billionaire ape yacht club

• Search Search Please fill out this field.

What Is Bored Ape Yacht Club?

• Understanding BAYC
• The BAYC Team
• BAYC's High Value
• More Than an NFT

The Bottom Line

• Cryptocurrency
• Strategy & Education

Bored Ape Yacht Club

Erika Rasure is globally-recognized as a leading consumer economics subject matter expert, researcher, and educator. She is a financial therapist and transformational coach, with a special interest in helping women learn how to invest.

Bored Ape Yacht Club, popularly called BAYC, is a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain . These NFTs are graphical representations of cartoon-like apes that are distinctive by their metadata, which includes the characters’ backgrounds, earrings, clothes, fur, and eyes. Metadata for NFTs is information about and descriptions of a token that the NFT creator supplies.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club, which was launched in 2021, is similar to pieces of artwork sold physically. However, these pieces exist only digitally and are one of a kind because they live on the blockchain (which allows ownership).

Key Takeaways

• Bored Ape Yacht Club is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection of 10,000 cartoon-like apes.
• At launch, each Bored Ape Yacht Club token cost 0.08 Ether (ETH), or $220; by mid-October 2022, they cost 76 ETH, or approximately $100,418.
• BAYC was developed in April 2021 by Yuga Labs, whose founders use the pseudonyms Gordon Goner and Gargamel.
• Rarity, utilities, and celebrity endorsement drive the high price of the BAYC collection. 
• BAYC is considered a status symbol, and celebrities like NBA star Stephen Curry, singers Eminem and Snoop Dogg, and late-night show host Jimmy Fallon own one.

Understanding Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)

The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT was launched in 2021 at the pinnacle of the cryptocurrency bull market. BAYC has flourished among other notable NFTs, including CryptoKitties and CryptoPunks.

When launched, a BAYC cost 0.08 Ether (ETH), the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum platform. That was equivalent to $220 at the time. It sold out within 12 hours. By mid-October 2022, it had climbed to a “floor price” of 76 ETH, or approximately $100,418.

A floor price refers to the minimum cost of an NFT within a collection. The dollar value of BAYC is subject to the price of Ether—if ETH rises, the value of the NFTs within this collection takes off. BAYC’s trading volume on Oct. 14, 2022, according to NFT marketplace OpenSea, was 673,000 ETH.

BAYC has garnered interest from celebrities, who purchased the NFTs at inflated prices. Some high-profile stars who flaunt their BAYC include “Tonight Show” host Jimmy Fallon, who bought Bored Ape #599; NBA champions Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal; singers Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Justin Bieber; and world-class soccer player Neymar Jr.

In a historic moment in September 2021, Sotheby’s , one of the world’s largest auction houses, closed its online auction for 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs at $24.4 million.

The Team Behind BAYC

Yuga Labs developed the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The Yuga Labs team comprises four pseudonymous core members: Gordon Goner and Gargamel (co-founders), No Sass, and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, who handled the technical aspects of BAYC.

They appeared under these pseudonyms in the early days of the launch. But BuzzFeed’s revelation of the co-founders’ identities in February 2022 led the other two core members to also give up their incognito status and post pictures of themselves on X (formerly Twitter).

On March 11, 2022, Yuga Labs acquired the intellectual property for rival NFT collections CryptoPunks and Meebits, giving it ownership of the brand and logo of each of those NFT collections. CryptoPunks is one of the earliest NFT projects. It was among the most valued NFT collections on the NFT marketplace OpenSea, with a trading volume of 1 million ETH before it got delisted in February 2022 for a copyright violation.

In a fundraising round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, the Yuga Labs team raised $450 million. In March 2022, it was reported to be valued at $4 billion. Yuga Labs planned to use the capital to expand its activities and accelerate brand growth.

Other NFT collections that Yuga Labs started are Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)—a spinoff of BAYC—and Bored Ape Kennel Club. Both were trading at volumes of 457,000 ETH and 110,000 ETH, respectively, on OpenSea in mid-October 2022.

What Makes BAYC Valuable?

Whether the Bored Ape collection is truly worth millions of dollars has been hotly debated. Some believe the high valuations are simply based on speculation. But, in fact, rarity, celebrity endorsements, and utilities and perks have driven the collection’s value up.

The array of BAYC’s unique traits and accessories are used to measure its value. The term “rarity” gauges how unusual an NFT is within a collection with an assigned number. In the BAYC collection, there are more than 160 traits, and each ape may have four to seven trait categories. These traits are background, clothes, earrings, eyes, fur, hat, and mouth.

The most expensive Bored Ape in the collection, BAYC #8817, was auctioned in October 2021 for $3.4 million on Sotheby’s Metaverse marketplace, an online platform dedicated to rare and extraordinary NFTs. BAYC #8817 had the Solid Gold Fur trait—making it a relatively rare variety of the NFT. Other characteristics of the #8817 token are the Silver Hoop Earrings and the Wool Turtleneck.

Celebrity Endorsement

BAYC has enticed several celebrities and brands to own pieces of its NFT collection. Adidas is one of the brands contributing to the hype surrounding the NFT collection. Adidas launched “Into the Metaverse,” its native digital collectible, in partnership with Bored Ape Yacht Club, Gmoney, and PUNKS Comic.

Following the partnership launch, BAYC uploaded an image of a Bored Ape wearing an Adidas jacket on X. Gmoney tweeted a silhouette picture that displayed the Adidas logo. PUNKS Comic tweeted a picture of a character wearing a shirt bearing the Adidas logo.

Other celebrities, beyond those already mentioned, who bought BAYC include billionaire Mark Cuban, prominent X personality and DJ Steve Aoki, X personalities and musicians Post Malone and Mike Shinoda, and producer and songwriter Timbaland.

Utilities and Perks 

One of the distinctive features of the Bored Ape NFT, compared with other NFT collections, is its utilities. Owners of Bored Apes have exclusive access to a private Discord group where they chat, network, and build relationships with other Bored Ape members, including celebrities who own a Bored Ape. Ape holders also have access to “The Bathroom,” letting them make a drawing every 15 minutes on a virtual bathroom wall that acts as a community board.

Some utilities that have made BAYC attractive include ApeCoin, ApeCoin DAO, and upcoming metaverse games and events. ApeCoin is the official currency for the Bored Ape ecosystem and is used to purchase BAYC’s merchandise, event tickets, and more. ApeCoin DAO is a decentralized autonomous organization whose members—every ApeCoin holder—govern the DAO’s treasury and decide on future projects by voting on proposals.

Overall, owning a Bored Ape is considered a status symbol among many individuals. That's another key reason for the steady rise in its price since its launch.

The exclusivity that comes with the token’s perks makes Bored Ape Yacht Club much more valuable in price than many other NFTs.

BAYC Is More Than a NFT Collection

In March 2022, BAYC launched ApeCoin and adopted it as the official currency for the BAYC ecosystem. Shortly thereafter, ApeCoin was distributed to BAYC NFT holders. As mentioned, with ApeCoin, holders can participate in the governing process and engage the Bored Ape ecosystem. The ApeCoin DAO members will chair further development on the team’s road map, including creating blockchain games, hosting virtual events in the metaverse , and introducing physical products.

In December 2021, the Bored Ape Yacht Club partnered with Animoca, a blockchain gaming firm, to launch a play-to-earn game using the BAYC NFT. Animoca has designed some popular play-to-earn games , such as The Sandbox, and is valued at more than $5 billion.

Also, via the aforementioned partnership with BAYC, Adidas plans to cast a 3D Bored Ape character in its upcoming metaverse game. The goal is to foster 3D interaction among internet users through collectibles .

Is It Possible to Lose a Bored Ape Yacht Club Non-Fungible Token?

Yes. Several Bored Apes have been stolen through fraudulent hacks. In April 2022, the official Instagram account and Discord server of Bored Ape Yacht Club were hacked, and a phishing link was posted on both BAYC platforms. Hackers stole about 30 Bored Ape tokens from owners who approved a transfer using a fake “mint” link. Outside of potential hacks, however, it is increasingly challenging to lose a Bored Ape NFT.

How Can I Buy a Bored Ape Token?

To buy a Bored Ape token and be part of the exclusive club, visit a platform where the BAYC collection is listed, such as OpenSea. Connect a compatible Ethereum wallet to the marketplace. Once that’s done, search “Bored Ape Yacht Club,” filter out the ape of your choice, and place an order. If the order is confirmed, the ownership of the ape will be transferred to you.

Are Bored Apes Losing Value?

The value of Bored Apes, like most NFTs, is tied to the crypto market’s condition. In a bear market , where prices of crypto assets steadily decline, it’s expected that the value of Bored Apes will follow the same pattern. But if crypto market sentiment is bullish, then Bored Apes’ value will probably rise above the current floor price.

BAYC has evolved into more than a profile-picture (PFP) NFT. It has set a new standard and pace for other NFT collections with the various utilities it has added and plans to add to its collection. Yuga Labs has introduced products built on the blockchain as well as physical products attached to the Bored Ape collection.

OpenSea. “ Bored Ape Yacht Club .”

X. “ @BoredApeYC: Apr. 23, 2021 .”

Yuga Labs. “ Let’s Make a NFT .”

Decrypt. “ The Biggest Celebrity NFT Owners in the Bored Ape Yacht Club .”

Sotheby’s. “ Samsung’s State-of-the-Art 98 Inch Neo QLED TV on View at Sotheby’s .”

BuzzFeed News. “ We Found the Real Names of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Pseudonymous Founders .”

X. “ @TomatoBAYC: Feb. 8, 2022 .”

X. “ @SassBAYC: Feb. 8, 2022 .”

X. “ @yugalabs: Mar. 11, 2022 .”

OpenSea. “ CryptoPunks .”

OpenSea. “ Mutant Ape Yacht Club .”

OpenSea. “ Bored Ape Kennel Club .”

X. “ @Sothebysverse: Oct. 26, 2021 .”

X. “ @BoredApeYC: Nov. 28, 2021 .”

X. “ @gmoneyNFT: Nov. 28, 2021 .”

ApeCoin. “ ApeCoin Is for the Web3 Economy .”

Animoca Brands. “ Bored Ape Yacht Club and Animoca Brands Join Forces to Make Blockchain NFT Game .”

Animoca Brands. “ Animoca Brands Raises US$358,888,888 at Over US$5B Valuation to Grow the Open Metaverse .”

Adidas. “ Into the Metaverse: Let's Go .”

X. “ @BoredApeYC: Apr. 25, 2022 .”

CoinDesk. “ NFTs Stolen After Bored Ape Yacht Club Instagram, Discord Hacked .”

• Terms of Service
• Editorial Policy
• Privacy Policy
• Your Privacy Choices

• facebook-rs

How Four NFT Novices Created a Billion-Dollar Ecosystem of Cartoon Apes

By Samantha Hissong

Samantha Hissong

J ust last year, the four thirtysomethings behind Bored Ape Yacht Club — a collection of 10,000 NFTs, which house cartoon primates and unlock the virtual world they live in — were living modest lifestyles and working day jobs as they fiddled with creative projects on the side. Now, they’re multimillionaires who made it big off edgy, haphazardly constructed art pieces that also act as membership cards to a decentralized community of madcaps. What’s more punk rock than that?

