The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a well-known series of NFT profile images created on the Ethereum blockchain.
They normally sell for tens of thousands of dollars, and an increasing number of high-profile celebrities are purchasing NFTs.
NFT avatars exploded in 2021, fetching up to millions of dollars per picture for collection and usage on social media, generating billions of dollars in aggregate trading volume in the process.
CryptoPunks are the first Ethereum NFTs, having been founded in 2017—long before anybody outside of crypto enthusiasts was aware of or interested about provably rare digital collectibles. But, among the more recent crop of CryptoPunk-inspired ventures, none is greater than Bored Ape Yacht Club.
According to CryptoSlam statistics, Bored Ape NFTs have already generated more over $750 million in trade volume, including later variation sets. They are also becoming the Twitter NFT avatar of choice for athletes, entertainers, and others. Purchasing a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT allows entry to the eponymous “club,” and membership offers advantages.
What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club all about?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club, created by Yuga Labs, is a collection of 10,000 profile photographs minted as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. An NFT, or non-fungible token, functions as a digital item’s deed of ownership, allowing purchasers to verify that they hold the one-and-only form of that picture. Buyers in this scenario possess an illustration of a bored-looking monkey with randomly produced qualities and accessories. There are no two photographs that are exactly identical.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is not alone in this regard; various NFT profile pic (PFP) collections, such as World of Women and Cool Cats, have recently emerged. However, the Bored Apes have a devoted following of collectors, and there are rewards.
What makes them so unique?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club, as the name implies, is promoted as an elite club or social organisation, and having one of the coveted NFTs grants access to that membership. It grants customers access to a private Discord server, for example, where fellow owners, including celebrities, may hang out and talk. And apes prefer to congregate on social media, where the increasingly recognisable avatars have formed a sort of digital fraternity.
Perhaps more crucially, possessing a Bored Ape NFT grants you access to more NFT collections, which can be resold for potentially large sums of money. Yuga Labs first provided free Bored Ape Kennel Club canine NFTs to Bored Ape owners, and then provided free “mutant serum” NFTs that created a Mutant Ape Yacht Club picture. It’s almost as if you’re paying a one-time charge for a recurring subscription plan for NFTs and privileges.
How to Purchase Bored Apes:
Secondary marketplaces, most notably OpenSea, sell Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. To buy a Bored Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape Kennel Club, or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT on OpenSea, go to the project page for each and browse the whole collection.
Some may be posted for sale at a predetermined price, while others may be auctioned off. To acquire an NFT on the site, you will need an Ethereum wallet, such as MetaMask, as well as enough ETH to cover both the purchase price and the Ethereum gas transaction charge.
In the future:
Bored Ape Yacht Club is likely the most well-known profile photo NFT collection, competing with CryptoPunks for first place. For the first time in December 2021, the floor price of Bored Apes inverted that of CryptoPunks, indicating a shift in attitude toward the opposing NFT projects.
Yuga Labs launched 10,000 new Mutant Apes for 3 ETH, in addition to offering existing Bored Ape owners a “mutant serum” to mint a free Mutant Ape NFT. The full set sold out in less than an hour in late August 2021, netting $96 million.
A rising number of important persons have begun to use Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs as their social media avatars. Stephen Curry, a three-time NBA champion, purchased one for $180,000 in Ethereum in August 2021, joining a roster of athletes that includes other NBA stars Josh Hart and Tyree Haliburton, as well as NFL superstars Dez Bryant and Von Miller. Apes is also owned by musicians such as Eminem, Steve Aoki, and Timbaland.
Brands have followed suit; Arizona Iced Tea purchased a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT in August 2021 and utilised it in marketing materials. Yuga Labs, on the other hand, told Decrypt that while the drink company can use the picture of the NFT it owns, using the official Bored Apes logo was “inappropriate.”
Adidas purchased a Bored Ape in December 2021 as part of a larger metaverse effort that included the release of a comic starring the character. More similar agreements are on the way; in October 2021, Bored founders Yuga Labs agreed to develop the brand into other entertainment mediums with renowned music manager Guy Oseary. A month later, Universal Music Group launched Kingship, a Gorillaz-inspired “virtual band” comprised of bored apes.
Twitter adopted NFT profile image verification for members of its Twitter Blue subscription service in January 2022, giving PFP NFTs a significant boost. The change, which emphasised certified NFT photos with a hexagonal border and provided a link to the NFT on OpenSea, operated as a rebuttal to the oft-repeated claim that NFTs may be “right-clicked” and copied. However, it rapidly became polarising among the Twitter community, indicating a lengthy and rocky road to general acceptance and implementation of NFTs.
Bored Apes have also been the target of a number of high-profile phishing attacks and exploits; in December 2021, one user famously tweeted “all my apes gone” after falling victim to a phishing attack, while in January 2022, an exploit on NFT marketplace OpenSea allowed one user to buy a number of NFTs, including Bored Apes, for tens of thousands of dollars less than the floor price.
The difficulty for Bored Apes will be to keep one step ahead of the competition; in December 2021, Yuga Labs announced a deal with Animoca Brands to develop a play-to-earn crypto game, jumping on the newest crypto bandwagon.
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Conclusion:
With new PFP series emerging on a daily basis and fashion trends coming and going, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s status as the celebrity NFT of choice might be challenged. However, for the time being, Bored Apes are at the top of the PFP heap.
