a jpeg of an ape for a million dollars how did Bored Ape Yacht Club become the most popular
nft collection to exist coin market cap takes a deep dive into the most popular nft collection to
find out the rationale behind its fame my name is jet and here at coin market cap we are on
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and let's learn together so what is Bored Ape Yacht Club amidst the growing nft craze taking the
internet over by storm you've probably come across the jpeg of a bored looking ape as the twitter
avatar of certain celebrities the name of the jpeg is also not surprisingly Bored Ape Yacht Club the
nft collection which up until april of 2021 has sold nfts for as low as 0.08 each that's around
247 us dollars and has reached total sales of 1 billion in january of 2022 with the identities
of the owners recently unveiled by buzzfeed in a controversial report nfts from the collection
have made it into the possession of many a-list celebrities from the likes of eminem to steph
curry countless celebrities have bought into the nft hype and purchased jpegs from bored ape yacht
club for as high as over 2 million dollars in order to understand why so many big names are
buying into this specific collection we should first establish what this collection or club is
according to the official bored ape yacht club website the club aims to offer quote a collection
of 10 000 bored 8 nfts unique digital collectibles living on the ethereum blockchain your bored ape
doubles as your yacht club membership card and grants access to members only benefits
this establishes each nft from the bored 8 yacht club as a digital receipt proving the holder's
ownership of it each nft has its own specific traits ranging from outfits accessories and skin
tones to expressions and moods ownership of an nft then grants the owner exclusive perks and creates
a confidential club of ultra rich folks where only bored 8 yacht club nft holders are allowed
the apes are purchased using eth and the nfts are hosted on the interplanetary file system or ipfs
which is a peer-to-peer method of data sharing similar to other nfts the bored yacht club nfts
are also stored as erc 721 tokens on ethereum it must be understood that the owners of the nfts
do not necessarily own the pictures or the jpeg nor is that jpeg of any value rather it is the
certification of ownership that they pay millions for that certification is their members only
ticket into exclusive parties and events hosted by fellow bored ape yacht club nft owners bored ape
yacht club has garnered a cult-like following since its inception and its popularity can be
gauged from its partnership with psg mega stars and big companies the rolling stones magazine
for example recently partnered with bored ape yacht club for an exclusive limited edition
monthly magazine a metaverse auction by sotheby also featured a bored 8 yacht club nft that was
sold for a whopping 3.4 million dollars while the collection of 101 nfts was sold for 24.4 million
similarly adidas and animoka brands have also partnered with the nft collection boosting its
value the founding company of the collection is yuga labs with the owners carrying the pseudonyms
of gordon goner gargamel no sass and emperor tomato ketchup these quirky pseudonyms are
meant to protect the owner's identities however in early february of 2022 a buzzfeed article titled
we found the real names of bored yacht club's pseudonymous founders by technology reporter Katie
Notopolous created ripples in the crypto community the report talks about the success of bored yacht
club stating that among the total revenue of the nft collection are the millions of dollars
gathered first through the initial sales and then through the two and a half percent future trade
royalties moreover the bored ape yacht club's partnerships with adidas and other brands are
real-world deals as opposed to the superficial status of cryptocurrency and nfts these have
collectively made the brand worth a market cap of 2.8 billion dollars the reporter argues that
it is unwise to have the owner of a billion dollar company unknown to the general public how do you
hold them accountable if you don't know who they are states the report among the four owners the
real identities of two under the pseudonyms gordon goner and gargamel were exposed while those of
no sass and emperor tomato ketchup remain unknown the two founders were actually 32 year old Greg
Solano and 35 year old Wiley Aranow with the former having a background in professional writing
when yugano labs the company behind bored ape yacht club confirmed the identities of the two
founders a backlash against buzzfeed poured out of web3 twitter the founders posted their own
pictures on twitter alongside their nfts claiming that they were doxxed by Notopolous Solano
captioned the pictures got docs against my will oh well web2me versus web3me while Aranow tweeted
got doc so why not web2me vs web3me in case you were wondering doxxing is a term used when someone
leaks personal information about a person in an attempt to make it easier for them to get harassed