The phenomenal nature of it all has to do with the recent appearance, all over the internet, of images of grungy apes with unimpressed expressions on their faces and human clothes on their sometimes-multicolored, sometimes-metal bodies. Most of the apes look like characters one might see in a comic about hipsters in Williamsburg — some are smoking and some have pizza hanging from their lips, while others don leather jackets, beanies, and grills. The core-team Apes describe the graffiti-covered bathroom of the club itself — which looks like a sticky Tiki bar — in a way that echoes that project’s broader mission: “Think of it as a collaborative art experiment for the cryptosphere.” As for the pixel-ish walls around the virtual toilet, that’s really just “a members-only canvas for the discerning minds of crypto Twitter,” according to a blurb on the website, which recognizes that it’s probably “going to be full of dicks.”

(Full-disclosure: Rolling Stone just announced a partnership with the Apes and is creating a collectible zine — similar to what the magazine did with Billie Eilish — and NFTs.)

“I always go balls to the wall,” founding Ape Gordon Goner tells Rolling Stone over Zoom. Everything about Goner, who could pass for a weathered 30 or a young 40, screams “frontman,” from his neck tattoo to his sturdy physique to the dark circles under his eyes and his brazen attitude. He’s a risk taker: Back during his gambling-problem days, he admits he’d “kill it at the tables” and then lose it all at the slot machines on the way to the car. He’s also the only one in the group that wasn’t working a normal nine-to-five before the sudden tsunami of their current successes — and that’s because he’s never had a “real job. Not bad for a high school dropout,” he says through a smirk. Although Goner and his comrades’ aesthetic and rapport mirror that of a musical act freshly thrust into stardom, they’re actually the creators of Yuga Labs, a Web3 company. 

Editor’s picks

The 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history, every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term.

Goner and his partners in creative crime — Gargamel, No Sass, and Emperor Tomato Ketchup — were inspired by the communities of crypto lovers that have blossomed on platforms like Twitter in recent years. Clearly, people with this once-niche interest craved a destination to gather, discuss blockchain-related developments, and hurl the most inside of inside jokes. Why not, they thought, give NFT collectors their own official home? And Bored Ape Yacht Club was born.

This summer, 101 of Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club tokens, which were first minted in early May, resold for $24.4 million in an auction hosted by the fine-art house Sotheby’s. Competitor Christie’s followed shortly thereafter, auctioning off an art collectors’ haul of modern-day artifacts — which included four apes — for $12 million. Around the same time, one collector bought a single token directly from OpenSea — kind of like eBay for NFTs — for $2.65 million. A few weeks later, another Sotheby’s sale set a new auction record for the most-valuable single Bored Ape ever sold: Ape number 8,817 went for $3.4 million. At press time, tokens related to the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem — this includes the traditional apes, but also things called “mutant” apes and the apes’ pets — had generated around $1 billion. “My name’s not even Gordon,” says Goner, who, like the rest of Yuga Labs’ inner circle, chooses to hide his true identity behind a quirky pseudonym. “Gordon Goner just sounded like Joey Ramone. And that made it sound like I was in a band called the Goners. I thought that was fucking cool. But when we first started, I kept asking, ‘Are we the Beastie Boys of NFTs?’ Because, right after our initial success it felt like the Beastie Boys going on tour with Madonna: Everyone was like, ‘Who the fuck are these kids?’ ” (Funnily enough, Madonna’s longtime manager, Guy Oseary, signed on to rep the foursome about a month after Goner made this comment to Rolling Stone .) He’s referring to the commotion that immediately followed the first few days of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s existence, when sales were dismal. “Things were moving so slowly in that weeklong presale,” recalls Goner’s more soft-spoken colleague, Emperor Tomato Ketchup. “I think we made something between $30,000 and $60,000 total in sales. And then, overnight, it exploded. All of us were like, ‘Oh fuck, this is real now.’ ” The 10,000 tokens — each originally priced at 0.08 Ethereum (ETH), around $300 — had sold out. While the crypto community may have been asking who they were, the general public started wondering what all the fuss was about. Even Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry started using his ape as his Twitter profile picture, for all of his 15.5 million followers to behold. 

Bored Ape art isn’t as valuable as it is because it’s visually pleasing, even though it is. It’s valuable because it also serves as a digital identity — for which its owner receives commercial usage rights, meaning they can sell any sort of spinoff product based on the art. The tokens, meanwhile, act like ID cards that give the owners access to an online Soho House of sorts — just a nerdier, more buck-wild one. Noah Davis, who heads up Christie’s online sales department for digital art, says that it’s the “perennial freebies and perks” that solidify the Bored Ape Yacht Club as “one of the most rewarding and coveted memberships.” “In the eyes of most — if not almost all of the art community — BAYC is completely misunderstood,” he says. However, within other tribes of pop culture, he continues, hugely prominent figures cherish the idea of having a global hub for some of the most “like-minded, tech-savvy, and forward-thinking individuals on the planet.” Gargamel is “a name I ridiculously gave myself based off the fact that my fiancée had never seen The Smurfs when we were launching this,” says Goner’s right-hand man, who looks kind of like a cross between the character he named himself after and an indie-music-listening liberal-arts school alum. He’s flabbergasted at the unexpected permanence of it all. “Now, I meet with CEOs of billion-dollar companies, and I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m Gargamel. What is it that you would like to speak to me about?’ ” 

The gang bursts out in laughter.

In conversing, Gargamel and Goner, whose relationship is the connective tissue that brought the others in, are mostly playful — but they do bicker, similar to how a frontman and lead guitarist might butt heads in learning to share the spotlight. They first met in their early twenties at a dive bar, in Miami, where they were both born and raised, and immediately started arguing about books. “He doesn’t like David Foster Wallace because he’s wrong about things,” Goner interjects, cheekily, as Gargamel attempts to tell their story. “He hasn’t even read Infinite Jest . He criticizes him, and yet he’s never read the book! He’s like, ‘Oh, it’s pretentious MFA garbage.’ No, it’s not.” Gargamel then points out that he has read other books by Wallace, while No Sass, who still hasn’t chimed in, flashes a half-smile that suggests they’ve been down this road more than once before. “I think, on the whole, he was the worst thing to happen to fucking MFA programs, given all the things people were churning out,” says Gargamel. They eventually decide to agree that Wallace, like J.D. Salinger, isn’t always interpreted correctly or taught well, and we move on — only after Goner points out the tattoos he got for Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski “at like 17,” but before diving too deep into postmodernist concepts. Goner and Gargamel’s relationship speaks to how the group operates as a whole, according to No Sass, whose name is self-explanatory. “There’s always a yin and yang going on,” he says. Throughout the call, No Sass continues to make sense of things and keep the others in check in an unwavering manner, positioning him as the backbone of the group — or our metaphorical drummer. “It’s like, I’ll come up with the idea that wins us the game,” Goner says, referencing his casino-traversing past. “And his job is to make sure we make it to the car park.” No Sass’ rhythm-section counterpart is clearly Tomato, the pseudo-band’s secret weapon who’s loaded with talent and harder to read. (He picked his name while staring at an album of the same name by English-French band Stereolab.) The project’s name, Bored Ape Yacht Club, represents a club for people who got rich quick by “aping in” — crypto slang for investing big in something unsure — and, thusly, are too bored to do anything but create memes and debate about analytics. The “yacht” part is coated in satire, given that the digital clubhouse the apes congregate in was designed to look like a dive bar in the swampy Everglades. 

Gargamel, whose college roommate started mining Bitcoin back in 2010, got Goner into crypto in 2017, when the latter was bedridden with an undisclosed illness, bored, and on his phone. “I knew he had a risk-friendly profile,” Gargamel says. “I said, ‘I’m throwing some money into some stupid shit here. You wanna get in this with me?’ He immediately took to it so hard, and we rode that euphoric wave of 2017 crypto up — and then cried all the way down the other side of the roller coaster.” At the start of 2021, they looked at modern relics like CryptoPunks and Hashmasks, which have both become a sort of cultural currency, and they looked at “crypto Twitter,” and wondered what would happen if they combined the collectible-art component with community membership via gamification. The idea was golden but they weren’t technologically savvy enough to know how to build the back end. So, Gargamel called up No Sass and Tomato, who both studied computer science at the same university he had attended for grad school. “I had no idea what was involved in the code for this,” Gargamel admits. “I read something that said something about Javascript, so I called them and said, ‘Do you guys know anything about Javascript?’ And that couldn’t be further from what you’re supposed to know.” While they were tech-savvy, No Sass and Tomato were not crypto-savvy. They both wrote their first lines of solidity code — a language for smart contracts — in February of this year. “I was like, ‘Just learn it! It’s going to be great. Let’s go,’ ” recalls Gargamel. “From a technical perspective, some of the stuff that we’ve built out has had relatively janky workflows, which people then seize upon, asking us how we did it,” says Tomato. “It’s actually stake-and-wire or whatever, but nobody else has done it.” A lot of “stress and fear” went into the first drop, according to No Sass: “We were constantly on the phone going, ‘Oh, shit, is this OK? Is it going to explode?’ ” He shakes his head. “I wish we still had simple NFT drops. We can pump those out superfast now.” “Every single thing we do scares the shit out of me,” adds Tomato.

They started out with unsharpened goals of capitalizing on a very clear trend. But a fter one particularly enervating night of incessant spitballing, Goner realized that all he really wanted was something to do and for like-minded people to talk to in an immersive, fantastical world. Virtual art was enticing, but it needed to do something too. “We’d see these NFT collections that didn’t have any utility,” Goner says. “That didn’t make any sense to me at the time, because you can cryptographically verify who owns these things. Why wouldn’t you offer some sort of utility?”

Gargamel told him the next day he loved the clubhouse idea so much that he’d want to do it even if it was a failure. They realized they just craved “a hilarious story to tell 10 years later,” Gargamel says. “I figured we’d say, ‘Yeah, we spent 40 grand and six months making a club for apes, but it didn’t go anywhere.’ And that’s how we actually started having fun in the process.” Goner chimes in: “Because at least we could say, ‘This is how we spent our summer. How ridiculous is that? We made the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and it was a total disaster.’ ”  Gargamel interjects to remind everyone that Tomato ended up reacting to their springtime victory by buying a Volvo, the memory of which incites another surge of laughter. They haven’t indulged in too many lavish purchases since then, but they all ordered Pelotons, Tomato bought a second Volvo, and they all paid their moms back for supporting them in becoming modern-day mad scientists. “I’ll never forget the night that we sold out,” says No Sass. “It was like two or three in the morning, and I hear my phone ring. I see that it’s Tomato and think something has gone terribly wrong. I pick up the phone and he’s like, ‘Dude, you need to wake up right now. We just made a million dollars.’ ” Nansen, a company that tracks blockchain analytics, reported that for one night Bored Ape Yacht Club had the most-used smart contract on Ethereum. “That’s absurd,” says Gargamel. “Uniswap [a popular network of decentralized finance apps] does billions and billions of transactions. But for that one night, we took over the world.” At press time, the foursome — let’s just go ahead and call them the Goners — had personally generated about $22 million from the secondary market alone. “Every time I talk to my parents about how this has blown up, they literally do not know what to say,” adds Tomato, whose mom started crying when he first explained what had happened.

