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Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the most popular and influential NFT collections in Web3. It is a collection of 10,000 NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. These NFTs are graphical depictions of apes that resemble cartoon characters and stand out due to their metadata, which includes the characters’ backgrounds, earrings, clothing, fur, and eyes.
It was launched during the pinnacle of the crypto bull run of 2021. BAYC stood at the top amongst other popular NFT collections, such as CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties. A BAYC cost 0.08 ETH at launch, equaling $220. By mid-October 2022, it had risen to a “floor price” of 76 ETH, or roughly $100,418. It was sold out in less than 12 hours. The price of Ether determines the dollar value of BAYC; if ETH increases, the value of the NFTs in this collection also rises. At the time of writing, BAYC had a floor price of 62.3 ETH and a volume of 964,411 ETH on Opensea.
The BAYC has also garnered massive interest from celebrities who act as their holders and publicly advocate for the NFT project. A few prominent celebrities who proudly display their BAYC are Jimmy Fallon, host of “The Tonight Show,” NBA champions Steph Curry and Shaquille O’Neal, singers including Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Justin Bieber, and star soccer player Neymar Jr.
The team behind BAYC
Yuga Labs created the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Gordon Goner, Gargamel, No Sass, and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, who handled the technical aspects of BAYC, make up the team’s core four pseudonymous members. In the early stages of the launch, they first appeared using these aliases. However, the other two founding members also gave up their anonymity after BuzzFeed revealed the co-founders’ identities in February 2022, prompting them to post photos of themselves on Twitter.
What is Bored Ape Metaverse?
Utilizing its brand names, Yuga Labs has been actively dwelling in the metaverse space. Otherside is a gamified metaverse developed by Yuga Labs in collaboration with Animoca Brands. It is expected to be a hybrid of World of Warcraft and other Web3 virtual worlds. “Players own the world,” the vision goes, “your NFTs can become playable characters, and thousands can play together in real-time.” It differs from video game experiences in a way that its structure won’t be linear, and players will be able to explore immersive virtual worlds freely.
Overview of Bored Ape Metaverse’s Digital Assets and Virtual World
Yuga Labs released a teaser trailer in March 2022, giving the public its first glimpse of Otherside’s content. A flying creature abducts a Bored Ape after drinking a glowing blue substance fished up from the depths of a swamp in the animated short set to “Break on Through (To The Otherside)” by The Doors. Other NFT projects mentioned in the trailer included the BAYC spin-off Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, CrypToadz, Meebits, Nouns, and World of Women.
It came after the release of ApeCoin (APE), a BAYC-themed cryptocurrency, with owners of NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections eligible for 10,094 and 2,042 of the Ethereum-based tokens, respectively. While the token’s image bears the BAYC logo, and Yuga Labs has stated that it will use the coin in the future, the official line is that ApeCoin is not affiliated with BAYC or Yuga Labs and is instead governed by the ApeCoin DAO.
How the Community is carried over into the Bored Ape Metaverse
The world got its first proper look at Otherside in July 2022, when 4,300 ‘Voyagers’ took part in the ‘First Trip.’ The metaverse project’s early-access tech demo included a tour of its central location, dubbed the ‘Biogenic Swamp,’ culminating in a boss fight against a Koda.
Otherside aspires to be a part of an open metaverse where users and assets can seamlessly transition between platforms, hence, the M2 platform is used with interoperability in mind, to create a fully integrated metaverse eventually.
BAYC used the “Otherdeed” NFT collection as one of the means to attract its community to its metaverse. Users could purchase the Otherdeed NFTs to own land in the metaverse and use their NFTs as playable characters there. Also, the holders of Otherdeed NFTs were the first ones who got the chance to witness the Otherside metaverse during the first trip with the limited invite sent by Yuga Labs.
Partnerships and Collaborations
Without a doubt, Bored Ape Yacht Club has the most dominant market share in the NFT space.
With this certainty, BAYC is able to collaborate with some of the world’s most recognizable brands.
Gucci
Currently, little is known about Gucci’s upcoming collaboration with BAYC. What we do know is that the collaboration will last several years and will involve holders and others in the BAYC ecosystem creating a series of wearable Collectible NFTs in the Metaverse.
According to a Business of Fashion report, the partnership will bring the Gucci and Yuga communities together by “exploring the intersection of fashion and entertainment in the Metaverse.”
WeNew, CryptoPunks, and Meebits
In a mammoth move, Yuga Labs also acquired leading NFT collections: WeNew, CryptoPunks and Meebits in 2022. This made them one of the biggest and leading players in the NFT ecosystem. It clarified their narrative and mission of taking over the metaverse.
Adidas
Another major partnership announced by Yuga Labs in 2022 was the partnership with Adidas. During the FIFA world cup hosted in Qatar, Adidas and Yuga Labs announced a special limited edition NFT collection, which was only accessible to holders of BAYC, Meebits, CryptoPunks, and OthersideMeta.
Adidas was the first company to come forward to promote an NFT project. The company released an advertisement before the international tournament featuring all football’s biggest names, including Indigo Herz NFT.
Indigo Herz is a character from the NFT collection of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Adidas purchased it for 46 ETH (approximately $156,000). Adidas purchased all commercial rights to the NFT character, allowing the brand to use it wherever it wanted.
Animoca Brands
In December 2021, Yuga Labs partnered with Animoca Brands to diverge to the GameFi space while providing actual utilities for their massively popular NFT collections. Animoca Brands has supported Yuga Labs and the BAYC community since 2022, from allowing users to buy NFTs from the Benji Banana game using apecoin to actively assisting in developing the Ape metaverse called “Otherside”.
Expansion and New features of Bored Ape Metaverse
Otherside launched a second trip for its unique “Otherdeed” NFT holders in March 2023. More than 7,000 players successfully participated in Yuga Labs’ ‘Second Trip’ to the Otherside Metaverse.
The experience was designed to immerse players in a sci-fi fantasy world that combined elements of popular MMORPG and NFT culture. Users began their journey by entering the “Infinity Space,” an empty arena where they could practise controlling their avatars and sending messages to other players. Voyagers could gather in small groups and speak directly to each other, simulating a “real-life event” in which players could only talk and hear each other when they were in close proximity.
While some existing metaverse experiences often witness poor graphics, lagging speeds, and difficult-to-navigate virtual spaces, Otherside’s user experience was relatively robust and straightforward to use in comparison. Notably, despite thousands of players converging on the space simultaneously, the experience was incredibly detailed and appeared to have little congestion issues.
Final Thoughts
If they play their cards right, Yuga Labs is on the right path towards metaverse dominance. The best NFT/gaming space partnerships and top brands undoubtedly differentiate it from other players in this segment.
Yuga Labs has proven from time to time that they are aces in the world of NFTs, as seen by the massive popularity of their collections like BAYC and MAYC and the acquisition of top collections like CryptoPunks and Meebit.
Also, being in partnership with Animoca Brands for their metaverse development and as seen by the recent journeys in Otherside, it provides a seamless experience for the users, something that has yet to be added to other top metaverses of now.
With all this in mind, it can be rightly said that BAYC and its metaverse would impact how we see virtual worlds and NFT utilities in them.