so now that you are more familiar with the history of bored ape yacht club what makes the collection
so special bored ape yacht collection allows the creation of a virtual universe as is popular with
zuckerberg's metaverse these days this virtual world is exclusive to those investing in it an
example of this is its feature the bathroom which is a community drawing canvas available to all its
members to write and draw whatever they wish every 15 minutes one pixel can be scribbled onto it
and just like ridiculously expensive art its value is determined not by its quality but rather
its market sellability moreover celebrities like the chainsmokers are into it for the experience
ownership of nfts is more or less a status symbol that rich people can flaunt while there is also
a sense of uniqueness and it provides to its owners as each ape is completely unique in its
features and no two people can buy the same one the grand celebrity interest in bored ape yacht
club has deemed it a trend or something that is cool therefore buying an ape is also a symbol of
how trendy one is a statement to say that one is part of the same club as social media employers
paris hilton rap legend eminem mega star athlete shaquille o'neal or business tycoon mark cuban
you may also check out the newly launched bored ape yacht club token apecoin moreover with each
celebrity buying nfts from bored ape yacht club the club welcomes a brand new class of potential
customers that are the people influenced by celebrities this has boosted the overall value
of the bored ape yacht club and thus for countless rich folk it is a source of investment much like
the stock exchange they buy the nft at its current price which judging from the reported investment
talks of yuga labs with the andreessen horowitz firm could potentially rise to well around five
billion dollars this means that selling these nfts in the future could bring back a profit of well
over a hundred percent the following are a few of the perks that a bored ape yacht club member has
access to an exclusive discord server where only bored ape yacht club members are allowed randomly
distributed free additional nft collections that are air dropped into the wallets of members these
can then be sold for a good amount a yacht club member's only ticket with undisclosed benefits
one of the benefits released was a community graffiti bored by the name of the bathroom for
digital art this keeps the members engrossed in the universe-like appearance of the bored ape
yacht club the ability to turn their apes into mutants by using free air-dropped serums these
mutant apes can also be sold for about three eth exclusive games like the mutant arcade added to
the exclusive atmosphere that the bored ape yacht club offers recently bored yacht club launched
apecoin that's been airdropped to bored ape nft holders on a january 2022 episode of the tonight
show starring jimmy fallon and paris hilton as the guest host jimmy fallon revealed that paris
hilton had quote taught him what nfts were he then praised hilton for making it onto the list of the
50 most influential people in the nft space fallon casually brought the conversation up and both he
and hilton then revealed that they own nfts from the bored ape yacht club with fallon owning bored
8599 the sea captain ape which is now also his twitter avatar and hilton owning bored ape 1294
this segment however appeared strange to many critics with polygon terming it as
the tonight show's most uncomfortable recent segment it also appears that justin bieber buying
an ape nft for 1.7 million dollars or jimmy fallon buying one for 46.6 eath which is around 220k
are rather endorsing the nfts in an attempt to boost its sales los angeles times stated that
the tonight show might have breached comcast's conflict of interest policies comcast owns nbc
universal and the apparently casual conversation about bored ape yacht club on the nbc show might
have contributed to a surge in its booming value the success and popularity of bored ape yacht
club could therefore be somewhat accredited to the celebrity endorsement it receives
now whether these endorsements are inadvertent or deliberate it is a controversial discussion
of its own bored yacht club is currently the most popular nft brand out there this means that it is
dominating the nft charts however the company's recent endeavors especially in the most profitable
ones appear to be attempting at establishing bored ape yacht club in the web 2 space it has partnered
with animoka brands to develop a game that will apparently pay users to play the game this play
to earn approach seems promising as it will pull in more users the company is working to expand the
bored ape yacht club universe to the real-life corporate world as its billion-dollar status is
due to these investments moreover the current investment talks with the andreessen horowitz firm
can potentially make it worth five billion dollars so what do you think about the future of bored
ape yacht club comment below and of course don't forget to mention the number of your favorite ape