- The company behind the collection, Yuga Labs is looking to develop new applications on Web3 and to achieve its goal, it decided to create ApeCoin DAO which will have its governance in the ApeCoin token.
- ApeCoin is an ERC-20 governance and utility token used to power a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3.
- APE is a governance token of the Bored Ape ecosystem.
This 2022 a new cryptocurrency called “ApeCoin” Y The truth is that its popularity is linked to the euphoria over the market for non-fungible tokens, better known as NFTs.
For many, Apecoin is a token similar to any other Memecoin, that is, cryptocurrencies that are based on Internet memes. However, for others Apecoin has the potential to provide real utility unlike other Memecoins, like Dogecoin or Shiba Inu.
Growth of NFTs and BAYC
Since 2020, the non-fungible token (NFT) market has gained popularity for its inherent features such as verifiable authenticity and ownership guarantee; but, in addition, the NFTs have been surrounded by a euphoria after the really significant price increases. Who would not be attracted to NFTs when hearing the success stories of some collections?
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of those NFT collections that, so far, have been a highly profitable and successful story
The BAYC are an NFT collection whose images are seemingly boring looking apes with different variations depending on their rarity. Some of these NFTs were sold for hundreds of thousands of US dollars and some of the celebrities who have purchased one of them have been Justin Bieber and Eminem.
The question that is usually repeated is: What is special about them? Why do they cost so much? The simple answer is that ownership of one of them became a matter of status. The fact is that currently buy one of the cheapest BAYC NFTs costs approximately $102 thousand US dollars
But what does ApeCoin have to do with all this? Well, as BAYC became popular, the company behind the collection, YugaLabstook advantage of the momentum to develop new applications on the Web3. For example, he is working on his own metaverse called The Otherside and is looking to create an entire Web3-based community.
And, to achieve its ambitious goals in Web3, Yuga Labs decided to create ApeCoin DAO to launch the ApeCoin in the form of an Airdrop., that is, distributed the cryptocurrency among all BAYC holders. Yeah, they basically gave every owner of a Bored Ape roughly 10,094 ApeCoin which, at the time, translated to $70K USD.
This is how ApeCoin began to arouse curiosity and interest among members and non-members of the crypto community. Below you will find a detailed guide on everything you need to know about Apecoin.
What is?
ApeCoin (APE) is a digital asset and cryptocurrency that was built on the Ethereum blockchain.. This implies that it is based on the ERC-2 token standard0. Has a fixed supply of 1 billion APEs andAccording to CoinMarketCap, there are currently 292 million APEs in circulation. Much of the APE that remains to be distributed will be granted gradually over the next few years.
APE is not an NFT, that is, it is not a non-fungible token. APE is a fungible token, this means that any Apecoin should be worth exactly the same as another Apecoin.
Although APE is ostensibly the BAYC token and acts as a reward token, it is not officially created by Yuga Labs, the company behind the APE ecosystem.
In fact, it was officially created by ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that was created to precisely govern the token and its roadmap. The objective of the DAO is, in theory, to guarantee the decentralization of the token and increase the participation of the community in the future of the token.
In this way, APE is a governance token of the Bored Ape ecosystem. Namely, Token holders have the right to participate through voting in decision-making about the ecosystem. However, the utility of APE goes beyond being a governance token for many investors due to its ties to NFTs and ApeCoin DAO as Yuga Labs adopts APE as the primary token for all new products and services.
Where are you from?
APE was launched in 2022 as a response to the growing interest in NFTs and, to some extent, the lack of options to invest in that market.
In this context, ApeCoin DAO makes the first distribution of the token. This is a new form of organization that seeks to decentralize the entire Ape ecosystem. And it is that, through said organization, the community will present proposals on which APE holders will be able to vote.
In addition, there is a separate organization known as the Ape Foundation, or Fundación APE, which handles the day-to-day administration of the DAO. That is, the management of the proposals that are executed and everything that guarantees that the community has the necessary support to turn their ideas into reality.
In fact, there is a subcommittee of the Ape Foundation that will serve as the “board of directors” of the ApeCoin DAO. Basically they will be in charge of supervising certain proposals.
Tokenomics
The term “Tokenomics” is produced from the combination between “token” and “economy”. In this way, the Tokenomics of a cryptocurrency are the set of elements that make it valuable and interesting for investors.
When a project refers to its ‘Tokenomics’, it includes everything from the supply to what the utility of the token will be, and, consequently, it is a fundamental section that investors must take into consideration when evaluating an investment.
In the case of APE, the cryptocurrency has a fixed supply of one billion tokens. This implies that there is no ability to issue more tokens after reaching the limit because your contract states so.
According to the official website, the total offer is distributed as follows: 62% to the ecosystem fund, 16% Yuga Labs + Charity, 14% Launch Contributors, and 8% to the BAYC founders.
At the time, 150 million tokens were airdropped from the ecosystem fund to BAYC-related NFT holders as follows:
- Bored Ape NFT: 10,094 tokens
- Mutant Apes = 2,042 tokens
- Bored Ape + Kennel Club = 10,950 tokens
- Mutant Ape + Kennel Club = 2,898
For example, for every Bored Ape a person owned, they could claim 10,094 tokens which, at today’s price, translates to $36.6 thousand US dollars. So far, 97.75% of the APEs have been claimed, that is, 146.6 million APEs.
Use cases
Regarding its utility and function, APE has the following purpose to fulfill:
- Governance Token: As a government token, APE will allow its holders to make decisions collectively through the casting of votes. Various topics can be voted on, such as funding allocations, partnerships, rule making, and much more.
- Incentives: APE serves as an incentive for developers to participate in the ecosystem.
- Payments: ApeCoin can be used for payments. For example, a brewery at SaltWater Brewery, in Florida, USA, announced that it will accept payments in APE.
- Platform of decentralized applications
- Community Driven Project Financing
Shouldn’t ApeCoin be regulated?
Previously it was emphasized that ApeCoin had not been officially a creation of Yuga Labs and this is a key element at the legal level.
Basically if Yuga Labs as a company were to explicitly issue a token as a reward to Bored Ape holders, regulators could argue that it is a type of investment and therefore should be regulated under securities law.
As ApeCoin is an official creation of ApeCoin DAO at a legal level, the situation is different, the fundamental difference is that ApeCoin DAO, at least on paper, is completely decentralized while Yuga Labs is not.
Where is it available?
ApeCoin is available in some of the most important crypto exchanges in the market, such as Binance, Coinbase, KuCoin, Bybit, Kraken, among others.
In this way, to buy APE in any of these crypto exchanges, you must follow a more or less standard procedure:
- Register with an email, contact number and a username.
- You will need to verify your identity and for this you will need to upload your ID and other documents to the platform.
- And lastly, you will be able to buy APE by depositing fiat to the platform.
final thoughts
ApeCoin is a cryptocurrency with only a few months of birth and, therefore, its future is completely uncertain. Not to mention that it is a cryptocurrency linked to a nascent sector such as NFTs.
The plan is that APE will be used as a key part of the next products and services that Yuga Labs and its community develop in relation to the entire Bored Ape ecosystem. So, as you can imagine, the future of the token is closely linked to the future of the entire APE ecosystem.
The APE value in particular has proven to be quite volatile and is a feature to keep an eye on.
For some APE it will be a relevant cryptocurrency in the future and for others it is not too different from any other memecoin. In the end, each individual person must form their own criteria.
You might be interested in:
- What is a DAO?