Surrounded by curiosity and anticipation, the launch of ApeCoin continues to resonate ten days after the airdrop that distributed the official token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem to the community of NFT holders of the collection.
Partner and investor of Yuga Labs, the Animoca Brands studio promoted the launch of ApeCoin by converting Benji Bananas, one of its popular mobile games, into a play to earn game, to distribute APEs as a reward to players.
In order to earn the new token, users had to purchase a special limited edition NFT that gave access to Benji Bananas. This NFT costs 25 APEs or 0.01 ETH – approximately $330.
The search for NFT access to Benji Bananas peaked on March 18, shortly after the launch of ApeCoin, showing that investors were looking for every possible way to get the most APE without necessarily having to buy the token. directly on the spot market.
Once logged into the game, users were able to earn rewards in Benji Bananas native currency. Having no value outside of the game ecosystem, the currency could be exchanged for APEs.
The prospect of winning the new token sparked an explosion in the search for NFTs to access Benji Bananas, which soon sold out. From there, they became exclusively available through the secondary market, where they were sold for 0.3 ETH ($900). That is, almost three times the original price. For its part, the trading volume of NFTs reached 1,437.3 ETH or about 4.3 million dollars, according to data from the decentralized application monitoring platform Dapp Radar.
The frenzy surrounding APE has gathered steam more than a week after its official launch. The token has been seen as an alternative exposure to the BAYC ecosystem for investors who do not own NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club collections.
As of early Monday afternoon, ApeCoin is trading at $14.86, posting gains of 5.82 percent over the past 24 hours, and 54. percent over the past seven days, according to data from CoinGecko.
Weekly APE performance. Source: CoinGecko
As Cointelegraph recently reported, ApeCoin has been the target of massive purchases by Ethereum (ETH) whales, demonstrating the confidence of the largest network entities in the potential for future appreciation of the token.
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