YAYO NFT

YAYO NFT is a collection of 4,000 pixel art non-fungible tokens created by YAYO Corporation and launched on the Canto blockchain in December 2022. The collection features "YAYO Men" - diorama-style action figure setpieces depicting archetypal heroes from 1980s-2000s games and films, complete with vehicles, weapons, and accessories. The project became the highest-performing NFT collection in Canto's history before bridging to Ethereum in [DATE PLACEHOLDER].

Concept and Design

Aesthetic Approach

YAYO NFT diverges from traditional profile picture (PFP) NFT collections by presenting each piece as a diorama-style action figure setpiece rather than a simple avatar. Each YAYO Man embodies various archetypal action and hero motifs from games and films throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, standing in front of vehicles and carrying weapons or accessories.

The collection is rendered in pixel art aesthetics, evoking retro gaming visuals while maintaining detailed compositional complexity.

Citationalism and Metadata

A defining characteristic of YAYO NFT is its extreme attention to citational accuracy and metadata detail. Each asset is labeled with strict precision, including:

Year, make, model, and color of vehicles
Specific brand names of weapons and accessories
Direct character names borrowed from source films and games
Comprehensive technical specifications

This approach served multiple conceptual purposes:

Celebration of "Autism-Themed" Categorization - The obsessive detail demonstrates positive appreciation for exhaustive cataloguing and taxonomic precision.

Refutation of Gaming Industry Authorship Practices - The use of real brand names directly challenges the common practice in video games of using fake names for firearms (in FPS games) and copycat imitation names for vehicles (as seen in Grand Theft Auto series).

Statement Against Platform Censorship - The collection explicitly rejected OpenSea's practice of censoring or removing individual NFT assets that contained names similar to real brands. This was a response to incidents where Milady and Remilio assets were taken down due to items like "Matagonia Jacket" being too similar to "Patagonia," based on platform fears of cease-and-desist letters.

Technical Details

Supply: 4,000 unique tokens
Original Blockchain: Canto
Current Blockchain: Ethereum (bridged [DATE PLACEHOLDER])
Initial Mint Price: 250 $CANTO (~$100 USD)
Token Standard: [PLACEHOLDER]

The 4,000-piece supply was deliberately calculated by Charlotte Fang based on the number of available assets and accounting for Canto's smaller market size, utilizing her expertise in gaming supply and asset distribution metrics.

Launch and Market Performance

Canto Era (2022-[YEAR])

YAYO NFT launched on the Canto blockchain in December 2022 during a period when the chain was beginning to decline in activity. Despite these challenging market conditions, project lead Scearpo (Michael Dragovic) initiated an aggressive campaign to mint out the collection and drive its floor price to become the highest-performing NFT on the Canto ecosystem.

The collection minted out in mid-April [YEAR PLACEHOLDER]. Following the sellout, YAYO NFT dramatically outperformed expectations:

Exceeded the market cap and floor price of "Canto Longnecks," Canto's premiere official NFT project
Consistently topped 24-hour volume rankings on a daily basis
Floor price surpassed 10,000 $CANTO, representing a 4,000% return on the original mint price
Achieved the highest floor price of any Canto NFT of all time
Led in total volume and number of unique owners across all Canto NFT projects

In a press statement, YAYO Corporation noted: "Despite initial lower-than-expected support on Canto, YAYO NFT's success story is a testament to its inherent value and powerful design."

Ethereum Bridge

After achieving its stated goals on Canto, YAYO Corporation announced plans to bridge the collection to Ethereum. The bridge launched on the two-year anniversary of the initial $YAYO token launch (May 24, [YEAR PLACEHOLDER]), implementing a one-way opt-in process that allowed holders to migrate their NFTs to the Ethereum network.

The move was framed as seeking "bigger fish to fry" and aimed to enhance YAYO's presence and value within the wider NFT ecosystem beyond Canto's limited market.

Current Performance

[WIP SECTION - TO BE EXPANDED WITH CURRENT METRICS]

Current floor price: [PLACEHOLDER] Total volume on Ethereum: [PLACEHOLDER]

Traits and Rarity

[WIP SECTION - TO BE EXPANDED]

Notable character references: [PLACEHOLDER] Rare vehicles: [PLACEHOLDER] Legendary weapons: [PLACEHOLDER]

Cultural Impact