ApeCoin seems to be taking the NFT world by storm. After massively exploding into more mainstream last year, the rapidly evolving non-fungible tokens seem to be continuing with their upside momentum in 2022. NFT projects are integrating culture, gaming, and commerce in new ways. This move makes ApeCoin owners believe that its native coin will be the “go-to token” in its highly anticipated metaverse.
Notably, in recent weeks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has continued attracting attention in the crypto community, with its sly, funny but boring-looking ape tokens making top headlines. According to Many collectors, it is not their image that has given their collection more value, but the culture, social capital, and the wealth of some community owners.
On March 17, 2022, the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s utility and governance token ApeCoin, debuted on the Ethereum network. It offered free tokens to Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) holders. In the meantime, according to site data, nearly 99% of eligible wallets have already claimed their share, with over 132 million tokens valued at 1.8 billion are already claimed.
According to short market analysis, ApecCoin’s price oscillated on both ends of the spectrum, plummeting over 80% to $6.21 levels on its first day of trading before surging back 90% on the second day. At the time, 15% out of 1 billion tokens created were disbursed to respective owners, making many crypto natives speculate about its impact and implication within the Web3 economy.
In recent weeks, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has been highly influencing in accelerating cultural change and non-fungible token (NFT) adoption.
A few weeks after the official launch, ApeCoin is already attracting heated discussion within the crypto community regarding governance protocols, its utility within the metaverse, and its rapid growth in adoption as a universal form of payment in the NFT space.
Community Willpower And Future ApeCoin
By description, ApeDAO is a decentralized autonomous organization that serves as a backbone for ApeCoin. As a governing body, the foundation is responsible for daily administration and projects within the ecosystem. ApeDAO gives APE holders the right to vote on most field proposals that seem best for the community.
Although there are many operating DAOs, ApeDAO could soon become a catalyst for a paradigm shift between consumers and owners in the NFT ecosystem. ApeCoin has the potential to attract large communities, given its incentivizing structure within its DAO.
Despite all these opportunities, which appear more promising, decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) are not the most straightforward layers of decentralization in the non-fungible token ecosystem.
A project may begin as a centralized entity, team, or organization but slowly moves the needle to more decentralized methods of equitable distribution. Nonetheless, this process takes an incredible amount of time, coordination, and active effort from members.
Many DAOs face various challenges, including the code-is-law and lack of active coordination among members. In that case, ApeDAO is not immune either from such challenges. Moreover, ApeDAO faces challenges due to certain Ape Improvements Protocols (AIP).
ApeDAO faces challenges on some proposals tabled by its key investor decentralized gaming platform Animoca Brands. These proposals include AIP-4, which focuses on allocations for staking pools and the three-year duration of its initial staking period AIP-5.
These AIPs showcase the rough terrain of navigating diverse opinions and intentions while narrowing the due process of mutual benefit consensus. According to Animoca, the Ecosystem Fund will fund and distribute 17.5% of the total ApeCoin supply. The staking protocol would also feature various staking pools, making ApeCoin distribution vary on the assets staked.
Apart from its governance functionality, Animoca Brands projects that ApeCoin will become a preferred token of the metaverse. However, to reach this milestone, Animoca Brands has advised more incentivizing participation in staking protocol either through ApeCoin or BAYC ecosystem NFTs.
Meanwhile, more than 10 million APEs worth nearly $150 million are being used to determine these proposals, with both AIPs live for mint. That is the highest price deliberately set to usher newcomers into the metaverse.
Utility Of ApeCoin In The Metaverse
Although ApeCoins do not translate to equity in Yuga Labs, they provide access to the BAYC ecosystem. ApeCoin will also serve as a mode of payment in its highly anticipated metaverse platform, MetaRPG.
In March 2022, Yuga Labs successfully raised $450 million to create and develop its new metaverse. The funding initiative made Yuga Labs’ valuation hit $4 billion. The highly anticipated interoperable world is slated to be fully decentralized and eyes to integrate other gaming studios such as “Otherside” to bring multiplayer online role-playing to real life.
Since the gaming platform “Otherside” is not exclusive to Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs holders, ApeCoin holders can participate and benefit from the play-to-earn game. Yuga Labs is not the creator of ApeCoin. In that context, Nicole Muniz, the CEO of Yuga Labs, maintained that ApeCoin will become the primary token for all upcoming products and services.
Yuga Labs affiliate Bored Ape Yacht Club has already dubbed ApeCoin an NFT monopoly. It asserts that despite its thought leaders, its progress depends on the general health of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection.
In the meantime, ApeCoin has a total market cap of around $3.4 billion, with approximately 169 million out of the 1 billion tokens already in circulation. ApeCoin is over 95% from its all-time low of $6.21, trading above $12.05.
Many traders speculate that ApeCoin price skyrocketed because ApeDAO described it as a token that integrates culture in Web3 through gaming, art, and entertainment. But, culture has played a significant role in integrating NFTs and Web3. BAYC’s cultural importance within the ecosystem has attracted many companies, entities, and merchants looking to join the rapidly evolving NFT space.
