Key Takeaways

• The Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the most influential NFT initiatives. It was created by Yuga Labs and consists of a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that provide members with ownership of a unique and stylish cartoon ape character.
• The sales volume for the BAYC collection in November 2021 was a record $199.3 million. However, this volume has declined with time, and reports indicate that BAYC's sales figures declined by more than 60% in May 2022.
• The most expensive Bored Ape was #8817 which sold for $3.4 million at Sotheby's. It was highly prized for its gold fur, which is only available in less than 1% of all Bored Apes. Bored Ape #3749 cost $2,907,016, Bored Ape #232 cost $2,811,791, and Bored Ape #8585 was purchased at $2,702,462.

Introduction

Project Overview

• The Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the most influential NFT initiatives. It was created by Yuga Labs and consists of a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that provide members with ownership of a unique and stylish cartoon ape character.
• Each ape has different characteristics and features, and the rarer its features, the more valuable the Bored Ape is. They have distinguishing features such as jewelry, fur, clothes, facial expressions, and accessories. Out of the entire collection, “Only 49 Bored Apes have a dagger in their mouth, 108 have cyborg eyes, and 115 have a cross earring.” This means that they are among the unique Apes on the market and are likely to fetch a significant price on the market.
• The tokens act as membership cards to an online clubhouse that is designed to look like a stylish dive bar, and the first perk of membership is access to THE BATHROOM, a digital graffiti board. The website notes that “Like any good dive bar bathroom, this is the place to draw, scrawl, or write expletives.”
• Members can thereafter unlock more benefits through roadmap activations.
• BAYC does not have price tiers, and membership costs are the same for everyone at 0.08 ETH.
• After purchase, a member is given ownership and commercial usage rights over their Bored Ape, meaning that token owners can use them for any purpose that suits their needs.
• The company states that a Bored Ape, in addition to being a rare work of art, avatar, and gateway to a unique club, allows token owners to venture deeper into the digital world.

 

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• A bored Ape NFT gives owners entry into the most exclusive club in the world, BAYC, as well as benefits that include a Mutant Ape after completion of the Bored Ape's roadmap, and access to "THE BATHROOM". THE BATHROOM is only accessible to owners who have a wallet that contains a Bored Ape, and the company website states that “Each ape-holder will be able to paint a pixel on the bathroom wall every fifteen minutes. Think of it as a collaborative art experiment for the cryptosphere. A members-only canvas for the discerning minds of crypto Twitter.”
• Other benefits include entry into members-only private events, private merchandise drops, and ownership rights.

Team

• The identities of the team behind BAYC were initially anonymous until February 2022, and when these were revealed, they confirmed and then uploaded images of themselves next to their Bored Ape profile pictures. The initial founders of BAYC were Greg Solano (aka Gargamel) and Wylie Aronow (aka Gordon Goner. The other team members are Kerem (aka Emperor Tomato Ketchup) and Zeshan (aka No Sass).

Greg Solano aka Gargamel

• Greg Solano's Twitter profile indicates that he is a co-founder at BAYC and Yuga Labs.
• Greg Solano went to the University of Virginia and studied MFA (Master of Fine Arts) in Creative Writing. He was previously a book critic and editor, and is one of the co-authors of a book about “World of Warcraft.”
• He has some poetry reviews on ZYZZYVA, but these are from 2013 to 2014.
• The 32-year-old from Miami was introduced to cryptocurrencies in 2017 when his brother-in-law invested in a small quantity of Ethereum. A short while later, Solano also introduced Wylie to crypto, and they started brainstorming together for unique business ideas.

Wylie Aronow aka Gordon Goner

• 35-year-old Wylie is also from Miami. He was also initially interested in writing and enrolled in an MFA program, but discontinued it due to undisclosed health complications.
• In an interview with “Rolling Stone” in 2021, the article described him as the only one in the team who had never had a real job and was a high-school drop-out.
• His LinkedIn and Twitter profiles describe him as a co-founder at Yuga Labs.
• He was once a part-time trader in NFTs. Wylie initially “believed that NFTs had to have a purpose other than becoming virtual treasures.” Therefore, he decided to create a concept in which purchasers could make some gains and obtain value from their tokens, and this is one of the reasons that led to the creation of BAYC.

Kerem Atalay aka Emperor Tomato Ketchup

• According to a Form D filed with the Security and Exchange Commission, Kerem is an Executive Officer and Director at Yuga Labs.
• His Twitter profile indicates that he is a co-founder at Yuga Labs and a developer at BAYC.
• He studied Computer Science at the University of Virginia and is an engineer.
• Kerem was initially brought into BAYC to deal with the programming side of the business and ensure that the company's blockchain coding was of the highest quality.

Zeshan Ali aka No Sass

• Zeshan is an Executive Officer and Director at Yuga Labs, and he describes himself as a co-founder at Yuga Labs and BAYC on Twitter.
• He studied at the University of Virginia and graduated in Computer Science.
• Zeshan is one of the programmers who worked to make the BAYC concept a success.

