ApeCoin’s Effect on the Exploding NFT Market
NFTs are becoming increasingly popular among retail users and corporations, which are jumping on board in greater numbers. In order to bring Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 together, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been instrumental in this process.
Until now it was possible for anyone to download and save digital art or images from the internet by right-clicking and saving them. NFTs, on the other hand, give the products a distinct identity because, while anyone can download them, they cannot be considered owners of the token.
The vast majority of NFTs currently on the market are digital art, collectibles and even sports trading cards.
Rather than purchasing the actual token, users pay for a certificate proving they own it. Non-fungible tokens differ from Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies in that each token is one-of-a-kind and its value is also unique and exclusive.
NFT Industry Evaluation
NFT market valuation in 2021 was $41 billion, according to Chainalysis’s annual NFT market valuation report.
High market capitalization and valuation forecasts indicate that the NFT sector is a fast-growing market with a lot of high-profile celebrities and influential figures jumping in. Influential people and companies are buying virtual land in metaverses like Decentraland and The Sandbox in an effort to establish their brands in the virtual world.
The Explosion of ART NTFs
In September of last year, the NFT art market reached a high of over $840 million in sales, according to Statista.
In contrast to the real-world art market, where there are actual auctions and art gatherings, the digital art market has largely been restricted to independent artists who take commissions. As a result, the monetary value of digital art never approached that of works by well-known real-life artists.
Because of NFTs, digital art has been transformed into a form of exclusivity that can be owned and displayed. Tokenized digital artwork is primarily bought for the ownership that it offers, as is the case with most real-life art and luxury goods.
Yuga Labs and Bored Ape Yacht Club
Yuga Labs, a Web3 oriented company, owns the intellectual property rights for CryptoPunks, Meebits and Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Collections. The NFT world was shocked when Yuga Labs purchased the Meebits and Cryptopunks collections from Larva Labs in March 2022.
Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of NFTs (apes) who appear to be bored, as the name suggests. It serves as a gateway to the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, which includes real-life events like meetups, parties, and even a Bored Ape Yacht Club-themed restaurant located in California.
Many influential celebrities in the entertainment industry, such as Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, Neymar Jr., Shaquille O’Neal, Steph Curry, Logan Paul, Mark Cuban purchased unique apes, which quickly became the most talked about subject on social media.
As a result of the media attention focused on Bored Ape Yacht Club, a slew of celebrities changed their Twitter avatars to images of Bored Apes they had purchased.
ApeCoin and Play-To-Earn Gaming
Yuga Labs has launched ApeCoin, a play-to-earn (P2E) gaming token with an estimated value of $5 billion.
Based on the Ethereum ERC-20 standard, ApeCoin is a utility token. In addition to providing governance services, the ApeCoin token provides additional utility to its holders. There are a slew of social, commerce and gaming services that the token will be used to expand on, including P2E games as well as metaverse initiatives.
While Yuga Labs handled the launch, the ApeCoin DAO is in charge of setting the ecosystem’s strategic direction and allocating funds.
Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, OKX are among the exchanges where the APE token can be traded. For the time being, Binance has the lion’s share of APE/USDT and APE/BUSD trading pairs’ liquidity.
Yuga Labs Future Plans
A metaverse based on Yuga Labs’ IP is one of the company’s long-term goals. SEC position on NFTs as financial assets is still uncertain, so regulatory maneuvers are necessary as well.
Yuga Labs future plans were recently highlighted in an article by The Block reporter Ryan Weeks. Weeks claims in the article that Yuga Labs is currently attempting to raise hundreds of millions of dollars in funding, because they’re working on creating a game-focused metaverse.
A game-focused metaverse called MetaRPG is being developed by Yuga Labs and BAYC, according to Week’s article. This “in-game app store” system will allow players to create characters using NFTs they already own or create new ones from scratch, outfit them, and use them in games.
Originally published at https://alexbobes.com on June 24, 2022.
