Bored Apes have enjoyed tremendous success in the NFT market– seeing a rise from a minting price of 0.08 ETH to an average all-time high of 152 ETH, or $434,000 in April 2022. However, the BAYC team envisions a much larger future for the Bored Ape ecosystem– and ApeCoin (APE) will serve several important functions.
In this ApeCoin guide, we’ll be covering how APE works, its various use cases, tokenomics, and why the coin is worth paying attention to– whether you’re holding a BAYC-related NFT or not
What is ApeCoin?
ApeCoin is an Ethereum-based cryptocurrency created by Yuga Labs, the $4 billion company famous for its collection of eccentric and colorful Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
ApeCoin launched on March 17th, 2022 to power the entire BAYC ecosystem and serve functions like being the governance token for the ApeCoin DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization).
Given the tremendous popularity of the Bored Ape collection, ApeCoin is expected to be used by various artists and celebrities for sales and other brand engagements. For example, Rappers Snoop Dogg and Whiz Khalifa released an NFT music album together available for purchase with APE. TIME Magazine announced it will start accepting subscriptions paid with the token.
Congrats to the ApeCoin DAO on the rollout of @ApeCoin & thrilled we can announce that @TIME will be accepting $APE for digital subscriptions in the coming weeks on https://t.co/tiBU5fsE5B
— TIMEPieces
NFT NYC (@timepieces) March 20, 2022
ApeCoin and the Otherside Metaverse
ApeCoin holds an essential role as the de facto currency for Otherside, BAYC’s upcoming metaverse. Otherside was announced on March 18th, 2022 in an official Tweet from the BAYC team.
See you on the Otherside in April. Powered by @apecoin pic.twitter.com/1cnSk1CjXS
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 19, 2022
Otherside is an MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) set in its own metaverse world, where the entire NFT community is invited to explore a new digital world and interact socially and economically, using APE as the main currency to buy in-game NFTs such as merchandise, pay for services or attend events held at the metaverse.
ApeCoinDAO and the APE Foundation
The ApeCoinDAO and the Ape Foundation are two entities working together to ensure the future of ApeCoin rolls out as the community envisions it.
ApeCoin DAO
ApeCoin DAO is the community in charge of governing the entire ApeCoin ecosystem. Each member of the DAO has the right to submit or vote on protocol proposals and basically participate in all things related to the ecosystem. You are eligible to become a member by simply holding ApeCoin in your wallet.
The DAO handles critical matters in the ApeCoin ecosystem, such as how many funds are allocated to the Treasury, setting up or changing rules, verifying and selecting what projects are coming in, forming partnerships, etc.
Ape Foundation
The Ape Foundation is the legal steward of the ApeCoin DAO. It acts as a sort of corporational parent of the DAO and carries out community-approved proposals, facilitating its development and growth.
The Ape Foundation has a board of five members, each represented by their respective Bored Ape, and can only serve a six-month term. At the end of the period, the ApeCoin community will decide on the future board. The Ape Foundation Council is constituted by some of the most elite names from the NFT and crypto community:
- Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian
- FTX Head of Ventures director Amy Wu.
- Sound Ventures principal Maaria Bajwa
- Co-founder of Animoca Brands Yat Siu
- President and General Counsel at Horizen Labs Dean Steinbeck
ApeCoin Price Analysis: From Launch to Now
ApeCoin debuted on March 17, 2022, highly anticipated by the Bored Ape and the NFT community in general. During its first days of trading, APE experienced massive volatility, reaching a high of $39.40 in just five minutes after going public, then dropping 80% the next day. The token entered a consolidation phase, fluctuating between $10 to $12 apiece. As of June 2022, ApeCoin is trading at $3.65 per token.
ApeCoin Daily Chart. Source: TradingView.
ApeCoin Tokenomics
ApeCoin has a fixed supply of 1 billion APE, distributed as follows:
- DAO treasury and community: 62% (470,000,000 and 150,000,000 respectively)
- Yuga Labs and charity: 16% (150,000,000 and 10,000,000 respectively)
- Launch contributors: 14% (140,000,000)
- BAYC founders: 8% (80,000,000)
You may be wondering: if ApeCoin DAO powers the ecosystem, then why is Yuga Lab in the equation?
As one of the early investors, Yuga Labs receives a portion of the token distribution.
Roughly 150 million tokens were airdropped to both Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFT holders and their respective Kennels:
- Bored Ape: 10,094 tokens
- Mutant Ape: 2042 tokens
- Bored Ape + Kennel Club: 10,950 tokens
- Mutant Ape + Kennel Club: 2,898 tokens
All tokens are locked for a period of 12 months so shareholders aren’t able to cash out immediately, potentially crashing the price.
What Can You Do With ApeCoin?
ApeCoin is mostly used as the governance token for the ApeCoin DAO and for trading at major exchanges. It is a relatively new project but it has bold plans; the BAYC team has outlined their intentions of making APE the de facto currency for a vast ecosystem of projects building on the Otherside metaverse.
Some third-party projects are already strategizing the use of ApeCoin. For example, Benji Bananas, a popular mobile video game created by Animoca Brands decided to integrate play-to-earn modularity in which players can earn in-game tokens that can be exchanged for ApeCoin.
This is just one of the few projects that are supporting the APE token, but we could presumably foresee a future where dozens and even hundreds of NFT projects are using ApeCoin as a means to attract users from the BAYC and surrounding NFT ecosystems.
Where Can You Buy ApeCoin?
APE is available for purchase on a variety of exchanges, most popularly Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, or Huobi.
Final Thoughts: The Future of ApeCoin
The BAYC team has ambitious plans for ApeCoin. One of the main objectives is to turn it into a token that can be used by numerous NFT projects and community members across several multiverse worlds, creating a broader in-game economy and ecosystem.
ApeCoin’s success will depend on several factors here, such as how well the DAO and the APE Foundation develop the ecosystem and how Yuga Labs manages to attract a bigger audience and projects into the Otherside metaverse.
For the time being, ApeCoin will remain on the Ethereum network —as decided by the APE community through a DAO voting proposal on June 2nd. The whole process started when Yuga Labs stated in a tweet that if ApeCoin should scale, then it must move to an alternative blockchain or sidechain. or leave it on the Ethereum chain, as migrating to a different chain is a “costly, risky, and complex endeavor.”
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