As a blockchain enthusiast, you might have once heard of Bored Ape Yacht Club (popularly known as BAYC). In the vibrant world of digital art and cryptocurrency, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has emerged as a prominent and highly coveted collection. After its launch in April 2021 by Yuga Labs, BAYC is an NFT collection built on the Ethereum blockchain with the help of ERC-721. This NFT collection features a series of 10,000 unique, algorithmically generated cartoon apes, each with distinct traits and characteristics.
BAYC is nothing like ordinary NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens). They come with exclusive membership perks, including access to special events, virtual spaces, and a tight-knit community of enthusiasts and investors.
Did you know that famous celebrities like Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, Paris Hilton, Jimmy Fallon, and Gwyneth Paltrow have also purchased these popular NFTs?
Over the last few years, Bored Apes have gained so much attention and popularity that many people have become interested in them.
Keeping your interest in mind, ‘The Blockchainist’ Team has compiled a detailed blog post on BAYC and its tokens. Read this comprehensive guide to understand the valuable information.
An Iconic Rise of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC): History, Development and Founding
History and Initial Development
BAYC is one of the most popular NFT collections currently. They initially aimed to make some ridiculous digital artworks (apes) by taking inspiration from hip-hop and punk music scenes from the 1980s and 90s. Eventually, they ended up creating unique ape tokens. This is why these tokens are known as Bored Ape NFTs.
The word ‘Bored’ is used because these apes (digital artworks) were created to eliminate boredom. That’s why they called them Bored Ape tokens. And, with the same context, the name of the club ‘Bored Ape Yacht Club’ came forward.
Founders and Team
You may be wondering who these innovative, completely extraordinary founders were.
So, here are their names. Take a look!
Greg Solano (going by the pseudonym “Gargamel”)
Wylie Aronow (going by the pseudonym “Gordon Goner”)
Kerem Atalay (“Emperor Tomato Ketchup”)
Zeshan Ali (“No Sass”)
In an interview with The New Yorker, one of the founding members, Greg Solano (going by the pseudonym “Gargamel”), unmasked some essential information about their team. He said,
Thomas Dagley, Migwashere, and one anonymous couple are behind the handling of traits and environments of Bored Ape tokens. Simply Seneca (an anonymous Asian-American artist) is the lead artist of the original token collection, credited with developing traits like Grinning Mouth, the Popping Eyes, and the Beanie.
Launch
Upon the launch of Bored Apes in 2021 by Yuga Labs, many media houses referred to Bored Apps as ‘One of the most prominent NFTs.’ After a few months of launch, BAYC became ‘the highest-priced NFTs’ by surpassing CryptoPunks in December 2021. During the same time, the artwork of various Bored Apes tokens became viral on social media. Many users even started using them as profile pictures on their social media handles.
Rolling Stone also released Bored Ape Magazine covers as an official NFT magazine in November 2021. However, it’s another story in the same publication that described Bored Ape tokens as ‘Worthless’ a year later.
How Downfall Started? Unraveling the Primary Factors Behind the Falling Popularity of Bored Ape Tokens
In 2021, when Bored Ape tokens were launched for the first time, they got huge attention across the crypto market. This led to a massive rise in its price. After a successful debut, the Bored Ape tokens had an excellent sophomore year in 2022, when the total sales of its NFT tokens surpassed $1 billion. At that time, the value of Yuga Labs also stood at $4 billion. However, the success of Bored Ape Yacht Club was short-lived. In 2022-23, the leading NFT collection faced various controversies and allegations. Altogether, this led to the falling influence of BAYC.
Given below are the primary reasons behind the fall of Bored Ape tokens
1. End of FTX and SEC Investigation
In November 2022, FTX (one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges) filed for bankruptcy due to the SEC’s allegations that its CEO (Sam Bankman-Fried) had misused customer funds. With the collapse of FTX, Yuga Labs also suffered a lot since FTX was its leading investor. The price of Bored Ape tokens also took a massive dip in the same month. During the same month, the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) started investigating Yuga Labs due to concerns that their Bored Ape tokens are unregistered security offerings.
