The World’s Biggest NFT Project Just Made a Cryptocurrency

Bored Ape Yacht Club, the NFT project that has permeated culture everywhere from Discord chat rooms to Jimmy Kimmel, has expanded into launching their own cryptocurrency. In the 24 hours since it’s released, it’s seen a 140% return and rise to a $1.8 billion marketcap (at the time of writing).

Chart via CoinGecko

What is Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Bored Ape Yacht Club is an NFT project that has quickly risen to primacy in the space. It’s floor-price for an Ape is about $240,000 USD (TechCrunch), it’s parent company has been in talks to raise money from silicon valley venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz for $5 billion, and just this week, it acquired the second largest NFT project, Cryptopunks.

The World’s Biggest NFT Project Just Made a Cryptocurrency

Why has this NFT project risen to prominence in a space notorious for predatory scams? BAYC has consistently made investments to promise a future far beyond ownership of a JPEG. Access to social events, partnerships with Adidas and coin offerings promise that the utility of their NFT ecosystem will only grow.

What is ApeCoin?

BAYC’s first move outside of NFTs has arrived. The Ethereum-based coin was released yesterday at a $6.21 low and peaked early this morning at $17.17 (at the time of writing this, in all likelihood, the next few days will be incredibly volatile for the coin).

The coin sits at the 64th largest marketcap on Coingeko with a $1.8 billion marketcap.

With that said, the SEC has been know to aggressively crack-down on deregulated securities campaigns. To avoid potential legal fallout, Bored Ape’s parent company, Yuga Labs, has created a separate entity to run and maintain the coin. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, FTX’s Amy Qu, and other prominent player in Silicon Valley will run an organization called ApeCoin DAO.

While complex actions have been taken to make ApeCoin legal, there is no guarantee the SEC will not set their sights on ApeCoin in the coming months.

Does ApeCoin have utility?

As of this morning, ApeCoin’s first practical application launched. BetOnline.ag, an online casino and sports betting platform, has accepted ApeCoin as a means of payment on their website.

The long-term vision for the Ape ecosystem is to partner with video game creators to make play-to-earn games, where gamers can be paid in ApeCoin to complete missions while wearing Ape NFT skins. Read about some of our thoughts on the Metaverse here.

What Does ApeCoin Say about The Future of NFTs?

I have very, very mixed feelings about this coin. Rapid adoption from crypto exchanges, Yuga Lab’s funding from institutional finance, and its quick moves towards creating utility inspire some faith in the ApeCoin team.

On the other hand, the complexities of building a play-to-earn videogame and navigating securities law are notoriously unpredictable.

This will be the year big institutional players like Coinbase drop their NFTs. Competition and competence in the space are expanding rapidly, but I’ll have to see how the market and regulators treat ApeCoin before I can be a short-term bull.

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