The Story behind Yuga Labs and Apecoin

You can’t avoid apes in the world of NFTs, and if you don’t like simian enterprises, it could have been a tough week in crypto, with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) dominating the landscape, indicating that expensive JPEGs may have only just begun, rather than reaching the end of a strange cycle. How It started: Apecoin? The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a 10,000 NFT collection that debuted in April of last year. Each item in the collection depicts a bored ape, and it was minted for 0.08 ETH (about $200 at the time), selling out in a week. What is the going rate for an ape these days? At the time of writing, slightly more than 10 ETH, or roughly $300,000 at today’s exchange rates. BayC has become the closest thing to a well-known NFT anomaly, with big-name proprietors and consistent open befuddlement whenever someone chooses to investigate what those monkey pictures are, sees the sticker price, and needs to do a double-take to see what else is remembered for the case. What else is remembered is the club’s enrollment, but exclusivity sells, and membership in clubs frequently comes with incredible honors. The Apecoin Token Drop! The ApeCoin DAO released its own token, ApeCoin, last week. In fact, the DAO is independent of Yuga Labs, the organization behind BAYC, but there is some overlap. On March 17th, a portion of ApeCoin was airdropped to BAYC owners, with Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) members also recei...