Bored Ape Yacht Club creator raises $450 million at $4 billion valuation

The company behind the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) raised $450 million in a funding round valuing the company at $4 billion.

It was led by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz with participation from Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, MoonPay and others.

The funds will be used to scale the team and finance future developments, including the Otherside metaverse.

According to The Verge, Yuga Labs plans to create a fully decentralized gamified MMORPG world.

Earlier, the company released a teaser for Otherside with characters from BAYC, CryptoPunks and Meebits. Yuga Labs acquired the rights to the latter on March 12.

Otherside plans to release in April 2022 with the participation of blockchain game publisher Animoca Brands — owner of the popular virtual world The Sandbox.

On March 17, Yuga Labs launched ApeCoin trading, which will become the primary asset not only for the NFT project ecosystem but also for the company’s future products. Among BAYC, MAYC and BAKC NFT holders, 150 million APE were distributed.

According to NFT marketplace OpenSea, trading volume of BAYC tokens surged by 260% in the last 7 days. The increases for MAYC and BAKC stood at 255% and 433%, respectively.

Earlier, the co‑founder of the meme cryptocurrency Dogecoin, Billy Markus, said that ApeCoin harms the NFT segment.

TIME magazine will begin accepting payment in APE for digital subscriptions in the coming weeks.

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