Since its opening, the group has created pets for the apes via the Bored Ape Kennel Club, as well as the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. The latter was launched to expand the community to interested individuals who weren’t brave enough to “ape in” at the beginning: Yuga Labs unleashed 10,000 festering, bubbling, and/or oozing apes — complete with missing limbs and weird growths — via a surprise Dutch auction, which was used to deter bots from snatching up inventory by starting at a maximum price and working its way down. With a starting price of 3 ETH — or about $11,000 — this move opened up the playing field for about an hour, which is how long it took for the mutants to sell out. (The team also randomly airdropped 10,000 “serums,” which now pop up on OpenSea for tens of thousands of dollars, for pre-existing Apes to “drink” and thusly create zombified clones.) When they sold 500 tangible hats to ape-holders in June, the guys spent days packaging products in Gargamel’s mom’s backyard in Florida. “Immediately, some of them sold for thousands of dollars,” Gargamel exclaims. “It was a $25 hat. We were like, ‘Holy shit, we can be a Web3 streetwear brand. What does that even look like?’ ”

But the team is still searching for ways to create more value by building even more doors that the tokens can unlock. They recently surprised collectors with a treasure hunt; the winner received 5 ETH — worth more than $16,000 at press time — and another ape. And on Oct. 1, they announced the first annual Ape Fest, which runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 6 and includse an in-person gallery party, yacht party, warehouse party, merch pop-up, and charity dinner in New York. Goner tells Rolling Stone that they’re currently discussing partnership ideas with multiple musical acts, but he refuses to reveal additional details in fear of jinxing things. Further down the line, the Goners see a future of interoperability, so that collectors can upload their apes into various corners of the metaverse: Hypothetically, an ape could appear inside a popular video game like Fortnite , and the user could dress it in digital versions of Bored Ape Yacht Club merch. “We want to encourage that as much as possible,” says Gargamel. “We’re making three-dimensional models of everybody’s ape now. But, y’know, making 10,000 perfect models takes a little bit of time.” At the start of the year, the guys had no idea their potentially disastrous idea would become a full-time job. They were working 14 hours a day to get the project up and running, and after the big drop, they decided to up that to 16 hours a day. “None of us have really slept in almost seven months now,” says Goner. “We’re teetering on burnout.” To avoid that, Yuga Labs has already put a slew of artists on staff and hired social media managers and Discord community managers, as well as a CFO. “We want to be a Web3 lifestyle company,” says Goner, who emphasizes that they’re still growing. “I’m a metaverse maximalist at this point. I think that Ready Player One experience is really on the cusp of happening in this world.” If Bored Ape Yacht Club is essentially this band of brothers’ debut album, there’s really no telling what their greatest hits will look like.

Most Popular

Bill maher fires caa after oscar party snub (exclusive), stephen colbert says cbs asked him not to show kristen stewart's rolling stone cover; stewart says 'f--- you' to the homophobic haters, one of travis kelce’s former flames allege that he may continue this toxic dating pattern with taylor swift, snoop dogg responds to suge knight's claim that he, diddy, and dr. dre are in "secret society", you might also like, billy dee williams says donald glover is ‘extremely talented’ and ‘imaginative,’ but ‘there’s only one lando calrissian’: ‘i created that character’, how to watch oprah winfrey’s ‘shame, blame and the weight loss revolution’ special: air times, what to know and more, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, peter weir confirms he’s retired from directing: ‘i have no more energy’, uconn leads top seeds in men’s basketball spending: data viz.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

• How It Works

https://nasacademy.com/blog/article/bayc-explained

BAYC Explained

What is it and why is it so popular?

Admin Nas Academy

26 Apr · 5 mins read

Bored Ape Yacht Club was launched back in April 2021 and has since changed the culture of the internet forever. NFTs weren’t the phenomenon then that they are now, but something about the apes captured the imaginations of people all over the world.

The thing is, Bored Ape Yacht Club wasn’t even an instant success. It took 12 hours to sell-out — a long time in the world of crypto. It was only once word got out on Twitter that they started selling at all. Yet, today, one Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT is valued at roughly $300,000. 

The question is — why? Why did these apes in the same pose grab the hearts and minds of so many? Clearly there’s more to the story than just someone designing a group of bored-looking ape faces. 

So, let’s dive in and get some answers. 

Where It All Started

The Bored Ape Yacht Club was founded by four people based in Miami, Florida. 

The initial founders, Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, had managed to remain anonymous for almost an entire year before their identities were revealed by Buzzfeed News in February of 2022. 

The pair originally met through their shared love of literature — they allegedly bonded over a heated debate about the work of writer David Foster Wallace. Bored Ape Yacht Club was their vision, and they claim to have been inspired by the philosophical idea of the unutterable — something that is impossible to describe. 

No NFT project is complete without software programmers, and Solano and Aronow certainly  didn’t work alone. Enter “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” and “No Sass” , names which we assume (and hope) are aliases.

The two programmers were capable of coding on the blockchain, but neither of them had worked on NFT projects before  — let alone one so massive in scale. 

Their motivation? Simpler than you might think. They’ve shared that t heir main motivation was to “set out to make some dope apes, test [their] skills, and try to build something (ridiculous) .” Their reasoning for choosing apes was because they liked apes. Fair enough.

The result of building something ridiculous was the Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection of 10,000 bored-looking apes minted as NFTs with different, unique attributes from hats, glasses, to jewelry. 

While each ape wasn’t drawn individually — there are 10,000 of them — each element was created with meticulous care by a rtist and designer All Seeing Seneca (or, simply, Seneca). 

The elements and basic design for the apes was then put into a randomizer and minted. This process is how most NFT projects, especially large-scale ones, are created. 

What Solano and Aronow wanted to achieve with the Bored Ape Yacht Club was to find a way to use their creativity, all while contributing to the crypto movement and pushing the boundaries of the NFT world.

The project as a whole was meant to represent the future billionaires who will have nothing better to do than sit around bored in a yacht club, sipping on some bourbon and talking business. It also represents early investors in crypto who dove, or “aped”, into the industry open-minded and swooped up all the good projects that made them millionaires. 

Even today, going all-in to crypto is called “aping” —  a clever connection that the founders wanted to exploit. 

The world had never seen anything like it before. Despite a slow start, word got around on Twitter, and the collection sold out within 12 hours. The complete Bored Ape Yacht Club collection is worth $3 billion today. The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project is one of the biggest brands on the market, and changed the internet as we know it today. Who knows if NFTs would have entered the mainstream consciousness if Bored Ape Yacht Club hadn’t been created. 

So, why the buying frenzy? As with a lot of exclusive NFT projects, owning an NFT from the collection gets you more than the NFT. Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT owners get access to new collections, early access to drops , commercial rights to their NFT, and access to the exclusive Bored Ape Yacht Club … er, club — a community of some of the most influential people in this space and in the world. 

Actors, innovators, a certain heiress… These are just some of the people who are a part of the club, and to get a chance to brush shoulders with them is something a lot of people are willing to pay a lot of money to get. The collection had become a status symbol. 

As Miami natives, the founders would be familiar with the yacht club scene —  if not personally, then through assimilation. Clearly their experiences with the wealthy who lounge around with nothing to do resonated with the elite of the world. All they had to do was wait for the rest to follow. 

The Rise of the Bored Apes

Celebrities from Justin Bieber to Paris Hilton to Stephen Curry are part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, and these Bored Apes are popping up everywhere as people’s profile pictures thanks to new drives by social media platforms to push the use of NFTs.  Not to mention, the cheapest Bored Ape on the market right now is still worth 6-figures. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen great success beyond the crypto space, and the collection has even collaborated with big-name brands like Adidas who are diving into the world of Web3. 

They’ve since launched other collections such as the Mutant Apes Yacht Club– and they’ve even launched their very own token currency, Apecoin.

And it doesn’t look like they’ll be slowing down anytime soon. With success, however, comes a few downsides. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club makes the news every time it gets hacked, with hundreds of thousands of dollars of NFTs compromised at a time. One of the most notorious ones so far involved the theft of Seth Green’s piece, which became a problem because he was due to create a movie based on it. With his NFT stolen, the movie has been put on hold, which means no Bored Ape movie for us (yet! Seth Green and the guy who was sold the NFT are suing the thief, so we might just get our Bored Ape movie). 

This raises questions of security surrounding the apes, as people don’t want to invest their hard-earned money into something that could just be stolen by hackers — notably something crypto claims is impossible on the blockchain. As long as people continue falling for scams, digital goods will remain at risk. 

Another criticism of Bored Ape Yacht Club is how it positions artists. Remember how only elements of the NFTs were originally drawn while the rest were randomized by a computer? This technique has driven criticism that big NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club are driven by consumerism rather than supporting artists. 

While supporters of NFTs say that artists are empowered through NFT collections, others say that the very concept of NFTs as computer-generated images are a parody of art, and don’t benefit the artists because of how easily they can be replicated or stolen. 

In a rather infamous article published with The Guardian , Jonathan Jones wrote, “ [Bored Ape Yacht Club ] puts the consumer experience first and has absolutely nothing to do with empowering artists. It’s all about the collector’s ego…”

Consumerism and late-stage capitalism are all criticisms thrown at the collection, and are both points that work against the assertion that the success of the collection means helping artists everywhere. 

What many people don’t know is the case of an artist close to the Bored Ape Yacht Club project. Seneca, t he artist behind the design of the original ape , has gone unrecognized in favor of the original four founders. As a woman in a male-dominated space as well as an artist, she’s expressed disappointment at how she’s largely been overlooked in the hype and discussions around the project, as well as her original compensation not being “ideal”. She states she’s hoping to get more work from the exposure Bored Ape Yacht Club has given her, a situation that she shouldn’t be in as the creative mind behind the billion dollar collection.  

Like most controversies, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s statements on the role of artists and how they should be compensated is complicated. Despite how big the project is, it’s perhaps not the best example of the potential NFTs have for artists. 

Instead, the reason Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen such massive influence on internet culture is due to digital identity, which is partially why pieces in the collection go for such a premium. Arguments about the role of the artist are valid in other NFT spaces, but in regards to Bored Ape Yacht Club, the role of art and the artist is discarded in favor of the kind of person you are and how you want the world to see you. 

Basically, the message of the Bored Ape Yacht Club comes down to asking yourself, “ What does this say about me? ” 

And even if the Bored Ape Yacht Club isn’t your thing, it’s not too late to jump in on the NFT craze. In fact, it’s just the beginning. 

There are so many incredible artists and people in this space, and you don’t have to limit yourself to investing in the Bored Ape Yacht Club or any of its sister projects, especially if you don’t agree on the sentiment behind them, or how prohibitively inaccessible they are. There will be tons of collections that see the same kind of success as Bored Ape Yacht Club. It’s just a matter of being able to spot the early signs of the next big hit , and getting in early. 

But the Bored Ape Yacht Club is the perfect collection to understand the broad appeal of NFTs, why a collection goes viral, and what people on the internet want. The signs of success were all there before Bored Ape Yacht Club was even minted — you just had to know how to spot them. 

Web3 Community

For the first time ever, top experts have come together with Nas Academy to form a web3 learning community – and you’re invited!

Whether you’re launching an NFT project, investing in Bitcoin or NFTs, or are curious about how web3 works, you’ll discover that “community” is the foundation of the web3 space. And now, you can join a vibrant and supportive community full of web3 enthusiasts like yourself.

This community offers a safe space to network, learn, and collaborate with some of the most innovative thinkers around the world. On top of that, we’ve pooled all our resources to give you access to thousands of dollars worth of Nas Academy resources (including our best-rated classes) all under 1 subscription.

By subscribing to the Nas Academy Web3 Community , you’ll also be invited to join exclusive events and workshops with the world’s leading experts – an opportunity that you won’t easily find anywhere else. So, if you’re looking to learn more and discuss web3 with others who share your interests, subscribe today and join the movement that’s changing the Internet. 

