Source: OpenSea
If you’re at all interested in the NFT space (or maybe even if you’re not), then it’s likely you’ve heard about the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collectible, or BAYC. It has become one of the most successful and highly-prized NFT series in the market, rising from a mint price of 0.08 ETH to a floor price currently selling at 85 ETH or about $245,185.
Currently sitting at a market cap of 850,000.0 ETH, or over $2.4 billion, BAYC has become one of the largest NFT projects of its kind, flipping CryptoPunks to claim the third-best ranking spot on OpenSea as of the time of this writing.
With such an impressive feat, the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT, just like the rest of the NFT community, has shown a new focus on utility for NFTs rather than mere collectability.
That being said, let us delve into the world of Bored Ape Yacht Club, what it is, and what to expect.
What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT is a collection of 10,000 unique digital apes living in the Ethereum blockchain and was officially released around April 2021 by the creator Yuga Labs. Each ape avatar is an ERC-721 NFT designed with unique traits and attributes: the mouth, hat, fur, clothes, eyes, background, and facial expressions.
Each of these avatars is different from the others and is ranked based on their rarity with its own traits and attributes. Hence, the rarest styles and looks are often traded at a higher price.
But what makes the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT such a huge mainstream hit?
The history behind Bored Ape Yacht Club’s success
There are quite a number of things that work together to make Bored Ape Yacht Club or any other NFT collection valuable. In BAYC’s case, its success largely hinges on three key things: celebrity or influencer endorsement, utility to member club, and the overall strength of the community.
Even at that, one cannot deny the fact that there’s a connection between Bored Ape Yacht Club’s accomplishment and the project vision of its four pseudonym founders: Emperor Tomato Ketchup, No Sass, Gargamel, and Gordon Goner.
From the initial minting stage around April 2021, BAYC’s creators designed innovative lines of NFTs, which allows for NFT upgrades, access to a new free NFT, and an all-exclusive club for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders, amongst some other perks.
Talk about utility. The founders allow Bored Ape Yacht Club members to create a breed out of their NFTs to create Bored Ape Yacht Club Mutant Apes. The creators also formed the Bored Ape Kennel Club that allows owners to adopt a look-alike dog NFT that can mimic their Bored Apes.
Currently, both of these collections are selling for high prices. It becomes easy to see the benefits of joining the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
BAYC’s business community is built around like-minded individuals looking to make Bored Ape Yacht Club a status symbol. The community has organized meet-up events and get-togethers at strategic regions in the US (including New York, Atlanta, Los Angelis, California) and other countries in Hong Kong and the UK.
In one recent event, Ape Fest 2021, members are seen gathered in numbers, wearing branded sweatshirts to show off their membership. The event featured an actual yacht party and a concert attracting notable comedians like Chris Rock, Aziz Ansari, the American rock band The Strokes, and others.
Undoubtedly, these developments are the major moving vehicle that has kept people’s interest in the project. In fact, according to Sotheby’s, one rare Bored Ape #8817 pictured below was sold for a record $3.4 million.
The current state of Bored Ape Yacht Club
Earlier, we mentioned that celebrities played a key role in bringing success to the Bored Ape Yacht Club project. At the current state, a growing number of celebrities worldwide are ‘aping’ into Bored Ape Yacht Club. From entertainment to sports, to business and beyond.
This is not surprising since an NFT can be a receipt of proof of ownership, especially for digital items. That means that Bored Ape NFT owners can spin their apes into whatever media projects they want: film, music, TV, or book.
For instance, in November 2021, McNelis and Universal Music Group (UMG) ‘s record label 10:22PM made a band collection that includes four of his Bored Ape NFTs. They nicknamed it ‘Kingship.’ UMG described itself as a Web3-focused music industry envisioned to convert digital NFTs into media properties.
Universal Music Group is not alone in this. Already, a growing number of celebrity influencers, including the likes of DJ Khaled, Steph Curry, Post Malone, Timbaland, and many more, are proud owners of a Bored Ape NFT.
Timbaland, his entertainment company, Ape-In Productions, announced that his metaverse company would work to discover and amplify artists who own a Bored Ape NFT.
Take a look at selected few out of the biggest celebrities that now own at least one Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT.
