decrypt.co
In recent weeks, pressure in the NFT space has weighed on prominent collections of profile pictures (PFPs) like the Bored Ape Yacht Club. And that stress may have spilled over to ApeCoin (APE) too.
The crypto token associated with Yuga Labs’ namesake collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs has fallen 15% over the past 14 days, scraping past an all-time low of $1.85 on Friday, according to CoinGecko.
As the NFT market struggles to find its footing again, ApeCoin continues to decline. Bored Ape NFTs have recovered $10,000 from recent, multi-year lows in terms of floor price, or the price of the cheapest NFT listed for sale from a collection. But ApeCoin came within two cents short of a newfound bottom on Monday following Friday's fresh low.
The Ethereum-based ApeCoin made its sizzling debut in March 2022, and not long after it launched, the simian-centered token surged to an all-time high of $26.70 in April. At that time, it reached a market cap of close to $7.6 billion dollars. ApeCoin is now down nearly 93% from that peak, as of this writing.
Bored Ape NFTs hit a peak minimum price of $429,000 or 152 ETH that same month, bolstered by celebrity owners who bore Bored Apes as digital status symbols and visions of Yuga Labs’ ambitious Otherside metaverse game. Since then, Bored Ape prices have fallen as low as about $52,000 worth of ETH, on July 2.
ApeCoin is an integral element of Yuga Labs’ Otherside, serving as the standard currency for its virtual world. In late March, 7,200 so-called Voyagers participated in the Otherside’s second playtest, which showed off a brief taste of the upcoming game.
The token was adopted by Yuga Labs after it was launched by the ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, where community members—Bored Ape holders included—can shape initiatives on matters like projects and rules.
Serving as the token’s “steward,” according to its website, the APE Foundation acts as the DAO’s day-to-day administrator. New members were voted into the foundation’s special counsel last week, filling seats left by Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
When ApeCoin launched, Bored Ape holders could claim a preset allotment of tokens. Those who held NFTs from the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, a follow-up collection from Yuga, could do so as well.
While ApeCoin’s price is near all-time lows, the token's current market cap of around $700 million mirrors the total value of tokens used in other metaverse projects. This includes The Sandbox’s SAND ($769 million) and Decentraland’s MANA ($699 million), according to CoinGecko.