Share article:

Learn tips and tricks from creators, courses you will love:.

You might also like:

Xavier Mortimer: The Magician Who’s Breaking the Internet

By Admin Nas Academy

Anthony Francisco’s Story: The Visual Father of Baby Groot

By Team Nas Academy

Join a Class For Free

Enter your email and we’ll send you information to join a free trial of one of our favorite courses.

WE EMPOWER CREATORS.

Copyright © 2021 All Rights Reserved by Nas Education

Back to Top

Quality Content in your inbox. Every Week.

Bored Ape Yacht Club creator raises $450 million to build an NFT metaverse

The funding values yuga labs at $4 billion.

By Jacob Kastrenakes , a deputy editor who oversees tech and news coverage. Since joining The Verge in 2012, he’s published 5,000+ stories and is the founding editor of the creators desk.

Share this story

Yuga Labs, the owner of three of the biggest NFT brands on the market, has raised $450 million in funding at a $4 billion valuation, the company announced today. The team behind Bored Ape Yacht Club plans to use the money to build a media empire around NFTs, starting with games and its own metaverse project.

The team describes its metaverse project, called Otherside , as an MMORPG meant to connect the broader NFT universe. They hope to create “an interoperable world” that is “gamified” and “completely decentralized,” says Wylie Aronow, a co-founder of Bored Ape Yacht Club who goes by the pseudonym Gordon Goner. “We think the real Ready Player One experience will be player run.”

The announcement comes just weeks after Yuga Labs made a major move to consolidate the NFT space, acquiring CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs . The acquisition put three of the most lucrative NFT collections under one roof — and gave Yuga Labs a bigger roster of IP to pull from when crafting its game and metaverse plans. The company also launched a cryptocurrency, ApeCoin , last week; the token will be governed independently and used as the primary currency in Yuga Labs’ properties.

Yuga Labs is partnering with “a few different game studios” to bring Otherside to life, says CEO Nicole Muniz. The game won’t be limited to Bored Ape holders, and the company plans to create development tools that allow NFTs from other projects to work inside their world. “We’re opening the door to effectively a walled garden and saying ‘Everybody’s welcome.’”

Metaverse projects are all the rage right now — see Facebook renaming itself to Meta — but Yuga Labs thinks other companies are going about their metaverse ideas wrong, giving the startup a chance to stand out. People won’t bond from spending time together in a shared virtual space with nothing going on, says Greg Solano, a Yuga Labs co-founder who goes by the pseudonym Gargamel. Instead, he says, people bond from being put in positions where they have to collaborate.

“You only play with people and make friends because you’re getting your ass kicked,” Solano says. “Basically, we don’t think deep social experience comes from essentially a Zoom chat and walking around saying ‘hi.’” Yuga Labs declined to provide a timeline on the release of Otherside . A play-to-earn game is also planned for later this year.

The funding round, one of the largest for an NFT company to date, was led by the firm Andreessen Horowitz, which has been investing heavily in the Web3 space. It previously funded OpenSea, Dapper Labs, and Coinbase. Also joining the funding round are the game studio Animoca Brands and crypto firms Coinbase and MoonPay, among others. Chris Lyons, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join the board of Yuga Labs. Funding talks were first reported last month by the Financial Times .

“There’s a dystopian future where Meta is this kind of dominant digital experience provider”

“To me, Yuga Labs, combined with these other emerging [Web3] companies, are an important counterweight to companies like Meta,” Chris Dixon, who leads Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto arm, tells The Verge . “There’s a dystopian future where Meta is this kind of dominant digital experience provider, and all of the money and control goes to that company.” (Interestingly, Andreessen Horowitz’s co-founder, Marc Andreessen, is on Meta’s board of directors and invested early in Facebook.)

Yuga Labs has been financially successful to date. A leaked pitch deck indicates that the company made $137 million last year, primarily by taking a cut of the transactions tied to its NFT brands, with an astounding 95 percent profit margin. (Yuga Labs declined to comment on figures from the deck.)

But the company has built fairly little at this point. Its NFT collections have 40,000 users at most, according to OpenSea’s data, and the company has only released one game for a limited period of time. That means Yuga Labs is essentially being given hundreds of millions of dollars to build a gaming company — or at least, the Web3-ified 2022 version of one — from scratch, off the back of a hugely lucrative art project.

That success is what investors are thinking about when funding Yuga Labs. “They built this very energized community and this culture phenomenon,” says Dixon. But the company is ultimately making the same big bet that so many others are right now: that some format of metaverse project will become the next explosive thing. Now, they just have to build it.

Sony’s PS5 Pro is up to three times faster, may arrive holiday 2024

A better way to find stuff to watch, smash hit balatro is coming to iphone and android, perplexity is ready to take on google, pc games start at just $1 in steam’s spring sale.

More from Tech

Sony’s portable PlayStation Portal is back in stock

The Nintendo Switch 2 will now reportedly arrive in 2025 instead of 2024

The best Presidents Day deals you can already get

Interview: Figma’s CEO on life after the company’s failed sale to Adobe

Bored Ape Yacht Club and its multibillion-dollar ApeCoin, explained: What they are and how investors got rich

NFTs jumped into the mainstream last year, and some of the most popular collections rose to celebrity status.

Foremost among them is a bored-looking ape avatar, with thousands of unique varieties in terms of appearance.

In 2021, countless celebrities bought an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club , including late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon, tennis star Serena Williams, and pop star Justin Bieber. Thursday’s release of ApeCoin , a cryptocurrency that was “airdropped” for free to all holders of a Bored Ape NFT, brought renewed—and new—attention to the line of unamused-profile-picture–style NFTs.

The ApeCoin token surged as much as 90% in just its second day of trading, and CoinMarketCap said APE had a $3.7 billion market cap as of early Friday afternoon.

But what is Bored Ape Yacht Club, and how is it helping NFT collectors get rich?

What makes a Bored Ape valuable?

Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, is a top-selling series of NFTs owned by Yuga Labs. The NFT collection had anonymous creators until February, when BuzzFeed News reported that they were Greg Solano, a 32-year-old writer and editor, and Wylie Aronow, a 35-year-old from Florida. 

It’s customary in the NFT space for creators to maintain this kind of anonymity, which raises questions about fair payment.

For instance, the BAYC creators came up with the idea of rich apes living in a swamp clubhouse, then hired freelance artists to design the apes, and partnered with two engineers, whose identities are still unknown, to launch the NFT project. Rolling Stone reported that one of the primary visual artists, who goes by the alias Seneca, had no idea they were such a big—and profitable hit—until Googling “Bored Apes” months later. Yuga CEO Nicole Muniz told BuzzFeed that each of the original five BAYC artists were “compensated over $1 million.”  

There are 10,000 original Bored Ape NFTs, each with a different combination of features like fur color, background color, outfits, and accessories that make each one unique. All share the same uninterested look. These features give each ape a certain value, depending on how many apes also share the same characteristics.

For example, one of the rarest NFTs in the collection, Bored Ape #7495 , has a dagger in its mouth, a feature that only 48 other apes have, according to the NFT marketplace OpenSea . 

A non-fungible ape on the blockchain

What gives the Bored Apes their underlying value, though, is the blockchain technology on which they are built. The apes are NFTs, or non-fungible tokens , which means that every ape is a unique item with a single owner. The owner of each ape is recorded on the blockchain, a digital and transparent ledger where everyone can see who owns a particular NFT. Whenever the NFT is purchased, sold, or transferred, a new entry is added to the blockchain, updating the ownership details.

A combination of NFT technology, eye-catching art, and some hype have propelled prices of Bored Apes into the six figures . The lowest price for a Bored Ape was about $262,630 as of Thursday, according to DappRadar , which tracks NFT prices. 

Some Bored Apes have even sold for millions of dollars. In January, Bored Ape #232 sold for 1,080.69 tokens of the Ether cryptocurrency, or about $2.85 million at the time. From the original collection, Yuga Labs has built upon the popularity of Bored Ape Yacht Club with a newer series launched last August called Mutant Ape Yacht Club.

Owning a Bored Ape is now the epitome of NFT coolness for many. Holding the NFT can give you access to an exclusive Discord server with some celebrity owners, as well as free perks like additional NFTs or tokens from the BAYC ApeCoin launch this week . Bored Ape owners can also show off their NFT as their profile picture on Twitter with a Twitter Blue subscription.

Owning a Bored Ape is becoming increasingly lucrative, as seen with ApeCoin’s skyrocketing rise in the past two days. As Fortune ’s Taylor Locke reported , Nathan Head, a 25-year-old NFT artist and collector, made $75,000 from an ApeCoin sale on the day of the token’s release, when the token was trading at about $6.80. Had he held on, his ape-themed crypto would have been worth more than $431,000. 

While he said it makes him a “little bit sick” to think about how much more he could have made, the money was still “life-changing.” And he’s holding on to his ape.

“I’ve had my ape for nine months, and it is probably the best investment I have ever made in my life. I initially purchased it on a bit of a whim,” Head said. “I honestly don’t know if I would ever sell my Ape, even though it’s worth more money than I have ever had in fiat. It truly feels like being in a very cool club that comes with a lot of very valuable freebies and opportunities.”

Never miss a story: Follow your favorite topics and authors to get a personalized email with the journalism that matters most to you.

Latest in Tech

• 0 minutes ago

Ex-Ford CEO warns of ‘real financial trouble’ for EV startups as adoption takes longer than expected

Tesla settles discrimination case with ex-employee who alleges Elon Musk’s EV maker allowed him to be subjected to racial epithets 

NTSB investigates fatal crash possibly involving partially automated driving system—and this time Tesla Autopilot isn’t involved

Trump says he’d hit cars made in Mexico by Chinese companies with 100% tariff, brushes off retaliation by Beijing: ‘You screw us and we’ll screw you’

Tesla has chance to ‘grow their market share even more’ thanks to EV startups faltering and legacy automakers focusing on hybrids

Hertz’s electric vehicle and CEO about-face is the latest twist after a COVID bankruptcy filing and a deep relationship with Carl Icahn

Most popular.

CEO steps down after being hit with expensive EV repairs and low resale prices following purchase of 100,000 Teslas

Jeff Bezos just gave $100 million to actress Eva Longoria and the retired admiral who oversaw the capture of Osama bin Laden to use as they see fit

40-year-old homeowner says economy doesn’t add up: ‘I’m making the most money I’ve ever made, and I’m still living paycheck to paycheck’

The last days of the Boeing whistleblower

‘Extreme wealth as power must be regulated’: 31-year-old heiress is letting 50 strangers give her $27 million fortune away

How a 41-year-old former ad man birthed a $1.4 billion beverage unicorn by putting water in a can: ‘There’s no reason that only beer can have that kind of cool look and feel’

• Beginner Guides
• NFT Blockchain
• Most Expensive NFTs
• Most Rarest NFTs
• Most Popular NFTs
• Collections
• Marketplaces
• Studio and Labs
• Influencers

Bored Ape Yacht Club: A complete and up-to-date overview of the revolutionary and leading NFT project

Table of contents

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is arguably the most influential NFT project in the world. For almost a year, it remained second only to CryptoPunks in terms of turnover. This collection led to the creation of other equally popular and large-scale projects: BAKC, MAYC, Otherside metaverse, ApeCoin. The history of BAYC is a living testament to how a couple of successful deals can change an entire market. If not for one prominent NFT influencer, BAYC might not exist at all. But more on that later.

