Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) entered 2022 the way they did in 2021 – on a high. Two of the top NFT projects, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), led the sales statistics. BAYC and MAYC topped the charts on blockchain research platform DappRadar in top sales figures over 24 hours. BAYC had the most number of sale activities followed by the latter.
Well, here’s the reason behind this surge.
Not just ‘avatars’
BAYC announced the issuance of ApeCoin ($APE) on 17 March. “A decentralized protocol layer for community-led initiatives that drive culture forward into the metaverse.”
Introducing ApeCoin ($APE), a token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3. ?
— ApeCoin (@apecoin) March 16, 2022
ApeCoin DAO and ApeCoin Foundation, similar to many traditional community-led protocols, would support the token. Thereby, each token holder would get to vote on governance and use of the Ecosystem Fund. ‘Holding ApeCoin is the only requirement for membership in the ApeCoin DAO,’ a tweet added.
The total supply remained fixed at one billion tokens. Notably, the total supply would never increase as no minting capability was exposed through the contract interface. The contract interface does not expose any token burning capability. Ergo, the total supply would never decrease.
The allocation was as follows,
The airdrop claim consisting of 15% of the total supply of ApeCoin will be made available to @BoredApeYC NFT holders (Bored Apes and Mutant Apes, as well as #BAKC dogs paired with either #BAYC or #MAYC).
— ApeCoin (@apecoin) March 16, 2022
Source: Apecoin.com
A full breakdown was available on ApeCoin site, and as alluded to in this graphic, an airdrop of ApeCoin tokens to Bored Ape Yacht Club (and Mutant / Kennel + Ape) holders.
APEing all the way
In the past 24 hours, the transaction volume of BAYC exceeded 6600ETH, an increase of 407.03%, and the floor price has returned to above 100ETH. Bored Ape Yacht Club’s (BAYC) floor price surged to 106.5 ETH since the launch of ApeCoin. While its spin-off collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club’s (MAYC) floor price rose to 23.65 ETH at press time.
In fact, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) became the fifth non-fungible token (NFT) collection to cross $1 billion in all-time sales.
The trading volume and floor price of BAYC’s derivatives MAYC and BAKC ushered in greater growth.
Source: Twitter
Taking advantage of this development, Gemini, one of the largest crypto exchanges was the first one to welcome the guest. In a tweet, the executives stated,
2/2 Trading for $APE will follow, opening first on our API/FIX and ActiveTrader applications for USD trading pairs. It will then open on our Gemini Mobile App and website on a rolling basis for USD, GBP, EUR, CAD, AUD, HKD, and SGD pairs.
— Gemini (@Gemini) March 16, 2022
Love or hate NFTs, they captured the consumer imagination and continue to be the on-boarding ramp for the mainstream into Web3.
