Key points
- APE is one of the largest NFT ecosystems, encompassing well-known non-fungible-token collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and the Otherside metaverse.
- ApeCoin (APE) is the ecosystem’s native token. It is issued on the Ethereum blockchain.
- The lead developer of APE is the American company Yuga Labs.
How the APE ecosystem came about
The project began with an NFT collection called Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), released in spring 2021. The BAYC creators styled themselves as Yuga Labs, and its members remained anonymous from the outset. Only their nicknames were listed on the website: Gargamel, Gorgon Goner Emperor, Tomato Ketchup and No Sass.
The collection launched on Ethereum and was an instant hit: all 10,000 “ape” tokens sold out in just 12 hours. Thereafter BAYC’s profile—and the prices of its digital items—kept rising.
The names of some founders emerged only in winter 2022. A BuzzFeed investigation indicated that the person behind Gargamel was American resident Greg Solano, while Gorgon Goner Emperor was his friend, Wylie Aronow. In an interview with the outlet both described themselves as “literary geeks”.
Solano and Aronow said they devised the concept and even the storyline of the collection. It is 2031. Those who invested in crypto at the industry’s dawn have become very rich—and bored. They while away the future at an atmospheric yacht club, where anyone can create a digital identity in NFT form to be that “relaxed ape”.
The lead BAYC designer was an artist known online as All Seeing Seneca, who created the defining traits—eyes, smile, chin. The remaining elements were drawn, fed into an algorithm and used to generate 10,000 unique, albeit similar, images.
The identities of Tomato Ketchup and No Sass remain undisclosed. They were brought in last as developers and later made co-founders.
After its initial success, BAYC imagery became a pop-culture symbol. Since then Yuga Labs has launched two more NFT collections and, in 2022, raised substantial funding, issued the ApeCoin token and unveiled the Otherside metaverse.
How much do “bored apes” cost?
The first “apes” could be bought for the equivalent of just $190 in ETH, but prices climbed almost immediately after mint. Celebrities and major brands took notice, sharply boosting the collection’s popularity—and therefore its value.
For example, in October 2021 a token from the collection sold for $2.7m; a month later another BAYC image fetched $1.4m.
In September 2021 a single “ape” cost around 25 ETH ($60,000); by January 2022 the price had risen to 84 ETH ($200,000), and the entire Bored Ape Yacht Club collection was valued at $1bn.
By late April 2022 the floor price of a BAYC NFT had already topped $400,000.
Why are BAYC NFTs so expensive?
At least three factors help explain the lofty prices.
Recognition among wealthy investors
Celebrities and brands snapped up the NFTs quickly. The tokens carry high cachet in the art-business milieu. In September 2021 Sotheby’s sold more than 100 BAYC NFTs for over $24m. Celebrities have been active buyers.
Cult status
The “bored ape” motif became ubiquitous across crypto. Many users still sport images from the collection as their social-media avatars.
Utility
Holders get access to a kind of private club. Yuga Labs organises events for token owners, including business lunches and music concerts. Some holders say they also gain access to private chats where affluent investors mingle and share information.
Which celebrities own BAYC NFTs?
Numerous “ape” deals have involved well-known artists and entertainers as buyers:
- Madonna — purchase amount 180 ETH ($432,000);
- Justin Bieber — purchase amount 166 ETH ($398,000);
- Eminem — 123.45 ETH ($450,000).
Known holders (current or former) also include rapper Wiz Khalifa, producer Timbaland, singer and model Paris Hilton, TV host Jimmy Fallon and other celebrities.
What is the Otherside metaverse?
In March 2022 Yuga Labs announced a metaverse called Otherside and launched the ecosystem’s native token, ApeCoin (APE). The developers also released a project teaser.
Plots of virtual land in Otherside were later offered for sale—each priced at 305 APE. However, detailed information about the metaverse’s user features and capabilities is not yet available.
Yuga Labs plans to roll out developer tools soon, including kits for building mini-games as well as NFTs and their components. These are intended to flesh out Otherside.
In addition, Yuga Labs’ partner is Animoca Brands, the company behind another prominent metaverse, The Sandbox. It is possible the two digital worlds and their NFTs will be compatible.
What is the ApeCoin (APE) token for?
ApeCoin (APE) is the ecosystem’s governance token, usable for various operations in the Otherside metaverse. APE’s supply is capped at 1bn tokens.
Part of the APE supply was distributed via an airdrop. Its price jumped rapidly after launch, but then fell by 30% immediately after sales of “digital land” in Otherside began. The drop was attributed to a wave of user backlash over Ethereum congestion amid the Otherside frenzy. Yuga Labs then pledged to move the APE ecosystem to its own blockchain.
ApeCoin is intended as Otherside’s currency, usable to trade not only land but any digital items in the metaverse.
APE also grants voting rights in the DAO. Holders can help steer the project’s development, influence ecosystem-fund allocations, change rules, oversee partnerships and more.
ApeCoin also funds the APE Foundation, which executes the decentralised organisation’s decisions. Its work is coordinated by a special five-member council, rotated every six months via tokenholder vote.
The initial APE Foundation council comprised:
- Reddit co-founder Alex Ohanian;
- head of FTX’s venture arm Amy Wu;
- Sound Ventures principal Maaria Bajwa;
- Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu;
- Horizen Labs president Dean Steinbeck.
In early May 2022 the ApeCoin DAO approved three proposals at once.
Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus criticised the creators of the APE ecosystem. In his words, such tokens quickly surge in popularity and then just as quickly fall, which creates the wrong associations.
“Sorry, I’m not a fan of ApeCoin, mainly because I think it harms the NFT segment. Token communities tend to be hyper-toxic and reckless,” he wrote.
What other NFT collections are in the APE ecosystem?
Beyond BAYC, Yuga Labs has released two more NFT collections:
- Mutant Ape Yacht Club — a collection of 20,000 “mutant ape” NFTs. Initially all BAYC holders received 10,000 “serums”, which were used to create unique “mutants”.
- Bored Ape Kennel Club — tokens with images of “dogs”, which all BAYC owners could claim by paying only the minting fee.
In March 2022 Yuga Labs also acquired the rights to other renowned NFT collections—CryptoPunks and Meebits.