NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have undeniably taken the creative market by storm for the past few years. The skyrocketing boom has resulted in massive value in NFTs, which are now selling for millions of dollars.
The NFTs are now saturated with high-priced and extremely popular collections such as: Axis, SolPunks, Degenerate Apes, CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and Bored Ape Yacht Club.
If these apes have one thing in common, it is their expensive price points. Due to the price tag, this begs everyone the question we have all been meaning to ask: what makes Bored Ape Yacht Club so expensive?
What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), is a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs, which are one-of-a-kind digital collectibles that reside on the Ethereum blockchain. BAYC is also more than just a digital asset; it also has an exclusive community that is only available to Yacht Club members.
Each Bored Ape is one of a kind and is made by a computer program that uses over 170 different possible features, such as facial expression, headwear, clothing, and more.
Each has a uniqueness and rarity that differentiates them from each other.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club was established one year ago, in April. Its first price was at a price of $190 (0.08 ether) each at that time, and all 10,000 were purchased within 12 hours. The price of Bored Ape NFTs went up slowly until the month of July, when they all of a sudden went through the roof and the collection became what it is now.
What Makes Bored Ape Yacht Club So Expensive?
People who are not tech savvy, or even if you are, numerous people cannot hold themselves wondering what makes the Bored Ape Yacht Club worth hundreds of thousands.
According to CNET, because so many celebrities are involved, Bored Apes have become a status symbol, and the more they cost, the more people want them.
They have become emblems of one's social standing, and the value that they have stems more from their branding than from the functions that they do.
Owning a Bored Ape NFT has become a status symbol of success, with other people feeling like they have the bragging rights when they have one. To display their luxury items, just like how other people do it with a suit and a Rolex, making your Bored Ape a profile picture has become a trend.
According to them, NFTs can be seen by millions of people when used as profile photographs on social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram, making them a superior status symbol to actual objects in the real world.
Definitely, there are numerous contributing factors as to why the BAYC is priced the way that it is. Here is a breakdown of the factors seen and observed as to how it has achieved its exclusivity status.
Scarcity
As mentioned, BAYC was created with only 10,000 NFT collectibles and nothing more. Due to its limited products, coupled with extreme popularity around the world, it resulted in a huge demand. Therefore, as expected, when demand is high and supply is low, prices for each bored ape will skyrocket.
In addition, even within the same collection, some of the Bored Ape avatars have a higher rarity than others do. Each Askyrocketedpe is a one-of-a-kind creation that is the result of a unique random combination of 170 characteristics. These characteristics include things like the background color, earrings, expression, headwear, clothing, and so on. This naturally occurring scarcity is another factor that contributes to the ridiculous prices of certain bored apes.
Utility
Being a Bored Ape NFT holder does not just come with the asset, it also comes with perks that are only accessible to Yacht Club members.
Access to THE BATHROOM, a collaborative graffiti board, is one of these perks. Ape Holders will be needed to be signed into their respective Metamask Wallets in order to obtain access to members-only places such as THE BATHROOM.
The community has the ability to gain access to upcoming areas and perks by activating the roadmap.
Bored Ape art is valuable not only because it serves as a digital identity, but also because it comes with commercial usage rights. Bored Ape owners can not only resell the NFT for a profit, but they can also sell spinoff products based on the art. The possibility of such opportunities raises the value of a bored ape.
Exclusive Content
According to MUO, another contributing factor to BAYC's expensive price tags is its exclusivity.
Bored Ape holders are eligible for a variety of exclusive content benefits from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, some of which are outlined in the comprehensive roadmap that can be found on the Bored Ape Yacht Club website.
One of its goals is to discover "new ways to ape with our friends." With that, BAYC has created numerous ways to continuously build their community.
As an example, the company launched another set of NFTs called "Bored Ape Kennel Club" in June 2021. All holders of Bored Ape were given the opportunity to adopt a canine companion NFT at no cost, with the only cost being the cost of "gas," which is the fee that must be paid in order for transactions to be processed on the Ethereum blockchain.
Although these dogs were provided free of charge to BAYC holders, the current floor price for a Bored Ape Kennel Club dog is 7.60 ETH, which is approximately $17,000 given the current price of ETH.
In addition to that, the club was able to donate one million dollars to animal shelters thanks to the secondary sales of these canine companions.
Following that, another initiative that the BAYC community had was releasing yet another set of NFTs, this time 20,000 genetically modified apes, back in August 2021.
They sold the 10,000 tokens to the general public for 3 ETH each in an effort to recruit new members. However, the original owners of Bored Apes were also given 10,000 digital vials of mutant serum through airdrop.
With these, they were able to create new mutant apes by breeding them with existing boreal apes. The owners can then profit by selling the new NFT on the secondary market. It was successful, as the entire set was purchased within the first hour, resulting in a revenue of $96 million.
And just recently, in March of 2022, the BAYC launched their very own cryptocurrency known as the APE coin, and they distributed $ape tokens as an airdrop to all holders of BAYC and MAYC.
The holders of BAYC NFTs will have the opportunity to claim approximately 10,000 ApeCoin for themselves, which is equivalent to approximately $100,000 for each holder.
Lastly, the community is not just organizing initiatives in Web3, they are also hosting club-members' real-life meetup events. In November 2021, BAYC hosted its first annual Ape Fest, which featured a gallery exhibition, a costume contest, and a party on a real 1000-capacity yacht located in the waters off the coast of Manhattan.
Celebrity Influence
Another undeniable contributing factor to the expensive price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club is its popularity. The hype and craze with the club was greatly caused by the celebrities and influencers who have flocked the space altogether. These include movie personalities, singers, DJs, actors and actresses, athletes, and influencers from different social media platforms. The presence of these influential people has created an insurmountable amount of hype for these products.
As influential people flock, numerous people also want to get into the action and ride on the hype. As more people wanted the NFTs, and given that they are only available in limited pieces, their price tag increased.
Bored Apes is owned by a few influential people. Some of them are: Jimmy Fallon, Justin Beiber, Post Malone, Eminem, Paris Hilton, Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg, Logan Paul, Eminem, and Steve Aoki, and many more.
The BAYC has not just influenced celebrities; big brands have also come rushing into the NFT marketplace. This included Adidas and Arizona Iced Tea 'aping' in and buying a Bored Ape with the hopes of creating something around it.
Who is the Person Behind the 10,000 Apes?
The company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club is one based in Miami, Florida called Yuga Labs, founded in 2021 by Aronow and Greg Solano. Yuga Labs is a blockchain-based company that creates non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and digital collectibles. Its areas of expertise include blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and digital media.
According to the BAYC website, the team is:
Gargamel, who loves Starcraft and eats smurfs,
The next one is Gordon Goner, a reformed leverage addict.
The third one is Emperor tomato ketchup, who spent all their money on first presses and pet-nat.
The fourth one is No Sass, who is here for the apes and not the sass.
However, in February, BuzzFeed revealed some of the real people behind the company. It states that Gargamel is Greg Solano and Gordon Goner is Wylie Aronow.
However, the artist behind the iconic Bored Apes, according to Rolling Stone, is a 27-year-old Asian-American named Seneca. She was born in the U.S. to Chinese parents but was raised in Shanghai.
Seneca returned to the United States to study design at the Rhode Island School of Design. Following graduation in 2016, she moved to New York to work as a freelance illustrator. She was described as having a very rare talent for drawing expressions and bringing characters to life. Her peers in BAYC said, "She is one of the few artists who can actually draw differently depending on the subject matter and the project."
Related Article: NFT Bored Ape Yacht Club: How To Make Billions In NFT Art
