From monkey businesses to Ape Coin.

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Written by

Nouch

The revolution is coming. Proof: I’m here!

2 years ago

Topics: NFTs, Community, Virtual universe, Story of life,motivation, Bored Ape Yacht Club, ...

Bored Ape Yacht Club.
BAYC, for the insiders.

No matter how far from crypto area you are, you heard about it.

Let’s rewind the tape.
Miami, 2017.
Two friends, bound by debates around literature.
The first one has already put a step in cryptoworld as early as 2010, so he convinces the second one to catch the train. Soon, they decide to work on something, but with no knowledge about how to build anything on the blockchain they find themselves calling friends from the campus « you know java script, right? »…

Please, meet Gargamel & Gordon Goner (the 2 with the idea), and Emperor Tomato Ketchup & No Sass (the 2 with the technic)!

Avatars of the founding apes, clockwise from top left: Emperor Tomato Ketchup, Gordon Goner, No Sass, and Gargamel

Artwork by Yuga Labs*

These 4 have an idea that will change the fate of NFTs: instead of selling basic collectibles, Yuga Labs decided to take advantage of the blockchain’s transparency to identify someone as member of a community thanks to the NFT in his wallet.
You don’t just buy a glamourous profile picture, you access a vip club. Your NFT is an entrance ticket.

But which community?

The founders wanted to point out the first crypto investors, who bought bitcoin when there was many zeros after the coma, and saw the zeros getting to the other side of the coma. Suddenly rich, and slightly in pts, wondering about life without the normal people‘s problem of earning enough for rent + food + … , they became bored.

« Now they're just fucking bored. What do you do now that you're wealthy beyond your wildest dreams? You're going to hang out in a swamp club with a bunch of apes and get weird. »**

Soon, the notion of aping in carried our founders to adopte the image of monkeys, and searched for a graphic team: All Seeing Seneca for the drawings, Thomas Dagley and Migwashere for textures and backgrounds.
Total: 10,000 unique monkeys, ready in April 2021.

It took a few days to sold out, but they did it.
And the club really worked out: being part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club gives IRL advantages (from simple hats to luxurious party in Manhattan***), and famous artists, people and even brands have not been long to join, enhancing the hype: Eminem, Paris Hilton as well as Adidas are members of the club!
On the virtual side, the BAYC partnered with many other projects, helping new NFT projects to grow.
Soon, Yuga labs recruited networks managers, developpers and designers.

By September, Christie’s and Sotheby’s were selling some Bored Apes for millions of dollars.
By November, they were one the cover of Rolling Stones.
By January a video game was on.
Then came another collection - zombie like kind of apes, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYP).
Then, the acquisition by Yuga labs of two iconic collections from Larva Labs: the Crypto Punks and the Meebits.

Now, they have their own currency: the $APE.
By the time I write, the token is worth $13,55.

Next step: a metaverse. 200000 lands shall be available, the first part as soon as this month.

I even read they want to challenge Amazon!

One thing is for sure: the community is getting bigger and bigger. They have ideas, talent and ambition.
We will definitely follow their adventure, and let you know about it!