Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Sold for $24.4 Million at Auction; One of the Biggest NFT Sales This Year

Non-Fungible Tokens or NFTs are still going strong in the cryptocurrency market. In a recent Sotheby's auction, a collection of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs just sold for $24.4 million. The NFT craze is nowhere near dying down.

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs

A U.S.-based digital collectibles company, Yuga Labs, developed a collection of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs last spring, Barron's reported.

The initial collection had 10,000 apes semi-randomly generated with unique features. Each digital illustration of an ape has its distinct characteristics. Some wear a hat, some wear jewelry, and other apes have different patterns for their fur.

The apes' features are assigned at random, and Yuga Labs also offers "mutant serums," which generate new apes when the original work is 'exposed' to a vial of the serum. There are three tiers of mutant serum: M1, M2, and Mega mutant.

Bored Ape Yacht Club has quickly become one of the most popular NFTs.

Buyers of Bored Ape NFTs become members of an online club, Reuters said. Members are supposed to receive various benefits like access to exclusive merch drops, bonus NFTs, and the use of an online graffiti board. As the membership grows, the club may offer more benefits to continue strengthening the patronage.

While the model of NFTs provides the buyer ownership over the piece, the artist usually still keeps the rights of the work. It is not the case for Yuga Labs' design. Once purchased, the intellectual property rights for the Bored Apes go to the buyers.

Sotheby's Bored Ape Auction

Two bundles of Bored Ape NFTs were auctioned off by Sotheby's in an online sale on Thursday, Sept. 9.

According to The Verge, a collection of 101 NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club sold for $24.4 million, while the second lot of 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club collectibles fetched $1.8 million. These are among the biggest NFT sales of the year.

One of the earliest NFT projects by CryptoPunks sold for $16.9 million in May, and Beeple's collage sold for $69 million in March.

The Bored Ape Kennel Club is a series of accompanying dog NFTs. The dogs were later sent out to ape owners. Bored Ape Yacht Club is scheduled for another auction later this month, this time with another prominent auction house, Christie's.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Patron: Stephen Curry

One of the most notable Bored Ape Yacht Club members is NBA star Stephen Curry, Barron's report mentioned.

Curry purchased Bored Ape #7990 for 55 Ether coins or around $180,000. The Bored Ape is a blue-furred one with green zombie eyes, wearing a brown tweed suit, according to HypeBeast.

Another famous Bored Ape Yacht Club member is musician Jermaine Dupri. Both Dupri and Curry changed their Twitter avatars to their Bored Apes to show off their membership in the club.