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Non-fungible tokens have been the hottest trend in 2021. They saw global recognition, mainstream adoption, and overall acceptance in and out of the cryptocurrency industry.
The astronomic surge in popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) led to a massive demand (and an even higher supply) of various collections, each one with its intricacies and perks.
Undoubtedly, one of the most popular NFT collections, which even became the most expensive in terms of floor price as of writing this in January 2022, is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
In this editorial, we will take a closer look into the BAYC collection, why it is so popular, what’s the most expensive Ape sold on the market, and which celebrities have been endorsing it so far.
What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a club unlike any other. It’s a virtual lounge reserved only for its members, and there will never be more than 10,000.
Why 10,000? You might ask.
Well, in essence, BAYC is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs. These represent unique digital collectibles built on top of Ethereum’s blockchain. Each Bored Ape also gives its owner membership to the club and grants access to some benefits that are dedicated to the selected few.
This is how some of the NFTs look like:
Each NFT has its unique traits such as clothing, headwear, expression, and more. Just as other NFTs on Ethereum, these are stored as ERC-721 tokens.
As of writing these lines, they have grown to become the most popular profile picture (PFP) NFT project, and multiple celebrities have already bought and used them for this exact purpose, but more on this later.
Why do people buy Bored Apes?
One of the perks of owning a Bored Ape NFT is access to the so-called bathroom which is essentially a virtual hangout place with a canvas that’s accessible only to wallets that contain at least one ape. This is where owners can draw, write expletives, or do whatever they see fit. Every ape-holder is allowed to paint a pixel on the bathroom wall every fifteen minutes. Essentially, buying an ape NFT makes the owner a member of an exclusive club that has a membership cap.
In addition, owning a high-prized NFT and one that’s recognized within a community is much like buying a valuable painting. Its value is derived from the subjective worth of what it means for the owner himself. And remember – each Bored Ape NFT is completely unique, and there will never be a second one like it.
Last but not least, some of the users who buy these NFTs look at them as an investment. There’s a finite supply of them on the market, and as they might continue growing, they could also get more expensive, thus becoming a worthwhile investment. So far, as of writing this in January 2022, this has proven to be the case.
Who Created BAYC?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club was launched by anonymous developers that go by the pseudonyms Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and No Sass. There’s also an entity that took responsibility for the creation of BAYC called Yuga Labs.
The story of BAYC is actually quite interesting. On April 23rd, Gordon Goner – one of the project’s creators, announced the pre-sale launch on Discord. The announcement itself was met with almost no reactions.
Only about a few hundred apes during the week and, it’s worth noting, that their owners hadn’t yet seen their NFTs and how they looked. On April 30th, the reveal happened, and once people saw the art, the collection spread like wildfire, and all apes were sold a day later at a price of 0.08ETH each. 30 apes were saved for the team members, giveaways, and promotions.
How do Bored Ape NFTs Look Like?
As mentioned above, each ape is provably unique, scarce, and impossible to replicate. This is part of their inherent worth of being non-fungible tokens.
One can imagine that there’s a variety of outlooks, so below is a brief example of some:
What Makes the BAYC a Unique and Revolutionary NFT Collection?
Besides the provable and verifiable uniqueness of each NFT, the Bored Ape Yacht Club, as a project, is also interesting because of a few other attributes.
Right off the bat, the project launched with a detailed roadmap from the start. The relatable attributes for the Bored Apes also managed to make them perfect for online avatars and grew to become the biggest PFP project.
The number of unique owners is also quite enough for a relatively strong NFT community. In addition, owners get the rights to use the Bored Apes commercially – something that’s critical for the future development of the project.
There’s already a very strong community centered around BAYC, and it grows each day. This is also because a considerable number of celebrities have jumped on board, which brings us to our next point.
Which Celebrities Bought Bored Ape NFTs?
Undoubtedly, the most famous person who has purchased a Bored Ape NFT and used it for their Twitter profile picture (PFP) is Marshall Mathers, better-known for his stage name – Eminem.
