Are you bored yet? By all accounts, many aren’t. Nowhere has both the glamour and the fury around NFTs coalesced as it has around the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Launched only in April of last year, the BAYC is now the premier NFT, and counts among its members Eminem, Serena Williams, Post Malone, alongside a broad church of crypto whales and influencers like Gary Vee and early holders.
The club, unlike many modern NFTs released with ‘star backing’, was – at the nadir of its floor price – a relatively affordable proposition for many in the market, at 0.28 ETH. You could now, with the very ‘worst’ ape of the collection, buy a house. Or two. At time of writing, the floor price is 105 ETH, roughly $370,000.
The entire market cap of these 9,999 apes is a staggering £3.7 billion dollars, placing above Tezos, AAVE and Maker – all major and impressive crypto projects – in total market cap.
Their success has given succour to the NFT market, while also drowning it in copycats. Despite chagrin at these ‘dumb monkey pictures’, they stride like a collosus over the NFT space. The mere whispered presence of a true Bored Ape in an NFT discord can lead to a project’s floor price skyrocketing. Jimmy Fallon, an owner, talks about them on Late Night TV with his celebrity chums. For better or for worse, they are the standard bearers of the NFT market.
So what do they do? These monkey pictures? Some special, to be sure, for them to be worth so much.
Well: They do nothing – nothing at all. Not yet anyway. Right now, they merely denote membership of a very exclusive and very wealthy club. Something that has been, throughout history, very much indeed. And with the ability of blockchain technologies to evolve, the possibilities are so much more.
The thing about NFTs is that utility can be backended. And so, with the launch of APE coin, BAYC’s bespoke token, it is proved. The first headline token of its kind, APE coin was distributed to the holders of the NFTs, with each holder able to claim 10,094 APE tokens per Bored Ape from the website, a dividend of over $150,000 per ape at current prices.
Its launch has been met with furious scepticism from the crypto crowd, many of whom despise the whole NFT phenomenon. This criticism is compounding by accusations that Yuga Labs, the team behind the Bored Apes, are heavily involved, with them receiving 150 million APE. The problem of a classic central corporation like this distributing free ‘shares’ and selling them on the open market does, too, create legal complications. Yet Yuga Labs has been careful and explicit to claim they have zero responsibility over the ape DAO, and it functions independently. They are just taking the profit.
Despite these criticisms, many others see it as heralding a new type of token economy powered by digital identity, and the reason that regulation has no place (yet) is because this is the first consummation of a radically new commercial environment.
ApeCoin’s current use case is to give holders memberships of the ApeDAO. Users can be members of this DAO through APE alone, and do not need to have Bored Ape NFTs. Naturally, the original holders will have significant voting rights if they hold their tokens.
The idea is that the social cachet and marketing clout of the Bored Apes means their use of treasury funds is bound to be exponentially effective. The idea for APE coin is to eventually do so much more, and be used as an integrative payment currency in a variety of Web 3.0 applications. The idea that owning a Bored Ape, or its child coin, will give users a whole range of exclusive access.
Of course, the issue is this is all in the future. The coin is as fledging as they come, but it hasn’t stopped its market cap reaching $3.5 billion and it immediately grabbing a place in the top 50 cryptocurrencies, its launch effectively doubling the market cap of the Bored Apes themselves.
Well, not all in the future. Fashion powerhouse Gucci recently announced that they would accept Ape Coin in select US boutique stores. You could say that ‘it’s all Gucci’ for Ape holders.
That’s the power of an ape with a pretty face. Right now, that social kudos and pretty face is what is powering the value of the token, but if the name cachet sustains, there is no limit to the position the Bored Apes, and the APE coin, will take in the new metaverse.
If you are new to the world of digital assets then getting cryptocurrencies can be a confusing prospect. It may be a bit simpler with the top two Bitcoin or Ethereum, but what about that lesser known Ethereum token, such as APE, that you have heard so much about?
Numio is a great choice for APE. With Numio you can send and receive your stored APE instantly and at the touch of a button. If you want to try something a bit more advanced you can use Numio to trade and swap APE.
Getting APE is easy on Numio. You can use your credit or debit card to purchase APE, you can swap or trade it for other ERC-20 tokens (up to 100x cheaper than other wallets), and you can send or receive it as a payment. Whatever way you choose you can be sure that you are always in full control of your APE.
Buy, sell, trade, earn crypto with DeFi, collect NFTs, and more, while saving you up to 100x on Ethereum fees. Numio gives you more control over your digital assets in one convenient app. Numio can be used pseudonymously, or with an optional zkProof powered identity verification system. All Numio products are non-custodial.
Available on Android and iOS, Numio was the first zkRollup powered mobile payments app to be released on Google Play.
View ApeCoin listed on coinmarketcap.com
View ApeCoin listed on coingecko.com
RT @thrivecoinhq: We're excited to host an AIP-124 Thank APE AMA Friday. You'll learn everything there is to know - with space for question…
RT @Snag_Solutions: It’s been just over a month since our @apecoin marketplace launch, and we’ve been hard at work triaging and addressing…
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