What is ApeCoin (APE)?

ApeCoin is an ecosystem token for the large community that has developed around Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs and their creator, Yuga Labs. In April of 2021, 10,000 Bored Apes launched and became an iconic brand of NFTs, capturing the attention of crypto degens as well as celebrities like Stephen Curry and Paris Hilton.

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According to the website, the story behind the Bored Apes spun out of the crypto meme, “aping”, meaning to just go full throttle and load up on a shitcoin with zero remorse. After building up some fat bags, the apes became so bored they banded together to build a digital, moderately offensive country club in a swamp.

ApeCoin’s vision is to fuel a Web3 world of digital art, video games, entertainment, merch and IRL events. You have APE as the native token and BAYC NFTs as the driving meme and multi-functional crypto asset.

To do all of this, an entire ecosystem is involved:

Yuga Labs - Creator of BAYCs, organizer of APE launch.

BAYC - Collection of Bored Ape NFTs that double as membership to a swamp club.

APE DAO - Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO) for all APE holders to vote on future decisions and fund allocations.

The APE Foundation - Carries out governance decisions based on the DAO votes.

ApeCoin Board - Yuga Labs appointed the first 5 board members, which will serve for 6 months and then the APE DAO will vote in board members for 1-year terms.

Otherside - A Metaverse that is being built by Yuga Labs using ApeCoins as a currency. Otherdeeds are the NFT keys to this world.

Animoca Brands - Yuga Labs partner in building out Play-to-Earn games that use APE tokens in-game.

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Project status
April 23, 2022 - BAYC NFTs launch
March 17, 2022 - ApeCoin launch
March 22, 2022 - Yuga Labs raises $450 million in seed round at $4 billion valuation

Team
It’s a little bit complicated because two of the founders of BAYC, ”Gordon Goner” and “Gargamel”, intended to remain anonymous but were outed by BuzzFeed in February of 2022. After the publication was released, Yuga Labs CEO, Nicole Muniz, confirmed the identities of the two founders as Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano. The identity of the two engineer co-founders, Emperor Tomato Ketchup and No Sass, remain a mystery.

• Yuga Labs has a transparent Board of Directors with CEO, Nicole Muniz, and a16z partner, Chris Lyons.
• The ApeCoin Board members are transparent and include Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, FTX Venture and Gaming Head, Amy Wu, and Animoca Chairman, Yat Siu.

Making headlines
Yuga Labs raises record $320 million in 45 minutes in Otherside Metaverse land sale
Rarible proposes fee-less BAYC NFT marketplace for ApeCoin holders
Otherdeed NFT sales volume surpasses NBA Top Shots in August with $1.03 billion

This interactive video featuring Snoop Dog and Eminem just dropped at the 2022 Video Music Awards (VMA), giving you an idea of the iconic nature of Bored Ape NFTs

Does it have staying power?

Competitive?

• Yuga Labs also developed the popular Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT collections. Additionally, they acquired Crypto Punks (the OG of NFTs) and Meebits shortly before launching APE.
• The ApeCoin project was targeted in a blog and video hit piece shortly after their launch. Extensive information was presented suggesting that Bored Apes founders use their platform and its imagery as dog whistles to white supremists. Yuga Labs published a response and is now suing the author of the piece for illegally using their image.
• The top 4 NFT collections by all-time OpenSea volume are all in the ApeCoin ecocystem.

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Hiring?
Yuga Labs currently is listing 9 positions, 4 are creative positions with the remaining 5 for HR and recruiters, which may suggest more hiring is coming.

Social traction

• Close to 2 million social followers spanning the ApeCoin ecosystem (BAYC, Yuga Labs, etc.).
• Bored Apes are sometimes used as status symbols in the crypto space, such as with PFPs.

Ever been hacked?
Since its launch, three of ApeCoin’s social media platforms (Twitter, Instagram, and Discord) have been hacked in phishing or other scams. Each incident caused a modest selloff.

$APE Tokenomics

ApeCoin is an ERC-20 utility and governance token for the Bored Ape and Yuga Labs ecosystem.

Total supply
Hard capped at 1 billion APE tokens

Distribution

• 62% to ApeCoin DAO community. 15% of this goes to holders of BAYC and MAYC; holders of BAYC can claim 10,094 APE for each NFT they own, while MAYC holders get 2,042 APE. The remainder goes to the DAO’s ecosystem fund.
• 16% to Yuga Labs. A part of this allocation will go toward the primatologist Jane Goodall’s charity foundation.
• 14% to ApeCoin launch contributors.
• 8% to Yuga Labs and BAYC founders.

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Token vesting
Launch tokens are locked for 12 months with a 48-month unlocking schedule to follow.

Funding

• March 2022 - $450 million was raised in a seed sale. 37 investors participated led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Mark Cuban, Adidas, and Coinbase.
• July 2021 - The Ape Board raised $1.2 million in one seed round. Investors included lead investor SCB 10x (out of Thailand) and USDTerra’s Do Kwon.

Token utility

• Vote on AIPs to make collective decisions on how to allocate funds, frame rules, establish partnerships, and move forward.
• Purchase items using APE as an in-game currency across the BAYC ecosystem
• Access to exclusive BAYC events
• Integrate new 3rd-party projects such as NFT collections or games. $APE staking is available on Horizen
• Use as a currency within the Otherside Metaverse
• Speculate/Trade - $APE is a top 40 crypto asset according to CMC with a current daily volume of $137,783,200 (29,536,995 APE).

Decentralized?
Maybe some day.

• Yuga Labs designed and launched ApeCoin to ultimately function autonomously as a DAO and attempted to create a path to decentralization. The path has not yet fully been walked so we will wait and see.
• The 5-member Board that oversees ApeCoin's Ape Improvement Proposals (AIPs) was selected by Yuga Labs. A system was also put in place for token holders to vote in a new board annually.
• BAYC has 10,000 minted NFTs held by 6442 unique owners.

Burning Mechanism
n/a

Code Audit
Yes.

Bug bounty?
No (confirmed by Audit listed above)

Next up for ApeCoin

In the long-run, ApeCoin DAO will transition its proposal and voting mechanisms into a full, on-chain platform in a form determined by the community.

ApeCoin may migrate to their own chain since during their public sale ETH gas rose to record levels and bottlenecks clogged the network.

Continue your DYOR…

ApeCoin Website
$APE on Quadency
BAYC website
Governance Forum
Ape DAO Proposals
Smart Contract
Twitter