As CryptoPotato reported, the rap icon bought his ape for a whopping $462,000.
Other celebrities who are known to own Bored Ape NFTs include Snoop Dogg, NBA superstar Stephen Curry, Jimmy Fallon, and so forth.
BAYC’s ROI and How Much a Bored Ape Costs Today
Bored Apes are likely to be amongst the NFTs that brought the most disproportionate returns to early owners. As mentioned above, they were minted at a price of 0.08 ETH each in April 2021.
At the time of this writing – January 2022, the floor price on OpenSea sits at 77.99 ETH, which is a return of almost 100,000%.
While many apes sold for six and even seven figures, the most expensive one seems to be Bored Ape #3749. It sold for 740 ETH, worth around $2.9 million at the time of the purchase. This is how it looks like:
There are other notable mentions here, including Bored Ape #2087, which sold for $2.3 million, Bored Ape $8585 – sold for $2.67 million, Bored Ape #7090 – sold for $2.27 million, and so forth.
How to Buy Bored Ape NFTs?
As mentioned above, Bored Ape NFTs were first minted at a price of 0.08 ETH each, but that was only available for a short period of time upon the project’s launch. Now, the only way to buy them is on secondary marketplaces, and the most popular one is OpenSea.
To buy a Bored Ape NFT, you would have to visit OpenSea and connect your MetaMask wallet. Once there, find the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection in the search bar, and you can start browsing. This is how the dashboard looks like:
Once you select the ape that you want to buy, you need to click on the image which will take you to a separate window where you can place your bid:
If the seller accepts your bid, the NFT will be transferred to your address.
Safety tip: make sure to connect your MetaMask through a hardware wallet like a Trezor or Ledger. Bored Ape NFTs are particularly expensive, at least at the time of this writing in January 2022, and there have been many cases where owners have been scammed and got their apes stolen. You should also follow some general security tips to make sure that your crypto is stored properly.
Mutant Apes and the Kennel Club: Exclusive to BAYC Members
Beyond owning a verifiably scarce NFT, Bored Ape owners are also exposed to other benefits. More specifically, back in June 2021, the BAYC team introduced the Bored Ape Kennel Club. Bored Ape NFT owners were given the opportunity, for a limited period of one week only, to “adopt” a club dog NFT from the Bored Ape Kennel Club.
At the time, claiming the token was free and all members had to do was to pay for the gas fees. The Kennel NFTs were not put up for sale, so the only way to mint one was to own a Bored Ape NFT.
This is how the Kennels look like:
At the time of writing this guide, the Bored Ape Kennel Club collection on NFT has a floor price of 6 ETH.
But that’s not all.
Later on, in August, the team introduced another collection of 20,000 Mutant Apes in the form of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. The drop took place on August 20th, and the community was nothing short of ecstatic.
Mutant apes were created in one of two ways: either expose a Bored Ape NFT to a special Mutant Serum or mint a Mutant Ape directly during the public sale. These are the last tier of the BAYC membership and part of the team’s Roadmap 1.0. The Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection on OpenSea currently has a floor price of 14.75 ETH.
This is how they look like:
The Future of the Bored Ape Yacht Club
A large part of the project’s roadmap has already been completed, but part of the reasons for which BAYC became so popular is the constant team effort to discover new avenues.
In 2021, a very popular trend that emerged and took the market by storm was the play-to-earn phenomenon.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club has teamed up with one of the leading entities in the field of P2E – Animoca Brands, in a bid to develop a play-to-earn blockchain-based game.
Speaking on the partnership was a spokesperson from Yuga Labs who said:
“We’re excited to work with Animoca Brands to grow the BAYC universe and expand the utility and benefits offered to all Bored Ape NFT holders.”
All in all, the project seems to be undergoing regular developments while the community is growing as ape owners have the commercial rights to their NFTs, and it’s in their best interest to constantly move forward.