Today’s review is about an amazing global success story that has led to over $2 billion in sales, NFT market dominance, and elite status.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Official Links

• Official site: https://boredapeyachtclub.com
• Twitter @BoredApeYC: over 1M followers,
• Discord @BoredApeYachtClub : over 209K subscribers,
• Instagram @boredapeyachtclub : over 700K subscribers.

What is Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)?

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a fusion of digital collectibles and an exclusive online community. Each Bored Ape is a unique digital character, created with over 170 distinct traits such as clothing, expressions, and headwear.

Moreover, owning a Bored Ape grants membership to the elite community, unlocking exclusive benefits. The value of these perks depends on an individual’s engagement with the concept. For instance, members can access The Bathroom, a collaborative art space within the cryptosphere, allowing them to contribute to a digital wall painting experience.

A more substantial advantage is that Bored Ape NFT holders possess complete commercialization rights for their apes. This means if you own a Bored Ape, you have the freedom to use it for various commercial purposes. In addition, each community member has exclusive access to the annual IRL ApeFest and participates in the project’s airdrops. And this, believe us, turns this valuable investment asset into 2-3-4 additional digital assets.

In general, we won’t tell you everything at once. Therefore, this comprehensive, up-to-date guide to the most prestigious ecosystem is for you.

Bored Ape Yacht Club in numbers

• The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) comprises a limited collection of 10,000 unique NFTs, launched on April 29, 2021, at a mint price of 0.08 ETH (equivalent to $190).
• Presently, the collection is under the ownership of 5,546 distinct wallets, with 55% being unique owners.
• Notably, the floor price for these exclusive NFTs currently stands at around 26 ETH, translating to approximately $40,000.
• The sales volume of BAYC has surpassed a remarkable 1.3 million ETH, equivalent to a staggering $2.17 billion.
• The peak of its popularity was evident when the most expensive BAYC, numbered #8817, was sold at Sotheby’s for an astounding $3.4 million in late October 2021. In another remarkable auction, the Yuga Labs team successfully sold a lot of 101 NFTs for an impressive $24.4 million at Sotheby’s in September 2021.
• During the peak of the NFT craze in April 2021, the entry price for BAYC was as high as $400,000.
• Demonstrating its widespread appeal, a special edition of Rolling Stone magazine featuring a Bored Ape on the cover, limited to 2,500 copies, sold out within a mere four minutes at the beginning of November 2021.
• Interestingly, only a small fraction of the collection, approximately 2% (244 pieces out of 10,000), is currently available for sale. These listings range from 26 ETH to 5,000 ETH, indicating that the majority of holders view their BAYC assets as valuable long-term investments, showing no haste in parting with their prized possessions at lower prices. This steadfast confidence underlines the collective belief in the project’s enduring potential.

Thanks to all these records, the project is included in the TOP of the best NFT collections .

Data (including exchange rates) are given at the time of publication (October 18, 2023)

Bored Ape Yacht Club attributes

Every BAYC possesses distinct features (168), categorized into 7 main attributes, each having various versions:

• The background

Some attributes are rarer than others, which makes these monkeys more collectible. Therefore, they are more expensive than others. For example, apes with Solid gold fur are rarer and more expensive than others. The floor price for these NFTs has consistently remained above 330 ETH throughout their sales history, having been offered for sale only twice. This rarity is attributed to their substantial investment potential, promising far greater returns in the future compared to a quick but less rewarding sale.

What sets this collection apart? It stands as one of the initial projects meticulously hand-drawn by artists, deviating from the algorithm-generated images prevalent in other collections like the renowned CryptoPunks. This distinction marks their first and most significant departure from the CryptoPunks phenomenon.

Who created the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Let’s delve into the origins of this journey. In a twist of fate, a group of friends came together to establish their startup venture. They named their team Yuga Labs , driven by the ambition to construct a media empire exclusively dedicated to NFTs. Crafting Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) marked their inaugural stride toward achieving this ambitious vision.

Initially, all developers at Yuga Labs operated under pseudonyms, a practice they maintained until BuzzFeed unmasked two of them in a February 2022 article.

And the aliases are:

• Gordon Goner @GordonGoner ,
• Gargamel @CryptoGarga ,
• Sass @SassBAYC ,
• Emperor Tomato Ketchup @TomatoBAYC .

It was revealed that Gargamel is, in fact, Greg Solano, an author and literary critic, while Gordon Goner goes by Wiley Aronov. Sass and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, whose real names are Zeshan and Kerem respectively, both work as software engineers.

Prior to their involvement with BAYC, Gargamel and Gordon Goner had minimal presence in the crypto community, lacking any prior development experience in the field. Despite their lack of experience, both individuals had been active traders since 2017. Tomato and Sass were newcomers to the world of NFTs and cryptocurrencies. Nevertheless, the four of them collaborated, forming Yuga Labs, and subsequently launched BAYC under this banner.

Regarding the creation of actual art, none of the founders were responsible. The primary artist for the original BAYC collection is a woman known by the pseudonym Seneca, or the All-Seeing Seneca. Additional contributors included artists such as Thomas Dugley, Migwasher, and a couple who preferred to remain anonymous.

Bored Ape Yacht Club success story

Before the inception of BAYC concept, the team at Yuga Labs was already immersed in project development. Yuga Labs realized that traditional art market concepts did not translate well into the digital realm. While paintings adorn living room walls, NFTs serve as social media profile pictures. Recognizing this shift, the team sought an “exclusive” feature for club members, giving rise to the idea of a yacht club.

Yuga Labs envisioned the club as a haven for early crypto and NFT pioneers, individuals who had ventured into the world of cryptography during its nascent stages. These early “apes,” having reaped the benefits of their earlier investments, found themselves in a leisurely state, spending their days on yachts or socializing in bars.

Reportedly, Yuga Labs swiftly attracted prominent crypto investors who backed this vision with their savings. With investments secured, the team commenced collection development, determining attributes, crafting illustrations, and securing a minting contract. The official release occurred on April 29, 2021, with NFTs initially priced at 0.08 ETH per ape (approximately $190 at that time). Initial sales were gradual, and by May 1, the momentum was still low.

However, the narrative took a dramatic turn when influential NFT personality, Pranksy , acquired nearly all the monkeys, announcing the purchase to his extensive Twitter following. This event catalyzed a rapid transformation; BAYC’s collection completely sold out within 12 hours.

Remarkably, the BAYC team emphasized in interviews that they had no prior contact with Pranksy before the sale. In the subsequent month, BAYC experienced a surge in secondary sales, marking the beginning of its rapid ascent.

Why is Bored Ape Yacht Club popular?

The widespread appeal of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) can be attributed to several key factors:

Celebrity and Mass Appeal

When influential figures or celebrities own NFTs, it creates a desire for others to own them too. Notable personalities such as Jimmy Fallon and Justin Bieber owning Bored Ape NFTs triggered a surge in sales and excitement. This celebrity endorsement generates hype, a driving force in the NFT market. People purchasing BAYC at high prices today anticipate its potential expansion beyond celebrity social media profiles, envisioning its presence in popular media like Netflix shows, renowned games, and Hollywood movies.

Community Engagement

The community surrounding the collection serves as a vital driving force. Members are drawn not only to the project’s existence but also to the exclusive privileges it offers, providing them a sense of belonging to an elite society alongside stars and celebrities. NFTs function as membership cards, granting access to exclusive groups. The more valuable people perceive their membership, the less inclined they are to sell their assets. Additionally, higher floor prices attract wealthy crypto traders, enhancing the community’s financial dynamics.

Long-term Project Viability

Unlike many projects in the market consisting solely of visual images and minimal backstory, BAYC stands out. After the initial collection release, the team expanded their initiatives, introducing two more collections, a governance token, and eventually, a metaverse. These interconnected projects are meticulously designed around the concept of monkeys, amplifying their value, significance, and impact. Notably, BAYC boasts a detailed project whitepaper outlining the team’s plans, providing transparency and assurance to investors about the project’s future trajectory.

BAYC’s value extends beyond mere collectibility, encompassing a robust social component.

Upon purchasing a BAYC token, buyers gain membership not just in the form of a token, but in an exclusive community of like-minded crypto enthusiasts. Membership privileges within this closed club continue to expand and currently include:

• Access to Exclusive Discord Server. Members join a private Discord server comprising over 30,000 individuals, including token holders and celebrities. This platform allows interaction and communication among the BAYC community members.
• Ownership and Commercial Use Rights. Owners of BAYC NFTs possess not only the rights to their virtual apes but also the commercial freedom to monetize these assets. Owners can generate income by licensing the images or creating products based on their NFTs. For instance, a BAYC member created a Twitter account for their monkey, inventing a backstory. This narrative led to the creation of a biography by New York Times author Neil Strauss, detailing the virtual valet Jenkins, an employee of the yacht club.
• Participation in Online and Offline Activities. BAYC members enjoy opportunities for both virtual and real-world engagement. They can attend exclusive events, including private parties. A notable offline event, Ape Fest, took place from October 31 to November 6, 2021, in New York. The festival featured diverse activities for monkey owners across the city, including a yacht party, charity dinners, and a concert featuring renowned personalities like Chris Rock, Aziz Ansari, and the Strokes. Over 700 attendees participated in these events. In June 2022, Ape Fest featured performances by artists like Eminem, Snoop Dogg, LCD Soundsystem, and Amy Schumer, further enhancing the unique experiences available to BAYC members. In 2023, ApeFest will be held in Hong Kong from November 3 to 5.

• The Bathroom serves as a digital canvas for Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) graffiti holders. Each NFT owner has the opportunity to contribute by drawing one pixel every fifteen minutes on a designated virtual wall.
• Access to derivative NFT collections. BAYC members gain exclusive entry to other NFT collections curated by Yuga Labs. Furthermore, they are eligible for free airdrops (we will talk about them below).

Remarkably, the creators managed to transform their monkeys into a cultural phenomenon. BAYC has transcended being merely an image; it now functions as a key to an exclusive community and serves as a status symbol. This transformation has led many individuals to invest substantial sums, ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, in these digital images.

Which celebrities own BAYC NFT?

Notably, BAYC has garnered significant attention from celebrities. A-listers prominently feature NFTs as their avatars on social media platforms, incorporate them into videos, and even participate in events dedicated to these digital creations. This widespread celebrity endorsement has introduced BAYC to hundreds of millions of people, further enhancing its popularity and reach.

Bored Ape owners include:

• American singer and show woman Paris Hilton,
• Pop legend Madonna,
• Singer Justin Bieber,
• Actor Kevin Hart,
• Broadcaster Jimmy Fallon,
• Musician Lil Baby,
• Rappers Snoop Dogg and Eminem, Post Malone and Jermaine Dupri,
• Billionaire Mark Cuban ,
• Basketball players Shaquille O’Neal, Stephen Curry, Josh Hart, LaMelo Ball and Tyrese Haliburton,
• American football stars Dez Bryant, Tom Brady and Von Miller,
• Musical groups The Chainsmokers and Waka Flocka Flame.
• Post Malone even managed to show the process of buying Bored Ape through the MoonPay app in a recent clip from The Weeknd – One Right Now. At the time of writing the video has received more than 106 million views on YouTube.

Imagine, we have listed only a small part of the celebrities who have invested large sums in these bizarre works.

Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem is a thriving digital universe that combines exclusive NFT collectibles, vibrant community engagement, and innovative utility. With celebrities endorsing these NFTs and an expanding range of interactive experiences, the BAYC ecosystem stands as a pinnacle of creativity and community within the NFT space.

