Bored Ape Yacht Club sets sail for a future in gaming with new CEO

The Future. Yuga Labs is installing former Activision Blizzard executive Daniel Alegre as CEO. The move is viewed as a double down on Yuga’s commitment to gaming and entertainment as the speculative NFT market takes a nosedive. With his expertise running huge franchises at Activision Blizzard, Alegre may have the skill set to make gamers finally embrace the blockchain.

I’m the captain now
The Bored Apes have a new alpha male.

• Fast Company reports that Yuga Labs is replacing their current CEO, Nicole Muniz, with former Activision Blizzard President and COO Daniel Alegre early next year. Muniz will stay on as a strategic advisor and partner.
• While at Activision Blizzard, Alegre worked on high-profile franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Overwatch.
• Now, his focus will most likely be overseeing current gaming and entertainment projects at the company, including a BAYC-themed gaming metaverse called Otherside and possibly a BAYC film trilogy to debut on Coinbase.

Rocky shoals
Despite completing a huge fundraising round this year for a $4 billion valuation and acquiring top NFT collection CryptoPunks, Alegre is stepping into a challenging time for the company.

• It’s facing a class-action lawsuit in connection to its connection with celebrity endorsers such as Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton.
• It’s contending with an SEC investigation into whether BAYC’s assets and its token, ApeCoin, are actually an unregistered security.
• And, of course, there’s everything else going on with all things crypto and NFTs.

But maybe this is all a cakewalk for Alegre. He presided over Activision Blizzard while the gaming giant dealt with multiple lawsuits from US government agencies over the company’s problematic work culture and a litany of sexual harassment complaints.