By James Davis
In 2021, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were in huge demand, with some selling for millions of dollars. Among the NFT collections that saw massive price spike are CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club. The former is the oldest project, having been launched in 2017, while the latter is the biggest NFT collection by trading volume.
This article focuses on the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Keep reading to understand every aspect of this NFT project.
What’s Bored Ape Yacht Club?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is an NFT project created by Web3 company Yuga Labs. It features 10,000 digital art pieces, which live on the second-largest blockchain, Ethereum. But what’s an NFT? It is a unique token that represents ownership of a particular digital asset. This means you can never find two resembling Bored Ape NFTs.
What Makes Bored Ape Yacht Club Special?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is an exclusive community whose membership can only be unlocked by owning a Bored Ape NFT. Once you buy the NFT, you will be given access to the project’s Discord server, allowing you to interact with other holders, some of whom are your favorite celebrities, including music DJ Mashmello, music band The Chainsmokers, basketball superstar Stephen Curry, and many more.
Being a Bored Ape holder makes you eligible for airdrops of extra NFT collectibles. Yuga Labs usually gives NFTs to members of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which can be exchanged for a good amount of money. For example, the Web3 company distributed free Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs in August 2021, which sold for over $11,000. Yuga Labs promises to continue rewarding the Bored Ape NFT owners in the future.
How to Acquire a Bored Ape NFT
Do you want to be a member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club? You can start by buying an NFT from some of the leading Ethereum-based marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible.
Since all Bored Ape NFTs are priced in ETH, you will need a wallet that supports the Ethereum blockchain. We recommend MetaMask.
After setting up your wallet and adding ETH tokens, you can connect it to your chosen NFT marketplace. On the trading platform, go to the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, select the NFT you like, and make the payment. Once the transaction is complete, your newly acquired Bored Ape NFT will reflect in your wallet. And that’s how you become a Bored Ape Yacht Club member.
The Future of Bored Ape Yacht Club
As mentioned before, Bored Ape Yacht Club is the most famous NFT collection, with its close rival being CryptoPunks. Due to its popularity, several prominent brands are now holders of Bored Ape NFTs. For example, Arizona Iced Tea, a well-known drink brand, purchased its Bored Ape at the start of 2022. Adidas followed suit in February of that year, while Universal Music Group partnered with Yuga Labs to form a virtual band known as Kingship, which featured Bored Apes.
Like other digital assets, Bored Ape NFTs have been subject to several exploits and phishing attacks. In May 2022, one Bored Ape holder tweeted that they had lost their NFTs through a phishing attack. Luckily, OpenSea managed to freeze the Bored Apes, estimated to be roughly $1.8 million. A month later, the NFT marketplace got exploited by one user who grabbed several Bored Ape NFTs and sold them for prices way lower than the floor price.
Despite the challenges, Yuga Labs is still on a mission to expand the utility of its NFT project. The company recently partnered with another Web3 firm Animoca Brands, to build a play-to-earn game with Bored Ape NFTs as its characters.
But will Bored Ape Yacht Club remain at the top in the future? Well, it is tough to predict, considering that there are multiple NFT collections being released every day with the aim of overthrowing the Yuga Labs project from the top position.