#1 – Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon, an American TV host popularly known for hosting “The Tonight Show,” aped into Bored Ape Yacht Club after revealing his new Bored Ape #599 NFT gem to his over 51 million Twitter followers.
Imagine what this means for the Bored Ape Yacht Club project: A whooping 51 million followers could develop interests in the NFT collection or be made aware of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT potential.
Jimmy purchased his NFT around $224,000 worth of ETH in early November 2021. But as it seems, Jimmy is not done yet after mentioning that he’ll consider branching into Bored Ape Yacht Club Mutant Apes as well.
#2 – Eminem
Marshall Mathers, popularly known as Eminem, is one of the latest heavyweight celebrities to join the Bored Ape Yacht Club, buying his Bored Ape #9055 NFT on OpenSea at the end of December 2021. Interestingly, the rapper made a good choice by going for an Ape with his resemblance that looks much like him at the price of $462,000 worth of ETH.
The avatar is seen wearing a brown military-style hat, similar to the one the rapper is fond of wearing in real life. The ape also puts on identical golden hip-hop clothing, a gold neck chain with a dazed facial expression.
A Twitter user named GeeGazza had earlier touted that Eminem is destined to buy his NFT one day. About a month later, his dream became a reality after tweeting an appreciation message, where he thanked Eminem for buying his ape.
#3 – Neymar Jr.
For those following Neymar Jr. closely on social media, seeing him ape into Bored Ape Yacht Club shouldn’t come as a surprise. The football sensation has been a true NFT enthusiast and has disclosed his plan to launch his digital collections in collaboration with NFTStar.
On January 20, he uploaded a new Twitter profile picture to reveal his new Bored Ape #6633 NFT acquisition. This was worth some 159.99 ETH (or $388,337).
But the goal scorer is not done shooting into the ‘ape’ net yet. Two days later, he acquired another Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT: Bored Ape #5269. He posted it on his Instagram page commanding over 3.3 million likes in the space of two days. The second acquisition costs him 189.69 ETH (or $460,426).
Combined, Neymar Jr. had spent a total of 349.68 ETH at the equivalent of over $1 million when he bought them.
#4 – Snoop Dogg
Snoop Dogg, a rap superstar, and businessman, had been a huge fan of NFTs and crypto in general. He had been way ahead of many of his collectors, and he wasn’t lying when he said on one of his tweets: “When I APE in I APE all the way in!!,”
True to his words, in December 2021, the rapper aped in hard to acquire his own Bored Ape NFT via MoonPay. Alongside it, he bought a correspondent Bored Ape Kennel Club and two Bored Ape Yacht Club Mutant Apes to complement his collection.
#5 – Future
A simple tweet: ‘gm’ accompanied with a yawning gray-fur ape putting on sea captain’s cap with a red robe is all that Future posted to introduce his expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club avatar.
On November 28, the celebrated rapper purchased Bored Ape # 4672 at nearly $223,000 worth of ETH. Like DJ Khaled, Snoop Dogg, and others who aped on the BAYC list, Future secured his NFT with MoonPay as the payment partner.
Bored Ape Yacht Club: Future Projection and Expectation
Beyond NFT, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is looking to expand outside the blockchain. With both Universal Music Group and producer Timbaland turning Bored Apes into virtual music groups, plus plans to bring the brand across the entertainment world, Bored Apes could soon become ubiquitous—with celebrity holders helping to lead that charge.
A pointer towards a positive future is seeing Bored Ape Yacht Club integrating into the fashion world. Adidas Originals is launching an NFT collection and looking into metaverse to represent its physical and digital products. This move from Adidas is in collaboration with several NFT brands, with Bored Ape Yacht Club at the front row of their decision.
Since metaverse is now considered a crucial next phase of the internet Web3 environment, it’s never far from reality that Bored Ape Yacht Club will flow along with the tide, not just as a catch-up competitor to other NFT brands but as a pace-setter and a major contributor.
Conclusion
It is safe to say that the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection has propelled itself into a mainstream brand through the constant celebrity engagements, even outside of Crypto and NFTs.
This serves as a benchmark for future NFT and related projects. Most importantly, it shows the potential of what an NFT project can do, especially in the licensing world.