Greg Solano

Greg Solano is an American writer and editor turned entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Yuga Labs, a company focused on non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and gaming.^[8] He co-founded Yuga Labs in February 2021 with Wylie Aronow, alongside engineer co-founders Zeshan Ali and Kerem Atalay, and co-created the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection of 10,000 profile-picture-style apes that launched in April 2021.^[2]​^[3]​^[8] Solano, also known by his pseudonym "Gargamel," returned as CEO after previously stepping back from the role, announcing an emphasis on making Yuga Labs more “crypto-native,” spinning out the BAYC team into a subsidiary called BAYC LLC, and refocusing development efforts on the Otherside metaverse project.^[8] In April 2024, he led a restructuring of Yuga Labs that included layoffs to create a smaller, more agile organization.^[10]​

Education

Solano received his undergraduate degree from New York University and later attended the University of Virginia, where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts (MFA).^[3]​^[6] During his time at UVA, he met his future wife, a landscape designer, and spent much of his time focused on writing, first learning about cryptocurrencies in 2009 while in graduate school.^[6]​

During college and graduate school, Solano was an avid player of MMORPGs, particularly EverQuest and World of Warcraft, an interest that later helped motivate the creation of Yuga Labs’ Otherside project.^[4]​^[5]​

Early Life

Greg Solano was born to Cuban immigrant parents. His mother immigrated to the United States as a baby, while his father arrived just before he was old enough to join the communist youth group, the Young Pioneers. His father later served in the U.S. Army Special Forces, also known as the Green Berets, before moving to Miami in his 20s. ^[6]​

Ever since the age of 11, Solano dreamt of being a writer which was around the time when his parents divorced. Solano and his older sister lived with their mother, who worked at a television network. Despite this, Solano was able to focus on his studies and achieve his dream of becoming a writer. ^[6]​

Career

Greg Solano, alongside his partner and other co-founders of Yuga Labs, has overseen the company’s development of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and related NFT collections, including the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). Yuga Labs also acquired the CryptoPunks NFT collection and is developing Otherside, a metaverse and online game project that aims to bring together NFT collections such as BAYC and others.^[1]​

Yuga Labs was founded in February 2021 in Miami by pseudonymous co-founders “Gargamel” (Greg Solano) and “Gordon Goner” (Wylie Aronow), later joined by engineer co-founders “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” (Zeshan Ali) and “No Sass” (Kerem Atalay).^[2]​^[3] The team launched the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection of 10,000 profile-picture-style apes in April 2021, with Solano drawing on his prior experience as a writer and book editor before co-founding Yuga Labs and BAYC.^[2]​^[3]​^[6]​

After initially serving as CEO and later stepping back from the role, Solano returned as CEO of Yuga Labs in February 2024, replacing Daniel Alegre after less than a year in the position.^[8] In announcing his return, Solano said he aimed to steer Yuga Labs in a more “crypto-native” direction across the company, including spinning the Bored Ape Yacht Club team into a more autonomous subsidiary, BAYC LLC, and placing renewed emphasis on developing Otherside as a central social and gaming hub for Web3 communities.^[8] In April 2024, he led a restructuring of Yuga Labs that included layoffs, describing the move as an effort to make the organization smaller, more agile, and better aligned with its original creative-first and crypto-native ethos.^[9]​

After graduation, Solano took a job at a small publishing house, where he worked on creating physical books such as Harry Potter coloring books and World of Warcraft manuals. Although the job was not his dream and did not pay particularly well, Solano was happy to be able to work in the publishing industry and create tangible books. He also has co-authored a book about World of Warcraft with one of the game's designers.^[2]​^[3]​^[6]​

Solano worked as a book editor and also wrote book reviews for literary websites up until right before him and Wylie started working on and released the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection in April 2021, he was a senior book editor at a book publisher.^[2]​^[3]​

The Doxxing

On February 4, 2022, the identities of the team behind the Bored Apes were revealed by Buzzfeed. Greg stated that the two creative founders of Yuga Labs, Wylie Aronow and himself were given only "20 minutes warning". The two tried to take down as much personal information as possible as they were weary of the location of their homes being revealed and putting their families in jeopardy. Solano had to quickly explain as much as he could to his father about the situation as the two founders "didn't know what to expect". Greg Solano stated that they, "always had an LLC" so if there were any issues with the government, they always had a "legal entity" to address the issue to.^[3]​^[5]​^[6]​

Within a few hours of the Buzzfeed interview, the two decided to reveal their identities on twitter. Greg Solano was taken aback by the attention he got in public after the reveal as he states that only a few months back at their event, Ape Fest (before the doxxing), he was, "out there like giving wristbands like people thought I was an intern".^[5]​^[7]​