Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continue making waves in mainstream media, with projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) attracting notable investors in the NFT space. In this regard, several prominent names in Hollywood are now proud owners of Bored Ape NFTs avatars. This move has made the interest and prices of Bored Ape NFTs soar.
Notably, the success of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has sparked the formation of a new non-fungible token ecosystem powered by its native token, ApeCoin, which has amassed massive traction in recent weeks.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Overview
Bored Ape Yacht Club is an Ethereum-based non-fungible token collection created by a renowned Web3 marketing firm Yuga Labs. The firm envisioned making an NFT collection featuring only 10,000 verifiable Bored Ape digital collectibles.
Fortunately, the successful NFT incorporated many different arts from more than 170 traits. The Bored Ape Yacht used some of those traits to create a variety of Bored Ape avatars.
Bored Ape Yacht Club successfully went live in April 2021, with its pre-sale of 10,000 digitally verifiable Bored Ape NFTs avatars selling for 0.08 Ether, worth roughly $190, at the time. Interestingly, all the 10,000 NFTs sold in just one week, leaving latecomers without any other option but to purchase Bored Ape off NFT platforms like OpenSea.
Digitally verifiable Bored Ape NFTs also serve as membership cards to the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, giving members additional benefits. Bored Ape Yacht Club has already attracted notable Hollywood A-listers and several NBA top players, forking out large sums of money to acquire BAYC NFTs.
Among the big-name celebrities, who now own Bored Ape avatars, include Justin Bieber, Eminem, Paris Hilton, Snoop Dogg, and Post Malone. Participation of these celebrities has made BAYC NFTs soar in value in recent weeks.
In September 2021, its success overflowed to convectional markets, with a renowned auctioneer Sotheby selling a collection of BAYC NFTs for $24.39 million. The cheapest Bored Ape on the NFT marketplace, OpenSea, costs around 85 wrapped Ether which translates to roughly $250,000.
Following a successful flash sale of 10,000 BAYC NFTs, Yuga Lab created the Mutant Ape Yacht and Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs. The project airdropped Mutant Serums to BAYC NFT holders, which allowed them to mutate their Bored Ape into Mutant Ape NFTs. At the time, BAYC owners could successfully sell their Serums on the official marketplace for the mutation-inducing NFT serums Bored Ape Chemistry Club.
Moreover, the Yuga Labs gave BAYC and MAYC holders seven working days to claim a unique Shiba Inu-inspired dog NFT during the official launch of Kennel Club in June 2021.
At the time, the team created each Kennel NFT from more than 170 traits. Owners successfully sold their Kennel Club NFTs, with 2.5% of generated revenue on OpenSea donated to non-profit organization Real-World Animal Shelters.
ApeCoin
While Bored Ape Yacht Club continues gaining traction and slowly turning into an exclusive membership ecosystem, the team behind its development has turned its attention to creating a decentralized autonomous organization (ApeCoin DAO) that will serve as the backbone for the rapidly growing community.
The Ape Foundation serves as a base layer for the ApeCoin DAO, responsible for daily administration and project management within the ecosystem. Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem pays Ape Foundation expenses as per direction from the DAO. ApeCoin DAO acts as the infrastructure through which ApeCoin holders can participate in governance decision-making.
ApeCoin is an Ethereum-based non-fungible token utilized for governance and transactions within the Ape ecosystem. ApeCoin lets holders participate in decision-making in ApeCoin DAO, transact with other participants and gain access to exclusive services such as gaming events and items.
Data acquired from its website confirms that Yuga Labs has a supply cap of ApeCoin at 1 billion tokens. The project will gradually unlock these tokens within a 48-month window.
The ecosystem airdropped 150 million APE tokens to BAYC and MAYC holders while it allocated another 450 million for DAO treasury and General resources within the ecosystem. 117.5 million Tokens were initially unlocked, while the remaining 7,343,750 APE will be gradually unlocked monthly over four years.
Yuga Labs received the 150 million tokens, which have a 12-month lock-up before the scheduled 4.1 million tokens are unlocked monthly for three years. According to Yuga Labs, 6% of the total holding will go to Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation.
Additionally, the project allocated 140 million tokens to launch contributors, with different minting schedules. All four Yuga Labs founders and BAYC founders will share 80 million Ape tokens. These allocation tokens have a 12-month lock-up but will unlock at 2.2 million Ape tokens monthly for 36 months.
ApeDrop
The successful ApeCoin token airdrop took place on April 17, 2021, with different APE tokens allocated to BAYC and MAYC holders and bonus amounts for Kennel Club members. At the time, BAYC NFT holders received 10,094 APE, while Mutant Ape holders received 2,042 tokens.
BAYC holders with Kennel club collectibles received 10,950 APE, while Kennel Club NFT holders received 2,898 APE tokens. During the launch, the APE token was $39.40 per token before plummeting to $6 per token during the first day of trading.
The price of ApeCoin had soared high to $17.75 the day after its launch before gradually moving down over the next few days. Nonetheless, ApeCoin appeared to gain an uptrend toward the end of March this year, oscillating around $13 and $14.
The indisputable success of the BAYC NFT project in its early days and the broad ecosystem has attracted the interest of the ApeCoin token surge since its launch. Yuga Labs announced that it had completed its $450 million funding round barely five days after the Ape launch. The company now has a market valuation of $4 billion in April 2022.
Yuga Labs is now one of the largest ever made NFT-oriented firms. In this regard, the participation of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz in the funding round suggests that it has already recognized the success and the potential of Yuga Labs to grow further.
The NFT marketing firm has also acquired the intellectual property rights to the highly successful NFT projects “CryptoPunks” and “Meebits” from Larva Labs this month. Yuga Labs is now aiming at expanding its ecosystem and integrating interoperability between different projects.
Meanwhile, with the combination of all factors playing a significant role in the spotlight on the Bored Ape ecosystem, the growing interest in ApeCoin and various non-fungible token projects under the Yuga Labs is likely to continue in 2022.