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) introduces a collection of 20,000 uniquely mutated apes, each boasting an array of distinctive physical flaws. These mutations range from eerie rotting features to curious growths and even blurry snouts, making each mutant ape a truly one-of-a-kind creation. Upon the launch of the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, owners of Bored Apes were gifted a unique “serum.” This serum could be fused with their existing Bored Ape, resulting in the creation of an entirely new Mutant Ape character.

The purpose behind their creation was to acknowledge the enthusiasm of BAYC owners for the community, while also enticing more collectors to join the ecosystem. The initial price of MAYC stood at 3 ETH, and astonishingly, the entire collection was sold out within just one hour in August 2021, generating a staggering $96 million for the project team.

What sets MAYC apart is the introduction of innovative “serums,” randomly distributed among users. These serums hold the power to transform ordinary Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) monkeys into unique MAYC mutants. The serums come in three distinct levels:

• M1 and M2 Serums: These serums allow users to create a mutant monkey with some resemblances to the original BAYC character. The mutations are noticeable yet maintain a connection to the ape’s origins.
• M3 Serum: The coveted M3 serum takes the concept further by enabling the creation of an entirely new mutant monkey. This serum enhances the ape’s uniqueness, resulting in a mutant creation that stands apart from the rest, making it a highly prized asset in the NFT realm.

• You can buy a token for a minimum of 4.8 ETH,
• Total sales exceeded 988K ETH (Over $1.5 billion),
• The most expensive MAYC #30002 was sold for 500 ETH,
• Over 11K unique owners (58%).

You can also check out our ranking of the rarest MAYC tokens.

Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC)

Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) comprises 10,000 unique NFT dogs, each possessing distinctive traits. The collection is designed around a particular theme: a bored ape’s melancholy can be comforted by the presence of a faithful companion dog, bringing warmth and joy. Unlike the MAYC, the BAKC was exclusively offered to existing BAYC members. In June 2021, digital dogs were randomly distributed to BAYC owners for free as part of their perk – one dog for each BAYC. Within a limited timeframe, these members had the opportunity to “adopt” one of these 10,000 charming dogs. Notably, during the initial six weeks, a 2.5% royalty fee from secondary market sales was directed towards supporting no-kill animal shelters, adding a philanthropic aspect to the endeavor.

• You can buy a token for a minimum of 1.5 ETH,
• Total sales exceeded 273K ETH (Over $430k),
• The most expensive BAKC #5908 was sold for 50 ETH,
• Over 5K unique owners (53%).

ApeCoin Governance Token

ApeCoin ( $APE ) serves as the economic management token within the BAYC ecosystem, fostering community development. It operates as an ERC-20 token specifically designed to empower the community of bored monkeys. Yuga Labs, the brains behind the BAYC collection, has integrated ApeCoin across all its products and services.

Why is this relevant in our article? Well, 15% of the total coin supply was distributed to BAYC holders, enabling them to engage in lucrative trading activities on various prominent cryptocurrency exchanges.

• The total supply of $APE stands at 1 billion coins;
• The cryptocurrency’s market capitalization has surpassed $420 million;
• The value of a single Apecoin recently ranged from $1.1 to $2;
• The token reached its peak value on April 29, 2022, hitting $23.

Otherside Metaverse

On March 19, 2022, Yuga Labs took the virtual world by storm, unveiling a captivating trailer for the highly anticipated Otherside metaverse via their official Twitter account. Unlike anything seen before, this metaverse is a masterpiece of gamification, combining elements of role-playing games with iconic characters from popular NFT collections including BAYC, MAYC, CryptoPunks, Meebits , World of Women , Cool Cats and others blue chips.

What sets Otherside apart is its unique collaboration with industry giants Animoca Brands and Improbable, promising a groundbreaking virtual experience. In this immersive metaverse, NFT enthusiasts can interact with digital assets from well-known collections, creating an interconnected universe of creativity and innovation.

However, what truly sets Otherside apart from the rest is its ambitious endeavor to create a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) metaverse. This bold step aims to seamlessly integrate diverse NFT universes, providing players with an unparalleled gaming experience that transcends traditional boundaries.  

Today, Otherside is a strategic priority for the entire ecosystem, as recently confirmed by the company’s CEO, pointing out strategic focuses .

How much do BAYC cost?

In April, 2021 the mint price was 0.08 ETH ($190). To visualize the price growth, we made a cut at the average price for 1 NFT:

• In August 2021: 24 ETH;
• In October 2021: 62 ETH;
• In January 2022: 116 ETH;
• In May 2022: 159 ETH;
• In August 2022: 120 ETH;
• In January 2023: 75 ETH;
• In August 2023: 28 ETH.

Now (October 2023) the floor price is 26 ETH. On average, the latest sales are in the range of 24-40 ETH. To date, the sales volume has surpassed a remarkable 1.3 million ETH, equivalent to a staggering $2.17 billion.

The most expensive BAYC sales

• In September 2021, Yuga Labs achieved a significant milestone by selling a collection of 101 NFTs for an impressive $24.4 million at Sotheby’s.
• #8817 fetched an astonishing $3.4 million at Sotheby’s by the close of October 2021, further solidifying the club’s status as a coveted and valuable collection in the NFT market.
• #7537 sold on June 15, 2022 for 1024 ETH ($1.2M at time of purchase).
• #6388 sold on July 9, 2022 for 869.69 ETH ($1M at time of purchase).
• #232 sold on November 23, 2022 for 800 ETH ($947k at time of purchase).

You can also see our ranking of the most expensive , rarest and most popular BAYC NFTs.

Where to buy Bored Ape Yacht Club?

In early April 2021, the NFTs were at their peak and quickly sold out. Now they can only be bought in secondary markets. You can see all NFTs available for sale on their page only on the marketplaces:

• LooksRare ,

How to buy Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Wondering how to become a part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community? Here’s a simple guide:

• Connect Your Crypto Wallet: Start by linking your crypto wallet, ensuring secure storage for your digital assets.
• Visit the Official Collection: Locate the official Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. You can find links to official accounts in the previous paragraph.
• Choose Your NFT: Explore the collection to find the specific NFT you wish to purchase. Click on the NFT and then hit the “Buy” button.
• Place a Bid (Optional): Alternatively, you can place a bid on the token you like. Ensure you have enough ETH to cover gas or transaction fees. If the seller accepts your bid, the transaction will proceed.
• Congratulations!: Once the deal is confirmed, you officially become a valued member of the Yuga Labs community. Enjoy your newfound privileges!

Collaborations and news about BAYC

This extensive review would be incomplete if we did not touch on important news about the project itself. So, below are the largest of them.

• In October 2021, Yuga Labs inked a deal with renowned music manager Guy Osiri, known for his collaborations with Madonna and U2. Osiri’s agency, Maverick Records, will serve as the representative for BAYC in the realms of film, television, and music.
• Following suit, in November 2021, music powerhouse Universal Music revealed its intentions to create a virtual metaverse centered around NFT apes. Additionally, they announced the promotion of a virtual group named Kingship, comprised of three rare Bored Ape members and one Mutant Ape.

• In November 2021, American rapper and producer Timbaland made a significant move by purchasing multiple BAYCs and establishing Ape-In Productions. This company and platform are dedicated to crafting content for various metaverse applications, specifically those incorporating BAYC visuals. Timbaland’s venture introduced TheZoo, a virtual group comprised of six Bored Ape members. The label debuted their inaugural track, “ApeSh!t,” accompanied by a music video in March 2021.

• In early November 2021, the renowned magazine Rolling Stone unveiled an exclusive NFT cover showcasing a Bored Ape. Limited to 2,500 copies, this special edition sold out within a mere four minutes, emphasizing its immense popularity.

• In December, 2021, Adidas launched its first NFT project, Into The Metaverse , in collaboration with several Bored Ape Yacht Club, Punk Comics, and NFT influencer Gmoney . Collaboration between Adidas and BAYC is coming soon on both virtual and physical wear.
• In June 2022, Snoop Dogg and Eminem launched a fresh track and music video featuring the Bored Apes collaboration. Both artists took on the persona of animated monkeys in the video. As of the latest update, the official channel has amassed over 88 million views for this captivating collaboration.

• In July, 2023, Yuga Labs launched network licensing for BAYC and MAYC brands called “ Made by Apes ”. Owners of these NFTs can officially register their goods, services or company under the NFT brand based on a unique online license.
• On August, 2023, Snoop Dogg and the world-famous shoe brand Skechers presented a collaboration in the form of a limited collection of street shoes called Dr. Bombay featuring a leopard BAYC. A total of 5 models in the collection with elements of leopard style and a large image of a leopard NFT ape. The cost is from 75 to 100 dollars.
• In September, 2023, the team has revealed its latest collaboration with the legendary Japanese streetwear brand BAPE . The collaboration will feature an extremely limited collection available exclusively to the community. The collaboration will feature an extremely limited collection available exclusively to the community. The premiere will take place at ApeFest 2023 in Hong Kong.
• In September, 2023, Yuga Labs announced The Yacht Club Open House IRL event. This inaugural event, designed to welcome non-members, promises a day filled with panel talks, immersive encounters, and the chance to connect with web3 creators, collectors, and the crypto-curious.

The Future of Bored Ape Yacht Club

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has undeniably made its mark on the NFT and blockchain landscapes, but its journey is far from over. Looking ahead, we can expect BAYC to not just maintain its momentum but also soar to even greater heights.

BAYC has transcended into a cultural phenomenon, and its popularity is set to surge as more individuals get acquainted with its unique appeal. Several factors, such as the growing acceptance of NFTs, the metaverse’s rising popularity, and the steadfast support from its vibrant community, will act as the driving force behind its continued expansion.

In the realm of blockchain, BAYC is positioning itself as the most major player. The club’s potential lies in its ability to innovate, constantly introducing groundbreaking products and services. Through strategic partnerships and collaborations, BAYC could reshape how we engage with digital assets and virtual experiences, setting new standards in the industry.

BAYC’s future is remarkably promising. Its current success, combined with ongoing innovations, suggests a future where BAYC will wield significant influence over the NFT and blockchain sectors. Keep an eye on this space; exciting developments are undoubtedly on the horizon.

Should you invest in Bored Ape Yacht Club?

In the ever-evolving world of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has emerged as a significant player, capturing the attention of investors and enthusiasts alike. The question on many minds is: Should you invest in Bored Ape Yacht Club?

At its core, BAYC is not just a collection of unique and artistic NFTs; it represents a thriving community and a cultural phenomenon. The exclusivity and creativity embedded in each Bored Ape make them highly coveted digital assets. With celebrities, influencers, and notable personalities endorsing BAYC, its popularity has skyrocketed, leading to substantial market demand.

Investing in these NFTs offers the allure of potential profits, especially given its historical price trends and the ever-expanding NFT market. The limited supply of 10,000 Bored Apes ensures their rarity, a key factor driving their value. Additionally, BAYC’s foray into the metaverse and collaborations with renowned artists and musicians hint at its potential for long-term growth and innovation.

However, like any NFT investment , BAYC comes with risks. The volatile nature of the cryptocurrency market means prices can fluctuate rapidly. Potential investors must conduct thorough research, understanding the market trends, community dynamics, and the overall utility of BAYC within the NFT ecosystem.

In conclusion, investing in Bored Ape Yacht Club can be a lucrative venture for those willing to navigate the complexities of the crypto world. With its strong community, unique value proposition, and continuous developments, BAYC stands as a compelling investment opportunity. As always, diversification and a well-informed approach are key when considering any investment in the digital realm.