Project Story

• According to its website, the BAYC collection was created to "make some dope apes, test our skills, and try to build something (ridiculous)."
• Solano and Aronow initially bought some crypto, but they stayed on the sidelines of the business for almost two years, watching and learning how it worked. Their plan was to join the crypto world, but they were unsure of how to go about it because of their limited programming knowledge. However, when NFTs came along, they realized that they could use their creative talent to develop unique NFT collectibles.
• They initially decided to create a shared digital canvas, but a friend advised them that such a canvas would be misused and contain degenerate material. They, therefore, pivoted to create a digital canvas based on the concept that most crypto investors were wealthy beyond their wildest dreams but had become bored.
• After taking in their friend's feedback, they decided to create a world in which crypto investors, perceived as degenerates and impulsive people, could go to relax. They selected an ape as their mascot to tie in with the phrase 'aping in,' which refers to investors' behavior of risking significant sums of money on new currencies or NFTs.
• Solano and Aronow further developed their backstory to make it more interesting. They set a scene in which crypto investors in the future in 2031 are extremely wealthy but cannot find any new avenues in which they can invest. The only remaining thing that they can do is to retreat to a swamp club with their wealth, where they “…hang out … and get weird” together."
• It is after this that they enlisted the help of Kerem and Zeshan to work on the programming side of the business while they concentrated on the creative side. The team invested their savings into the project, drafted a minting contract, selected suitable apes and art, and then officially launched the project in April 2021.
• While most companies are secretive about their intellectual property rights, BAYC has created an open environment in which token owners can create anything with their Bored Ape. This business model has proved to be an asset that has helped the brand grow tremendously over time.

Project Roadmap

• The BAYC project has developed a thoughtful roadmap that allows members to reap tangible rewards as they continue to engage with their Bored Apes.
• When the project was launched, its roadmap consisted of 7 milestones which were based on "targeted sell-through percentages." Six of these milestones are designed to provide direct benefits to members, and some of them were eagerly awaited and enthusiastically received by community members. For instance, when BAYC achieved its milestone of 60% and launched member-exclusive BAYC merchandise, Bored Ape owners were highly pleased. The merchandise sold out within six minutes and a secondary market immediately developed in which pieces sold for thousands of dollars.
• BAYC released Caged Apes at 20% sell-through, got its own YouTube channel and BAYC Lofi Radio at 40%, and made the Mysterious Note legible at 80%. 

• The MAYC collection was launched at 100% sell-through and was well-received in the market.

 

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• The popularity and adoption of the BAYC collection have drastically increased since its inception. The daily volume traded was slow in the first three months but peaked starting from August 2021 to reach $55.7 million on August 28th, 2021, when the MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club) was launched. The advent of this collection enabled BAYC to be perceived as a firm that is innovatively using NFT technology.
• Before the launch, MAYC Apes were only available to existing Apeholders. However, after a rush to purchase Bored Apes in order to claim Mutant tokens, the market for BAYC in terms of daily transactions slowed down and started operating at the lower levels which had previously been observed in mid-August 2021, as seen in the figure below.

 

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• The average sale prices of the Bored Ape NFTs also increased in 2021, with the 19 most expensive Bored Ape sales occurring between August and September 2021.
• BAYC released offshoot NFTs such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Serum, and Bored Ape Kennel Club into the Bored Ape ecosystem to allow new members to gain new entry points into BAYC. However, the offshoots' volume and price trends have also changed with time. For instance, the Bored Ape Kennel Club's price trends have behaved similarly to Bored Apes in the markets, but the MAYC collection's prices have declined since it was launched.
• The sales volume for the BAYC collection in November 2021 was a record $199.3 million. However, this volume has declined with time, and reports indicate that BAYC's sales figures declined by more than 60% in May 2022.
• The brand's total sales volume as of June 2022 was $2.2 billion on CryptoSlam, and its sales volume surged by 55% on OpenSea in the same month.

 

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Project Timeline (From Inception to Present Day)

