What is Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a project of 10,000 ape-themed NFTs with various traits and unique characteristics. It was launched in April 2021. BAYC was inspired by CryptoPunks, which is a popular profile picture (PFP) NFT project. Apart from offering value and utility as unique art, BAYC NFTs also provide exclusive membership rights to the club. The BAYC NFT holders get increased benefits and privileges. Each Bored Ape NFT has a number (BAYC #9875) and a name for its identity. BAYC is operating on the Ethereum blockchain. The NFTs have unique traits and characteristics of varying rarities. They contain more than 170 traits. The traits include facial expressions, fur color, clothing, and accessories. Bored Apes with rare traits are expensive.

What exactly made them so popular?

BAYC gained so much popularity so soon. But how?

It all comes down to three things: limited quantity, iconic designs, and excellent community building.

Limited Quantity

There are only 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs. The limited supply increased the demand and drove up the price of the NFTs.

Iconic Designs

Each Ape has unique traits, however, the core set of shapes defines its look as a Bored Ape. The color palette, the edgy design, and the choice of lo-fi music pique the creative minds of the consumer, making BAYC a cool and iconic brand.

Excellent community building

BAYC leveraged existing crypto communities to initiate their platform. They have used the power of the community well and continue to do so. We’ll see how they built a loyal community later in the article.

The creators of BAYC

BAYC is developed by Yuga Labs. 4 friends using the alias’ Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and No Sass developed Yuga Labs. Gargamel and Gordon Goner are the project’s co-founders. Emperor Tomato Ketchup and No Sass assist with project development.  Their real names are Greg Solano, Wylie Arnow, Kerem, and Zeshan. The creative and artistic work in the project was done by Seneca, a freelance artist.

Projects by Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs is focused on creating a community-focused Web 3.0 lifestyle business that looks to create more utilities for NFT holders. The goal of the team is to keep build an NFT ecosystem, which is why their products and services are strategically designed to build and nurture the exclusivity of the BAYC community. After the success of BAYC, Yuga Labs created other NFT collections to reward its BAYC holders. They are Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).

Bored Ape Kennel Club

Bored Ape Kennel Club allows every Bored Ape to adopt a dog. The Bored Ape NFT owners can adopt a Club Dog NFT for free. There are 10,000 NFTs that are a collection of unique digital dogs. 96% of Bored Ape members adopted a dog. There are around 170 different traits with varying rarities akin to Bored Ape NFTs.

Mutant Ape Yacht Club

Mutant Ape Yacht Club is a collection of mutant or zombified variants of Bored Apes. Yuga Labs airdropped three types of serums: M1, M2, and M3 to BAYC NFT holders, which they can use to mint Mutant Apes. The M1 and M2 serums result in mutations with traces of original traits. But the M3, Mega Mutant serum post ingestion makes the Apes unrecognizable. These are very unique and rare, and hence, fetch a higher price. A collection of new Mutant Apes resulted in the creation of Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), exclusively for 20,000 mutant members. The MAYC rewards existing Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) members by offering a mutant version of their ape NFT.

Acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits

Yuga Labs extended its NFT ecosystem to cement itself in the top position of the PFP NFT market. They did this by acquiring CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. These two collections are BAYC’s competitors in terms of value and popularity. Yuga Labs now owns all IP rights, brands, and copyright of the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections along with 1,711 Meebits NFTs and 423 CryptoPunks.

How are their projects funded?

Before the launch of BAYC, the co-founders, Gargamel and Gordon Goner brought on two programmer friends No Sass and Emperor Tomato Ketchup to code Ethereum smart contracts. They invested $40,000 to hire illustrators. Following the drop of the NFTs, the founders netted over $2 million. 

Yuga Labs net another $96 million after the public sale of 10,000 Mutant Apes. Yuga Labs also generates revenue whenever there are secondary sales. They receive 2.5 percent of the secondary sale values. This has generated around $60 million in secondary sales income. Yuga Labs also receives a portion of the revenue generated through secondary transactions like royalty fees or other content related to BAYC. 

In March 2022, Yuga Labs raised a $450 million round from Andreessen Horowitz in funding at a valuation of $4 billion. Yuga Labs has not previously raised funding, though the startup has long been courting attention from VCs eager to back a major player in the NFT craze. 

They also launched ApeCoin, out of the 1 billion APE coins,160 million APE coins are allocated to Yuga Labs. 80 million APE goes to founders of BAYC and Yuga Labs, 10 million APE to charity, and 140 million APE to launch contributors.

How did they build community?

The BAYC community is one of the reasons why the NFT collection is so successful and continues to grow. This is because of the products and services offered by Yuga Labs. They are designed to build and nurture the exclusivity of the community.

Here are some of the products, features, and services Yuga Labs offers its community members:

• NFT Holders are offered complete commercial rights over their NFTs, which include BAYC, BAKC, MAYC, CryptoPunks, and Meebits. This implies the members can create merchandise and use their NFTs to generate income.
• BAYC releases exclusive merchandise to Bored Ape owners.
• The NFTs act as an entry pass to an online clubhouse that is designed to look like a cool bar. They also act as passes for real-world private events.
• To keep its members engaged, BAYC created The Bathroom, which is a digital representation of a private physical space to write thoughts freely. The Bathroom is a place to draw, scrawl, or write expletives.
• Yuga Labs involves its NFT holders in its decision-making processes, specifically in charity donations.
• BAYC members are prioritized when allocating new NFTs or launching new products.
• ApeCoin, an ERC-20 token, was introduced by Yuga Labs as a utility and governance to further democratize and decentralize the BAYC ecosystem. This launch allows the members to access services within and outside the BAYC ecosystem.

Future of Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs plan to create their own version of gamified and interoperable metaverse called “Otherside”, which would integrate avatars from a number of NFT projects owned by the startup. Following the massive $450M seed round and attached $4B valuation, it is exciting to see what else is lined up. Some of their upcoming projects include IP expansion, evolving into a lifestyle brand, club immersion, and vertical integration.

Final thoughts

Without using advertising, search engine marketing, or intensive social media promotion, BAYC has developed a brand. By bringing people together and creating a brand that serves as a badge of honor and passes for every member of the exclusive community, they were able to harness the power of the community. The BAYC is a phenomenon. It is evident that they have exciting projects coming up and it is guaranteed that they would play a huge role in the Web 3 ecosystem.