‘Why quit now?’ That seems to be the question posed daily by The Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the early, high-profile vanguard of NFT offerings and one the most talked about launches to cross into public consciousness.
After generating millions and building the kind of profile and cachet that usually costs as much, the NFT collectable’s creators would be fools to walk away from the brand. And it seems that they feel exactly the same way as today the Ape’s creators, Yuga Labs, have announced their own APECoin token for use as the primary currency in all their upcoming activities. And there’s plenty of them…
APECoin is the first part in a larger, far-reaching plan to expand the brand and establish their own crypto economy and play-to-earn empire after early first moves such as buying out both the Crypto Punks and Meebits NFT collection IPs from Larva Labs.
If anyone now holds a monopoly on high-profile FOMO NFT ventures it’s Yuga Labs. But with with any number of famous brands jumping onto NFTs it seems it’s time to take this to the next level.
Larva Labs sells to Yuga Labs
Larva had previously been stand-off-ish with its creations after creating them, something that could never be said of the ambitious Yuga with their rounds of celebrity endorsed gigs and parties, exclusive merchandise opportunities for members of ‘the club’ (i.e. NFT holders) and tireless work to keep the brand in focus and on point.
In order to steer clear of potential SEC legal intervention APECoin will be released not by Yuga, but by a new APECoin DAO with a further company, APE Foundation, founded to administer the decisions made by the DAO… Stay with us here.
Coin holders will be able to vote on decisions with a high profile council of holders including Animoca’s Yat Siu, Horizen Labs’ Dean Steinbeck. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, FTX’s Amy Wu and Sound Ventures’ Maaria Bajwa at the top of the tree.
How do I buy APECoin?
There will be 1billion APE coins in total, with Yuga Labs and founders, team and contributors holding onto 38% of them. 15% will go to holders of the Bored Apes (and Mutant Apes) collections with the remaining 47% being released over time to fund the ongoing economy.
So what’s it all for? APECoin will be the in-game currency used in TBC gaming ventures beginning with an as yet unnamed property from nWay, the developer behind games featuring Power Rangers and the WWE IPs. nWay’s owners, blockchain gaming giants Animoca Brands will also enable the use of APE in their existing title Benji Bananas.
And it appears that there are even bigger plans with no on-trend digital ‘meta’ avenue avoiding their care and attention.
There are plans for their own MetaRPG that work with their NFT holdings and will later expand to include virtual land sales.
One thing’s for sure you can expect to see a lot more of that BAYC branding coming your way.
Daniel Griffiths is a veteran journalist who has worked on some of the world's biggest entertainment, home and tech media brands. He's reviewed all the greats, interviewed countless big names, and reported on thousands of releases in the fields of video games, music, movies, tech, gadgets, home improvement, self build, interiors, garden design and more. He’s the ex-Editor of PSM3, GamesMaster, Future Music and ex-Group Editor-in-Chief of Electronic Musician, Guitarist, Guitar World, Computer Music and more. He renovates property and writes fun things for great websites.