Opinion of NFTmetria

In the vast sea of NFT collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has emerged as a beacon of exclusivity and innovation. While countless NFT projects come and go, only a select few truly capture the public’s imagination, and BAYC stands firmly among them. Its unprecedented popularity can be attributed to several key factors, making it a standout choice for both collectors and investors.

• Celebrity Allure and Social Status: One of the driving forces behind BAYC’s meteoric rise is the endorsement by celebrities and influencers. When influential figures, like Jimmy Fallon and Justin Bieber, proudly display their Bored Apes, it creates a hype that resonates far beyond the crypto community. BAYC serves not just as a digital art collection, but as a social symbol, a pass to an exclusive club where social status intertwines with digital ownership.
• Active Community and Social Component: BAYC has redefined the concept of NFT ownership. It’s no longer just about owning a piece of digital art; it’s about being part of a thriving community. The active engagement within the BAYC community fosters a sense of belonging, turning mere token holders into active participants in a digital society. This social component, where digital assets mirror real-world social interactions, is reshaping the way we perceive ownership in the digital realm.
• A Glimpse into the Future: While BAYC is undeniably a form of conspicuous consumption, it also serves as a trailblazer for the crypto sector. Its success raises an intriguing question: Could blockchain technology find its true calling in the realm of entertainment, paving the way for a future where digital experiences hold as much value as physical possessions? As mass adoption of blockchain technology inches closer, BAYC’s unique blend of art, social interaction, and celebrity endorsement might very well point the way forward.

In the ever-evolving landscape of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, Bored Ape Yacht Club stands as a testament to the potential of digital assets beyond financial investments. Its allure goes beyond monetary value; it represents a cultural shift where the digital and physical worlds intersect. As we witness the unfolding chapters of blockchain technology, BAYC offers a tantalizing glimpse into what the future might hold – a future where our digital lives are as rich and meaningful as our physical ones. Only time will reveal the full extent of this transformative journey.

We will teach you how to analyze trends and find NFT grails. You will figure out how to build an amazing collection of NFTs that will increase in value faster than the market over time.

Get the NFT Investor Introductory Course for Free!

You will learn in detail:.

• How to start investing in NFTs?
• How to choose and analyze an NFT project?
• How to choose an NFT for invest?
• Most successful investment strategies
• Tools for analyzing the NFT market

• The A.V. Club
• The Takeout
• The Inventory

Support Quartz

Fund next-gen business journalism with $10 a month

Free Newsletters

The founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club weren’t doxxed

On Feb. 4, BuzzFeed published an article that revealed the identities of two of the most influential personas in the crypto world, known as “Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel.” They are the pseudonymous co-founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most expensive and prestigious collections of nonfungible token—or NFT—avatars.

The group, now incorporated as Yuga Labs and seeking venture capital, has been reportedly valued at around $5 billion by investors. But the founders, identified as Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, wished to stay pseudonymous and allege they have been “doxxed” against their will by BuzzFeed.

BuzzFeed used public documents about Yuga Labs’ incorporation in Delaware to identify the co-founders. But the term doxxing—which refers to publicly revealing information about someone, often to endanger them—does not really fit what happened.

Identifying the founders of one of the world’s most valuable crypto companies provides transparency into the operation of an influential company. Revealing their identities—powerful people in influential positions, even if they wish to remain anonymous for personal reasons—is not doxxing, it’s public interest journalism.

What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

The Bored Apes, named after its drawings of different cartoon apes, are now the second-most valuable NFT collection by average sale price, according to crypto website The Block. Nonfungible tokens are a way to store data on a blockchain. They typically point to digital images, game characters, or social media posts—a way to verify the authenticity of something native to the internet. NFTs of artworks have boomed in the past year, rising in price and popularity since the artist Beeple sold a $69 million NFT collage at Christie’s auction house in March 2021. Since then, the NFT market has ballooned into a $35 billion industry according to the investment bank Jeffries, and its on pace to become an $80 billion industry by 2025.

The supply of Bored Ape NFTs is limited: There are only 10,000 Bored Ape avatars—or unique pictures of apes—in existence. While each may sell for $25,000 on average, some have sold for millions of dollars available in the cryptocurrency Ether. The founders receive the original price paid for the apes, plus a cut of each successive sale.

The Bored Apes also have a contingent of celebrity collectors: Justin Bieber recently purchased a Bored Ape for $1.3 million on the peer-to-peer marketplace OpenSea , and Paris Hilton and Jimmy Fallon recently discussed their apes on The Tonight Show .

Not only is having an ape in one’s Twitter profile picture a contemporary status symbol—indicating someone was really early to the project or spent a lot of money on one after it became popular—it’s become a real business.

Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Apes, is in talks with the venture capital firm Andreesen Horowitz for an investment that would reportedly value the firm at $5 billion , making it more valuable than established pre-IPO tech companies like the creator platform Patreon ($4 billion), the artificial intelligence lab OpenAI ($2.9 billion), and the online education firm Masterclass ($2.8 billion).

How BuzzFeed found the Bored Apes co-founders 

The NFT space is an unregulated pseudo-financial industry where people typically invest for speculative purposes, often hoping to make money. While there are plenty of NFT offerings that are not schemes designed to steal people’s money, scams and rug-pulls (where project founders flee after the initial sales) are commonplace.

Bored Ape Yacht Club, however, has been incredibly successful. It has become so popular its avatars are frequently sold at the esteemed auction houses Christie’s and Sotheby’s alongside blue-chip art.

But in order to do business with venture capital firms, the co-founders needed to set up a legal corporation, so the company Yuga Labs was incorporated in Delaware with an address linked to Solano. BuzzFeed found these public filings and connected the dots. When approached by BuzzFeed, Yuga Labs CEO Nicole Muniz confirmed that the founders were, in fact, Solano and Aronow.

What is doxxing?

Doxxing is the act of intentionally releasing personal information about someone online “often with the intent to humiliate, threaten, intimidate, or punish” the person identified, writes David M. Douglas, a scholar at the University of Queensland in Australia. Douglas says that deanonymizing people is justified if it is in the public interest, the rationale for doing so is clearly explained, and the people responsible are themselves not anonymous.

Doxxing was a frequently used intimidation tactic during the Gamergate controversy , in which anonymous users targeted female gamers. But discussions of doxxing have also arisen when journalists for Gawker revealed the identity of a Reddit troll and (while likely incorrect ) Newsweek revealed the creator of Bitcoin.

By contrast, BuzzFeed determined it was in the public interest to know who was in charge of a new company purportedly worth $5 billion seeking funding from prominent investors. The Bored Ape Yacht Club founders’ identities were unlikely to stay private because their business filings were public and easily identifiable. As publications do in these cases, it determined that identifying them would not cause serious danger for people—in this case, ostensible multi-billionaires with the means to protect themselves—who may control one of the most valuable companies in the world.

This is generally how business reporting works. Journalists seek information about powerful businesses and the people who run them and publish it for the public benefit. Reporters make judgment calls about whether identifying an anonymous person helps the public, if it’s likely that the information will stay private if otherwise unreported, and whether reporting it could seriously endanger them.

But that’s now how Muniz, the CEO of Yuga Labs, saw it. In an interview with D3 , she claimed releasing the co-founders’ identities was “very, very dangerous,” namely because the crypto industry has “attracted some nefarious characters.” Certainly, owning a stake and influence in a $5 billion company can attract threats and danger, but this is not unique to crypto or the Bored Ape Yacht Club. And neither co-founder took great pains to remove personally identifiable information from public business listings.

“Extreme wealth can make you a target for criminals, no doubt,” said Los Angeles Times editor Jeff Bercovici in a tweet . “Most wealthy people deal with that by hiring security. If these guys thought they could avoid threats by concealing their identities so poorly, they were wrong, and BuzzFeed did them a favor by demonstrating that.”

Where crypto meets the real world

The crypto world likes to believe it inhabits a parallel universe: It has its own decentralized money, its own decentralized organizations , and its own ideas around what is public and what is private. For example, all transactions of a public blockchain like Bitcoin or Ethereum can be tracked, a permanent append-only ledger of all changes. But the identities of those behind the transactions are hidden behind cryptographic addresses. Only through connecting a person or business to that address can reveal who is behind it.

But secrets are hard to keep when you run one of the most valuable entities on the internet. The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s co-founders attempted to cross over from the crypto world to the real world. In the United States, firmly located in the real world, privately owned businesses are required to have public listings in the state in which they are incorporated. Any serious attempt to conceal the founders’ identity would have likely involved Cayman-based shell companies or Swiss bank accounts.

The result was predictable. The anonymous co-founders of a $5 billion tech company incorporated in Delaware became immediately identifiable. But, BuzzFeed published information about the co-founders, believing correctly that you cannot hold a large tech company accountable if you don’t know who is in charge.

📬 Sign up for the Daily Brief

Our free, fast, and fun briefing on the global economy, delivered every weekday morning.

Welcome to the Billionaire Club

The BILLIONAIRE CLUB is a private collection of NFTs—unique digital collectibles. The Apes, Cyborgs and Tycoons are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and hosted on IPFS.

With more than 360+ hand drawn traits, each NFT is unique and comes with a membership to an exclusive group of successful investors. Join an ambitious ever-growing community with multiple benefits and utilities.

THE PARTY APES

Earlier this year, a mysterious force coming from another galaxy summoned the most influential people on the planet Earth. They received the geographic coordinates of a secret location for the party: the Billionaire Club. There, they will have the opportunity to exchange, discuss and collaborate in order to become even bigger than they are. During this party, the host revealed the main reason for this invitation...

THE SUPERSTAR

THE APEQUEEN

THE GODFATHER

THE ORIENTAPE

THE BROTHER

THE GAME MASTER

Golden guests.

The Golden Guests edition by the Billionaire Club are the rarest NFTs. They’re all hand drawn and have no element in common with the regular collection.

THE TYCOONS

THE TYCOONS are the rarest NFTs of the collection. They are all hand drawn and have no element in common with the regular collection. You will not be able to mint these NFTs reserved to the community's biggest investors.

Grand Opening

Congratulations, you are on the guest list. Give your name to the bouncer and jump the line. Join the community on Discord. Get Aped up with us.

Round of shots

A $30,000 fund is available to finance the community’s creations, designs, and development. Also, 1% of the OpenSea fees are dedicated to this special fund, ensuring the Billionaire’s club longevity through common projects.

don’t stop the music

Access to an Exclusive investments and business club (meetings, conferences, social events)… That’s not all, the lucky owners of our SPECIAL EDITION pieces will get monthly rewards and gifts as $500/month.

EXCLUSIVE MERCH

Holders of our NFTs will unlock exclusive merchandising from the Billionaire Club’s Collection. We will also create collectible figures and launch collaborations with artists. You will have to stay in touch for monthly Airdrops with future benefits

HOLDERS RANKING & DAO

Make your voice heard. Being an active member of the community will allow you to work your way up and have more power with decisions through votes and surveys. This power given to the community will increase with time. The goal is to create a DAO.

FUSION WITH BENEFITS

We will be holding an exclusive fusion event. Holders will be able to fuse two apes to increase rarity by adding two traits of their choice. The merging process will trigger the creation of a brand new party ape NFT and a unique Cyborg with equivalent traits.

Overall Stats

Largest sales.

The Billionaire club was created by a team of digital native: Entrepreneurs, Blockchain experts, Marketing wizards, and Artists… We are committed to delivering a cutting-edge experience and making this project a success.