After a month-long investigation, a class action lawsuit was filed against Yuga Labs (the parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club) in December 2022. According to the lawsuit, it was alleged that Yuga Labs’ product is an unregistered security product that was advertised through fraudulent celebrity endorsements. Many celebrities, such as Post Malone, Diplo, Snoop Dogg & Kevin Hart, behind the promotion of NFTs, were also mentioned in the class action.
2. Racism Allegations & Ryder Ripps Lawsuit
In June 2022, Yuga Labs filed a lawsuit against Ryder Ripps for allegedly running a false advertising campaign and infringement of trademarks. Yuga Labs also demanded a financial reimbursement and argued that Ripps was executing a calculated and intentional plan to damage the reputation of Bored Ape Yacht Club.
In August 2022, Artist Ryder Ripps tried to dismiss the allegations of Yuga Labs by accusing Bored Apes of using racist imagery through their apes. In an official file, Ripps described Bored Apes as ‘A Form of an Appropriation Art.’ His motion also called out Yuga’s Bored Ape Logo for miming a Nazi emblem. Moreover, record executive Damon Dash and American rapper Freddie Gibbs also came forward to call out Bored Apes for using racist imagery. However, these allegations proved to be accurate to some extent.
But the issue was it had nothing to do with the lawsuit.
In April 2023, John F. Walter (a federal judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California) issued a judgment in favor of Yuga Labs. Moreover, Ripps and his partner Jeremy Cahen also committed to executing a calculated defamation and cybersquatting.
This whole legal battle was chaotic. In the end, BAYC was found to be the victim, but honestly, it was too late. The damage had been done by Ripps, and the general public started losing interest in the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
3. ApeFest Eye Injuries
2023 was really the worst year for BAYC. After battling a highly publicized lawsuit, BAYC got involved in another controversy in November 2023. On November 5, 2023, many ApeFest attendees came forward on X (formerly Twitter) about their severe eye and skin injuries during ApeFest in Hong Kong.
ApeFest was a private event exclusively attended by the holders of BAYC and MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club).
[MAYC (Mutant Ape Yacht Club) is a sister NFT collection, which was founded after the success of BAYC]
As per the statements of ApeFest attendees, all of them started having severe pain in their eyes due to over-exposure to UV lights during an event. Some attendees also faced many skin issues.
On Number 6, the Bored Ape Yacht Club issued an official statement, stating, ‘An organization was aware of this incident, and we believe less than 1% of attendees only had these symptoms.’
After this statement was issued, Twitter was again flooded with people criticizing the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
During this time, the floor price of Bored Ape tokens decreased to 88% compared to its April 2022 peak.
In April 2024, the price of Bored Ape tokens reached its lowest point since its launch. At that time, its floor price stood at 11.1 ETH (nearly 90% down from its peak).
Will Bored Ape Yacht Club and Its Tokens Ever Make a Comeback?
2024 is proving to be a good year overall for most cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin and Ethereum. Many leading and emerging cryptocurrencies and tokens are witnessing a huge rise in their prices. Now, we can only hope that BAYC tokens will also experience a significant rise. This will undoubtedly aid in the resurgence of BAYC tokens, ensuring they remain relevant and continue to play an active role in the market.
The current floor price of Bored Ape Yacht Club is 9.30 ETH, which has decreased by 0.43% in the last 24 hours.
In April 2024, Yuga Labs announced that their organization would soon undergo a significant layoff or restructuring. This means that Yuga Lab will restart with a limited and unspecified number of employees.
In his official X post, Greg Solana (the current CEO of Yuga Lab) confirmed this news as he bid goodbye to his team members.
This was the last update on Yuga Labs’ restructuring process. Now, all we can do is wait and watch. Let’s see how Greg Solana will execute a comeback of Bored Ape Yacht Club.
In the meantime, you can keep yourself updated about the major innovations of the blockchain industry through our detailed blog posts. As a premier source of comprehensive blockchain-related blog posts, ‘The Blockchainist’ Team aims to provide accurate information to you. Explore our blog page to read guides on a wide range of interesting topics.
