Bored Ape Yacht Club is the leading and most popular NFT collection to date, comprising 10,000 algorithmically generated bored-looking apes on the Ethereum blockchain.

Hundreds of NFT collections have come and gone, while only a few continue to thrive for long periods in the highly-competitive space of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). This guide covers the collection that seems to go nowhere but up through its successful launch, worldwide events, increasing utilities, and collaborations with mega-celebrities and brands. 

Background 

The highly-popular Bored Ape Yacht Club was created by Yuga Labs, founded by four anonymous people, two of which have had their real identities revealed. 

The collection was established as a creative outlet of its creators, fostering more vital collaboration among the NFT community. 

What is Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)? 

Bored Ape Yacht Club is the leading and most popular NFT collection to date, comprising 10,000 algorithmically generated apes, each providing exclusive privileges to its holders. 

These funky apes, which cost 0.08 ETH during mint, are stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain. Holders can expect increasing privileges and benefits over time from their apes through roadmap activation.

Ape Bathroom

The BAYC bathroom works like a graffiti board where ape holders can draw, doodle, and ‘vandalize’ its walls (just like a real-life bathroom!) 

This members-exclusive bathroom has been made available for holders after the pre-sale, slated to foster collaboration among members. 

Take Me To Your Leaders: BAYC Founders, Revealed! 

The crypto community was rocked recently because of shocking news: The identity of the Bored Ape Yacht Club founders has been finally revealed!

Buzzfeed recently reported that Wylie Aronow, 35, and Greg Solano, 32 were the founders of BAYC and revealed against their will.  

Katie Notopoulos, the BuzzFeed reporter who wrote the article, believes that accountability from founders is essential, which means that their revealed identities were a good thing. 

BuzzFeed Reporter Receives Backlash 

Both Notopoulos and BuzzFeed received criticisms from many people in the crypto community, with some pundits stating that what they did was dangerous. Some demanded BuzzFeed pay for Aronow and Solano’s security expenses because of the danger its revelation has caused. 

One BAYC fanatic even threatened to reveal Notopoulos’ private information, including her family, siblings, address, and place of work. 

Why is BAYC So Valuable? 

The whole drama behind the BAYC founder revelations only shows how this collection has gone so far in value and popularity. But the question is why? What are the factors that keep on pushing its value upwards? 

It can be summed up in three main aspects: Celebrity involvement, high-value utilities, and community strength, and guess what? Bored Ape Yacht Club is all strong in these three categories! 

Celebrity Power 

Prominent Hollywood personalities are slowly but surely getting smitten by the ‘ape fever’ as they continuously snap up these sought-after NFTs. 

When The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon purchased a BAYC ape last November, which costs $145,000, the collection started to blaze in popularity. 

Fallon, who has 50 million followers on Twitter, made his ape as his profile picture for weeks, creating a massive buzz for BAYC. 

Other big names who have purchased a Bored Ape include Paris Hilton, Eminem, Stephen Curry, Justin Bieber, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Mark Cuban. 

Interesting Utilities 

The team behind BAYC has laid out interesting utilities for the apes to keep the collection fresh and maintain the community’s enthusiasm. 

It has created the ‘Bored Ape Kennel Club,’ allowing BAYC holders to adopt dogs that feature the ape’s same traits. 

Another one is the so-called ‘digital vial of mutant serum,’ which allows owners to mix the serum to their Bored Ape to create a new asset: A Mutant Ape NFT. 

These two offerings are highly beneficial for holders because they allow them to own new and high-value NFTs which they can sell. 

Strong Community 

To foster an even stronger community, the BAYC team has organized a series of events, including meetups in California and New York. 

Overseas events, launched in the U.K and Hong Kong, have also been successful, further enlarging Bored Ape’s global presence. 

And there’s the actual yacht party held in New York, attended by big icons including Chris Rock, The Strokes, and Aziz Ansari. 

BAYC Ape Fest 

BAYC Ape Fest is the collection’s annual event to celebrate creativity and foster strong friendship and collaboration in the ape community. 

Here are the highlights of the 1st BAYC Ape Fest: 

  • 1st event held in New York, Bright Moments Gallery
  • Ape Fest Mutant Halloween Party 
  • Ape Fest Yacht Party 
  • Merch Pop Up Event 
  • Warehouse Party 
  • VIP Charity Dinner

Why Invest In Community Building? 

These BAYC worldwide events aren’t cheap, but why is the team spending so much on these events? 

These events are essential to increase the awareness of the NFT community and the world on the BAYC collection. 

As the BAYC’s status and popularity continuously rise, so is the price that people will be willing to pay for its Bored Apes. 

BAYC: Becoming a Celebrity Itself 

While an increasing number of celebrities are jumping into the Bored Ape bandwagon, it is also clear that BAYC is becoming a celebrity itself. 

The collection has already struck a collaboration with Nike, as the shoe juggernaut plans to venture into the metaverse. 

It has also partnered with Adidas, was featured on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, and finally had its mobile game called Apes vs. Mutants, available on App Store and Google Play. 

A Creative Way To Profit from Bored Apes

Since Bored Ape holders are given full commercial rights to their NFTs, some owners are banking on this privilege to, well, laugh all the way to the bank. 

One news report shared that a BAYC holder created a celebrity status to his ape by creating a backstory, which tells the valet experiences of the ape in the Yacht Club. 

Many have followed the ape’s story on its dedicated Twitter account, which helped it gain a celebrity status in the NFT community. 

Today, the ape has successfully signed a contract in a real-world agency and will have its biography in partnership with American celebrity author Neil Strauss. 

For Universal Studios’ part, they plan to use their three Bored Apes and one Mutant Ape to form a metaverse band. 

With these holder-driven utilities, the possibilities for BAYC apes are limitless, and the NFT world will surely witness more creative utilities soon. 

A Good News For Yuga Labs 

Yuga Labs started as a small team and is now expanding thanks to the increasing popularity and profitability of its NFT collection. 

But another progress that is happening on the company is its increasing desirability among investors. 

A day before the founders’ identity news blew up, Silicon Valley venture capitalists Ben Horowitz and Marc Andressen had expressed an interest in a stake purchase in Yuga Labs. 

According to Financial Times, when this potential investment pushes through, Yuga Labs’ valuation can shoot up between $4 billion and $5 billion. 

Conclusion 

Bored Ape Yacht Club is undoubtedly not a run-of-the-mill NFT collection and has clear goals of where it wants to be in the future. 

With solid celebrity support, exciting and valuable utilities, and significant investments in community engagement, BAYC has more than enough strength to dominate NFT market in the foreseeable future.