The Co-Founder

Blockchain Expert

Graphic Designer

General Manager

Social Media & Influence Manager

DUBAI'S PARTY APE

Join the billionaire club.

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

• What Is Cinema?
• Newsletters

Crypto Fanboys Are Mad the Men Behind Bored Ape Yacht Club Have Been Revealed

By Caleb Ecarma

All featured products are independently selected by our editors. However, when you buy something through our retail links, Vanity Fair may earn an affiliate commission.

The mysterious creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), an NFT collection of 10,000 gorilla avatars that has permeated online celebrity culture, were finally unmasked on Friday: A BuzzFeed report identified Greg Solano, 32, and Wylie Aronow, 35, who both grew up in Florida, as the brand’s founders. Solano, a writer and editor, was previously only known by the pen name “Gargamel,” while Aronow used the pseudonym “Gordon Goner.” The duo confirmed the reveal of their real names on Twitter: “Got doxxed against my will. Oh well,” wrote Aronow, sharing a real photo of himself alongside the NFT avatar that he uses as his profile picture—a meme known as “Web2 me vs. Web3 me.” Solano followed suit with a picture of himself and his own version of the meme, adding , “Got doxed so why not.” 

While Solano and Aronow claimed that BuzzFeed “doxed” them, that term refers to the public release of an individual’s private information, such as their home address or phone number, by a bad actor—particularly one trying to foment a harassment campaign. BuzzFeed’s unmasking of the BAYC cofounders, in contrast, was motivated by the belief that the public should know who is actually running a company that could soon receive a multibillion-dollar valuation.

Katie Notopoulos, the BuzzFeed News reporter who authored the piece, initially identified Solano and Aronow by sifting through publicly available records for Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Apes brand. Yuga Labs CEO  Nicole Muniz  later confirmed her reporting. While Aronow and Solano are not the artists responsible for creating their brand’s NFTs, the two came up with the idea for BAYC and are its public leaders. A creator known as “Seneca” is the  lead designer  of BAYC’s original collection; all the digital art pieces share a nearly identical base look but differ in accessories, facial expressions, and colorization. Two other BAYC cocreators are still only known by their online handles: “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” and “No Sass.”

Solano and Aronow’s unmasking has implications that stretch beyond fans of the trendy and controversial gorilla avatars. Writing about BuzzFeed’s decision to report on their identities, Notopoulos pointed out that “there are reasons why in the traditional business world, the CEO or founder of a company uses their real name and not a pseudonym.” She continued: “The people behind BAYC are courting investors and running a business that is potentially worth billions.... How do you hold them accountable if you don’t know who they are?” (One day before BuzzFeed published its report, news broke that Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley–based venture capital firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, had expressed interest in buying a stake in Yuga Labs, one that could give it a valuation between $4 billion and $5 billion, according to the Financial Times . Andreessen declined F.T. ’s request for comment.)

But the public-interest argument did not stop the crypto community from attacking Notopoulos.  Adam Hollander, the founder of Microsoft’s Incent Games and  self-proclaimed  “owner of #BAYC 3987,”  wrote  that BuzzFeed’s reporting was “not only unprofessional - it was downright dangerous.” Hollander went on to write that “Buzzfeed should apologize” and cover the costs for Aronow and Solano to hire personal security guards. (Notopoulos did not immediately respond to Vanity Fair ’s request for comment.) Another BAYC fan appeared to threaten  to retaliate against the journalist herself, vowing to “post a bunch of your personal info like you did to bayc founders. Starting with location, place of work, parents home, siblings addresses…Your parents suburbs are not that far away actually.” 

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.

Maxwell Strachan, an editor and writer at Vice’s Motherboard, characterized the backlash to Notopoulos’s reporting as a microcosm of what “the next 5 years will look like” as the so-called Web3 movement continues to gain steam. “This is a brand raising millions of dollars from one of the world’s most powerful VC firms at a $4 billion valuation. Yet, people believe they are just like them,” he tweeted . “It’s hard right now to think through the ramifications of a new Web 3 world where people who head some of the more influential organizations remain wholly anonymous—and are vigorously defended for doing so.” Jeff Bercovici, the deputy business editor at the Los Angeles Times, echoed Strachan’s sentiment: “The backlash isn’t surprising but it betrays deep ignorance about the function of journalism and an entitled belief that crypto must be covered on its own terms,” he wrote . “If you’re mad about Buzzfeed naming the BAYC founders, your beef is with journalism.… If you’re OK with billionaire lists and locker-room reporting but outraged today because crypto, that’s called special pleading.”

By Eve Batey

This tension between born-again crypto believers and tech journalists whose job includes reporting on the NFT craze doesn’t appear to be abating anytime soon. In recent months, BAYC seems to have cemented itself into the internet’s financial landscape: Millions of dollars in Ethereum, a cryptocurrency used for buying and selling NFTs on platforms like OpenSea, have been spent on Bored Ape NFTs. The BAYC hype train, which runs on artificial scarcity and market speculation, has also been fueled by A-list celebrities from every industry jumping aboard, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Steph Curry, Justin Bieber, Paris Hilton, and Mark Cuban. In December, BAYC even obtained its own Adidas collaboration, with the massive sneaker manufacturer announcing its “leap Into The Metaverse” on Twitter and making its profile picture a Bored Ape NFT donning a three-stripe tracksuit.

— Inside Jerry Falwell Jr.’s Unlikely Rise and Precipitous Fall at Liberty University — Eric Adams Pulls Crypto-Paycheck Stunt Hours Before Bitcoin Crash — Dave Chappelle and “the Black Ass Lie” That Keeps Us Down — Trump’s January 6 Cover-Up Is Unraveling Fast — Florida Man Has Growing God Complex — In 2024, Mike Pence Is Gearing Up to Go Rogue — New York Attorney General to Trump, Ivanka, and Don Jr.: Don’t F--k With Us — Inside This Cable News Giant’s Streaming Dreams — From the Archive: It Came From Wasilla — Not a subscriber? Join Vanity Fair to receive full access to VF.com and the complete online archive now.

Caleb Ecarma

Staff reporter.

By Bess Levin

By Chris Murphy

By Scott Nover

By Jack McCordick

• Side Hustles
• Power Players
• Young Success
• Save and Invest
• Become Debt-Free
• Land the Job
• Closing the Gap
• Science of Success
• Pop Culture and Media
• Psychology and Relationships
• Health and Wellness
• Real Estate
• Most Popular

Related Stories

• Next Gen Investing Bitcoin has surged 67% in value   since September—here's why
• Next Gen Investing Here's how much money you'd have if you   invested $1,000 in bitcoin 10 years ago
• Next Gen Investing Bitcoin briefly reached a record   high—investors should still tread carefully
• Spend Home prices are up in all major U.S.   cities—except Austin, Texas
• Real Estate Selling your home in 2024? List it in   June, Zillow analysis suggests

Justin Bieber's Bored Ape NFT was valued at $1.3 million in 2022—now it's only worth around $60,000

In 2021, non-fungible tokens went mainstream in a big way as celebrities and the general public spent millions buying up and trading the digital collectibles. But today, prices for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, one of the most popular collections, has crashed to a two-year low.

Take one Bored Ape NFT owned by Justin Bieber, for example: It has declined in value by about 95% over the past year and a half.

In January 2022, the Grammy award-winning music artist entered the world of NFTs by allegedly dropping 500 ETH (around $1.3 million at the time) on Bored Ape #3001 , an NFT belonging to Yuga Labs' Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection.

But as of July 2023, Bieber's Bored Ape is only worth around $59,000, according to Bitcoinist .

And its not just Bieber's NFT that has significantly declined in value.

Basketball star Stephen Curry purchased Bored Ape #7990 for 55 ETH (nearly $180,000 at the time) on Aug. 28, 2021. But as of July 6, the highest bid for the NFT is 30.5 ETH, or about $58,000, according to OpenSea. That's a nearly 68% drop.

Music icon Madonna bought Bored Ape #4988 for 180 ETH (around $466,000 at the time) on March 14, 2022, but the highest bid on the NFT was 28 ETH (a little over $53,000) as of July 6, according to OpenSea.

It's also worth noting that in December, a number of celebrities, including Bieber, Curry and Madonna, were named in a class-action lawsuit filed by investors who purchased Yuga Labs' digital assets, which alleges the celebrity endorsements and promotions of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection were manufactured, according to the Los Angeles Times .

The floor price of the NFT collection has dwindled to lows not seen since October 2021, when the cheapest Bored Ape cost about 30 ETH, per CoinDesk's analysis .

That's a long way away from when BAYC's floor price surged to 153.7 ETH in April 2022, meaning the smallest amount of money a seller would accept was around $430,000 at that time.

At the end of 2022, the NFT market had recorded about $24.7 billion in trading volume — a slight dip from 2021's $25.1 billion, according to Decrypt .

This year, the NFT market's downward turn appears to be continuing. In May and June, NFT trading volume didn't surpass the $1 billion mark for the first time since December 2022, according to DappRadar . However, it's important not to equate lower trading volume to lower overall market enthusiasm, DappRadar's report says.

To that point, Bored Ape Yacht Club still ranks as one of the top NFT collections on OpenSea, and some sellers still appear to be hopeful that collectors will shill out millions for the digital artwork.

While the lowest asking price for a Bored Ape hovered around 30.6 ETH ($57,712) as of July 6, the most expensive Bored Ape NFT comes with an asking price of over 6,969 ETH ($13 million), according to OpenSea.

DON'T MISS: Want to be smarter and more successful with your money, work & life?  Sign up for our new newsletter!

  Get CNBC's free  Warren Buffett Guide to Investing , which distills the billionaire's No. 1 best piece of advice for regular investors, do's and don'ts, and three key investing principles into a clear and simple guidebook.

CHECK OUT: An NFT collector accidentally destroyed a $129,000 CryptoPunk: ‘This is truly a devastating mistake for me’

Things to Do in Elektrostal, Russia - Elektrostal Attractions

Things to do in elektrostal.

• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Adventurous
• Budget-friendly
• Hidden Gems
• Good for Couples
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Electrostal History and Art Museum

2. Statue of Lenin

3. Park of Culture and Leisure

4. museum and exhibition center.

5. Museum of Labor Glory

7. Galereya Kino

8. viki cinema, 9. smokygrove.

10. Gandikap

11. papa lounge bar, 12. karaoke bar.

• Statue of Lenin
• Electrostal History and Art Museum
• Park of Culture and Leisure
• Museum and Exhibition Center
• Museum of Labor Glory

Top Things to Do in Elektrostal, Russia - Elektrostal Attractions

Things to do in elektrostal.

• 5.0 of 5 bubbles
• 4.0 of 5 bubbles & up
• Good for a Rainy Day
• Good for Kids
• Good for Big Groups
• Adventurous
• Budget-friendly
• Hidden Gems
• Good for Couples
• Honeymoon spot
• Good for Adrenaline Seekers
• Things to do ranked using Tripadvisor data including reviews, ratings, photos, and popularity.

1. Electrostal History and Art Museum

2. Statue of Lenin

3. Park of Culture and Leisure

4. museum and exhibition center.

5. Museum of Labor Glory

7. Galereya Kino

8. viki cinema, 9. smokygrove.

10. Gandikap

11. papa lounge bar, 12. karaoke bar.

• Statue of Lenin
• Electrostal History and Art Museum
• Park of Culture and Leisure
• Museum and Exhibition Center
• Museum of Labor Glory