in the NFT world for revealing the truth about the Fame Laddy Squad NFT project. This project gained popularity since it was presumably led by three ladies meaning women empowerment in the NFT space. However, Fedor Linnik revealed that this project was actually led by Russian men.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Investigation details
The creators of BAYC are smart 4chan trolls and their collection of expensive monkeys is full of hidden hints.
The BAYC collection logo resembles the Nazi logo “Totenkopf” (“Dead Head” in Eng). Fedor dives deeper and finds many elements of the collection with military connotations (the most obvious ones — Prussian Pickelchman and Japanese kamikaze bandanas).
He assumes that the creators of BAYC are big fans of military history. There are also other historical Easter eggs in the BAYC collection — e.g. the toga of the Roman emperor and the laurel wreath.
But even here Linnik sees a hint of neo-folk musicians: militaristic aesthetics, clothes of the Roman Empire, the name of the company Yuga Labs (the direct creator of BAYC), consonant with the Kali Yuga (whose concept, by the way, was popular in the circles of neo-Nazis and fascists) … everything that they admire.
First, Surf the Kali Yuga and Kali Yuga Surf Club are common memes in alt-right circles. Second, bananas in BAYC x MAYC look like swastikas (but let’s assume they’re just shurikens). Thirdly, BAYCs wear Hawaiian shirts, very similar to the numerous alt-right band Boogaloo Boys.
Alternative investigation
@ryder_ripps has shared a solution to the BAYC puzzle proving the love of BAYC creators to hidden meanings and riddles.
The puzzle uses many military terms and a dozen of types of ciphers including some (e.g. naval signal flags) of military origin. The solution to the BAYC puzzle is the word “Guenon”. Google suggests that Guenon is the French intellectual philosopher René Guenon, who remains an influential figure in the fields of metaphysics, symbolism and traditionalism, who is … popular among the alt-right movement. So, Yuga labs has created a puzzle where the answer is the name of the person who used to work closely with the concept of Kali Yuga and is admired by the Alt-Right. Coincidence? Not sure.
Other hints
The creators of BAYC are cipher masters, so there should be more hidden hints there. And they may be found in a room in the prison uniform of one of the monkeys, which recalls the year of the suicide of one of the Nazi leaders Rudolf Hess. And this is not the only encrypted number. The launch of BAYC was scheduled for the date of Hitler’s suicide.
What is more, the name of the boat from the BAYC website is “SS MONKE BIZ”. You know what is SS. And Monke is the name of one of the longest-lived SS officers who died in 2001.
Then the investigation goes into the mainstream of Nazi zombies and their similarities with MAYC, nuclear mushrooms at the Pacific test site and tiki totems.
By the end of the investigation, Linnik is inclined to believe that the creators of BAYC are not real Nazis, but rather neo-folk fans who paid tribute to their idols, but something tells us that a sequel is coming.
Conclusion
As you can see, the NFT world is full of secrets and mystery. Virtual pieces of art boost critical thinking and imagination. OneArt team will keep on sharing with you interesting and valuable NFT insights. Stay tuned and think creatively!
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