BuzzFeed reveals the identities of two of the BAYC founders, faces heavy backlash

February 07, 2022

Buzzfeed, the renowned American Internet media and entertainment company, has discovered that “Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel,” two of the four Bored Ape Yacht Club or BAYC NFT collection founders, are Greg Solano, a 32-year-old writer and editor and Wylie Aronow, a 35-year-old originally from Florida in real life.

The article, titled “We Found The Real Names Of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders,” was written by journalist Kate Notopoulos on February 4.

By searching the publicly available records of Yuga Labs, the firm behind the collection, Notopoulos was able to discover the founders’ identities. Yuga Labs was incorporated in U.S. state Delaware using an address associated with Greg Solano and other data referring to Wylie Aronow.

BAYC success is incomparable

BAYC is an NFT collection of simian avatars created by four pseudonymous founders. It has become an extremely lucrative venture and recently surpassed competitors to become the most expensive NFT collection. The minimum price to purchase the cheapest NFT from the collection is now around $300,000 (worth 100 ETH), and the collection has a market cap of over $3 billion. The company last year signed a deal with Guy Oseary, the manager of musical legends U2, and Madonna and BAYC may be coming to movies.

The CEO of the company Nicole Muniz has confirmed the identities of both the co-founders.

The tech reporter argued that “there are reasons why in the traditional business world, the CEO or founder of a company uses their real name and not a pseudonym.” She added that “the people behind BAYC are courting investors and running a business that is potentially worth billions.”

Got doxxed against my will. Oh well.

Web2 me vs. Web3 me pic.twitter.com/uLkpsJ5LvN

— GordonGoner.eth (Wylie Aronow) 🍌 (@GordonGoner) February 5, 2022

The heavy backlash

The non-consensual publication of Aronow and Solano’s identities, on the other hand, has sparked outrage among Web3 members, who are calling the article “doxxing” rather than acceptable journalistic ethics. Notopoulos, on the other hand, appeared unaffected by the criticism.