The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs, which showcase a series of apes with different characteristics and expressions.
Often the face of NFTs, the BAYC collection is one of the most well-known NFT collections, with many celebrities holding the collection. Some of these celebrities include Justin Bieber, Eminem, Serena Williams, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jimmy Fallon. Celebrities and investors were not the only ones interested in the collection, even big corporate companies like Adidas purchased their own Ape.
Launched in April 2021, the project was available for mint at 0.08 ETH and was sold out within 12 hours. Less than 2 years later, the most expensive ape was sold at an astounding 3.4 Million USD.
Who Is the Team Behind BAYC?
The NFT project was created by Yuga Labs, a team of four individuals who preferred to use their online pseudonyms and only later revealed their identities to the public. The team consists of Greg Solana (Gargamel), Wyle Aronow (Gordon Goner), Kerem (Emperor Tomato Ketchup), and Zesham (No Sass).
The artists that designed the BAYC collection are Seneca, Thomas Dagley, Migwashere, and other artists who, to this day, choose to remain anonymous.
In 2022, the team behind BAYC, Yuga Labs, also acquired 2 popular NFT collections – CryptoPunks and Meebits, establishing themselves as big players in the NFT space.
What Is the Utility of the BAYC Collection?
Being a holder of the BAYC collection doubles as a membership card and grants exclusive access to holders. Holding an Ape also allows the owners commercial and branding rights to their NFTs.
BAYC holders are granted exclusive access to ‘THE BATHROOM’ and a private Discord server. ‘THE BATHROOM’ is a collaborative community board where holders are able to draw pixels at intervals of 15 minutes. The Discord server allows BAYC holders to interact with other holders and get access to new features.
BAYC holders are also granted access to the Yuga Lab’s projects. This will include other NFT collections and the BAYC metaverse (Otherside).
The Bored Ape Yacht Club Ecosystem
As part of the BAYC ecosystem, the team also launched its own native token, Apecoin, several spin-off NFT collections, and its own metaverse.
Launched in March 2022, Yuga Labs released their native token APE, which functions as a governance token. This ERC-20 token APE allows holders to execute transactions, make governing decisions, and participate in the ecosystem. During the launch, a portion of the token supply was airdropped to BAYC and MAYC owners.
Yuga Labs also launched spin-off collections such as the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC). In August 2021, Yuga Labs airdropped BAYC holders a “mutant serum”. With the serum, BAYC holders were able to mutate or mint their own Bored Ape into a Mutant Ape.
In July 2021, BAYC holders were airdropped the BAKC collection. The BAKC collection functions as a companion collection in a bid to reward BAYC holders.
The BAYC ecosystem also consists of the Otherside Metaverse. While the metaverse is still currently under development, when completed, the metaverse will be a virtual world where their NFTs can be used as playable characters.
In September 2023, Yuga Labs announced the launch of a new game, Legend of the Mara (LotM), a collection-based 2D strategy game. The game is a sub-universe within the broader Otherside metaverse game.