Yuga Labs Appoints Activision Blizzard’s COO Daniel Alegre as CEO

Yuga Labs appointed Daniel Alegre to the position of CEO less than three days after it was reported that he would be leaving his role as President and COO of Activision Blizzard. 

The organization also claims that Alegre would update his profile photo to one of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club #3850.  

Alegre said in a statement that “Yuga Labs has quickly made a name for itself through a powerful combination of storytelling and community-building,” and that there is “a massive opportunity to define the metaverse in a way that empowers creators and provides users with true ownership of their identity and digital assets.”

Alegre has been president and COO of Activision Blizzard since 2020, supervising many important projects under him. He worked with Google for nearly 16 years, holding various executive positions including president of global and strategic alliances, president of shopping and payments, and president of Asia Pacific and Latin America.

He will replace Nicole Muniz, who will remain a partner and advisor. As Yuga Labs continues to expand, Alegre will work with co-founders Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano. 

Last month, Muniz stated the company is “trying to hire the best and brightest to build the next phase of the internet.” 

According to Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow: 

“Daniel has held one of the highest level roles at one of the largest gaming companies in the world.”

Yuga Labs Under Legal Troubles

The web3 leader and creator of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks, Meebits, Yuga Labs, has come under scrutiny when it was announced in October that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is looking into whether the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Ethereum NFTs and the company’s native crypto currency ApeCoin are unregistered securities. 

In addition, a California legal firm Scott+Scott sued Mutant Ape Yuga Labs, MoonPay, along with the creators of Bored Ape Non-fungible Tokens (NFTs) at the beginning of December.