• The launch of the BAYC pre-sale occurred on April 23, 2021. However, it did not receive a lot of attention until the following week, perhaps because the pre-sale took place during a quiet period in the NFT market.
• BAYC officially launched on 30th April 2021, offering 10,000 NFTs at approximately $200.
• The first batch of NFTs that BAYC sold generated more than $2 million, and the collection has garnered about $100 million in trading since then. Reports indicate that by the end of June 2021, the cheapest Bored Ape cost $14,000.
• All the NFTs had been sold out within the first day for 0.08 ETH (app. $190) and then started selling, on 3rd May 2021, at about $1,700 on OpenSea, an NFT marketplace.
• The high sales at the beginning occurred when the popular NFT trader Pransky purchased numerous NFTs and then tweeted about them. The collection also received high reviews and quickly sold out 12 hours after the launch because of the unique artwork of each Bored Ape NFT.
• After its release, the collection became so popular that the co-founders hired social media managers, artists, a CFO, and Discord community managers, and also advertised the firm as one that promotes a Web3 lifestyle.
• BAYC also developed freebies in 2021 to keep owners interested, increase the customer base, and also increase BAYC's worth in the marketplace. These freebies include Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Serum, and Bored Ape Kennel Club.
• In August 2021, the company developed 20,000 mutant Apes and released 10,000 of these into the public market at 3 ETH to attract new customers. The result was that the entire collection was sold within an hour and generated $96 million for the firm.
• In December 2021, BAYC announced that it had partnered with Animoca Brands to develop a play-to-earn game.
• The brand also released the BAYC x MAYC mobile game in January 2022. The game was exclusively for members and was marketed as a 10-day competition in which the top 1,000 players were rewarded with brand products.
• In March 2022, BAYC launched its own currency, the APE coin, and also gave tokens to BAYC and MAYC holders.
• It additionally acquired Cryptopunks in March 2022 in order to increase its competitive advantage and foothold in the NFT market.
• However, the official BAYC Instagram account was hacked through a phishing link on April 25th, 2022. Four Bored Ape NFTs and ten more from Yuga Labs were stolen during the incident, leading to a loss of approximately $3 million.
• The brand also recently raised $450 million in funds in order to develop its gamified Metaverse project called Otherside. The project's goal is to integrate the virtual world into real life, and it could potentially increase the value of the entire BAYC collection.

Information on Each Collection Within the Project and How They're Used

• The BAYC collection consists of 10,000 NFTs that were initially designed to be simple profile picture collections. Each NFT features a Bored Ape that has a combination of 4-7 traits from a possible 170 variables in possible traits. This makes the NFTs highly unique with distinct facial features, accessories, backgrounds, and clothing.
• Bored Apes with only 4 traits are the rarest, and so far, there are only 254 in circulation. On the other hand, Apes with 6 traits are the most common, with more than 5,300 in circulation.
• Further analysis of the NFTs demonstrates that some of them have features that make them even rarer. For example, only 26 Apes have a bored expression are unshaven, and have a pizza in their mouths, while only 42 Apes are dressed in a black suit.
• Ultimately, the tiered rarity system ensures that the NFT with the rarest features fetches the highest price.
• The MAYC collection has 20,000 NFTs that are only created when an Apeholder either exposes an existing Bored Ape to a mutant serum or mints a Mutant Ape in a public sale. This collection is mainly used to reward BAYC's Apeholders with a mutant version of their Bored Apes and to give individuals in the lower tier access to BAYC.
• In the BAYC collection, which is a limited-time collection, Apeholders are given an opportunity to adopt a Club Dog NFT. The company website states that the BAYC NFT is free and Apeholders only have to pay gas. Apeholders can claim one random Pup for each BAYC token they own but they cannot reuse the token to claim another Pup.

Cost

• The most recent valuation of the project put its worth at $4 billion after Yuga Labs had obtained a $450 million boost through its latest funding round.
• The most expensive Bored Ape was #8817 which sold for $3.4 million at Sotheby's. It was highly prized for its gold fur, which is only available in less than 1% of all Bored Apes. Bored Ape #3749 cost $2,907,016, Bored Ape #232 cost $2,811,791, and Bored Ape #8585 was purchased at $2,702,462.

 

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• On February 13th, 2022, the floor price of a Bored Ape was 91 ETH or $291,000. However, the price had declined to 68 ETH or $92,000 by June 13th, 2022.
• The brand's most recent floor price is 68 ETH or $108,621.34.
• The floor price for the MAYC collection in August 2022 is $30,000 while that of the Bored Ape Kennel Club collection is approximately $15,000. These NFTs were initially free for BAYC holders.

Renowned Owners of BAYC NFTs

• Various celebrities own Bored Apes and have announced their membership to BAYC via social media. Some have even changed their social media profile pictures to their new Bored Apes. NFTs are becoming popular among celebrities due to their scarcity and perception as status symbols. The rarer the NFT, the higher its value in the marketplace.
• NBA player Steph Curry owns Bored Ape #7990 which cost him 55 ETH ($180,000) in August 2021.
• Snoop Dogg's Bored Ape #6723 is the 1794th rarest Bored Ape in the BAYC collection.
• Rapper Eminem purchased Bored Ape #9055 for 123 ETH ($460,000) in January 2022. The Bored Ape is said to resemble the rapper because it sports an army hat and hip-hop clothing.
• Another renowned personality who owns BAYC NFTs is pop star Justin Bieber. He actually owns two Bored Apes: #3001 which cost him 500 ETH or $1.3 million, while Bored Ape #3850 cost 166 ETH ($470,000).
• Jimmy Fallon owns a Bored Ape that is estimated to have cost him approximately $216,000.
• The Brazilian footballer Neymar owns Bored Ape #6633, which cost him $450,000. He has changed all the profile pictures on his social media accounts to the Bored Ape.
• Paris Hilton purchased her Bored Ape for approximately $300,000.
• American rapper Post Malone owns two Bored Apes: #961 and #9039. Their combined purchase price was $734,401.60. The rapper is known to wear cowboy hats occasionally, and both his Apes are sporting this accessory.

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