What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club? If you’re interested in NFTs and NFT art, chances are good the name has crossed your radar; the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a collection of NFTs featuring digital renditions of “bored apes”.
Founded by Gordon Goner and three others (Gargamel, No Sass, and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, as they wish to be known to investors), the project was initially part of a drive to create a “home” for those passionate about collecting NFTs.
There are some 10,000 of these NFTs on the market all differentiated by different details on the Bored Apes (clothing, hats and other headgear, facial expressions, etc.)
BAYC NFTs And NFT Basics
NFTs are basically a digital representation of art, music, video, or a real-world commodity or item. NFTs are bought, sold, and traded online using cryptocurrency technology and NFTs “live” exclusively online in digital form. The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs are basically visual art–cartoons, illustrations, paintings, or some other 2D artwork type.
NFTs “live” on a blockchain and according to many sources, most NFTs use Ethereum blockchain technology.
BAYC was started by four people in April 2021, when an individual NFT, the Bored Ape, was offered for .08 ETH, but as of September 2021, these NFTs were sold with price tags exceeding twenty four million dollars.
This NFT project is worth more than a billion dollars in trading volume, and at press time has a number of variants also available including Bored Ape Kennel Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, just to name a few.
At one significant point, some 10,000 new NFTs (Mutant Ape) were put up for sale for a relatively low sum (3ETH) but nearly $100 million dollars and just one hour later? The entire run of 10,000 had sold out.
Buying Into The Bored Ape Yacht Club
Lots of people are interested in buying NFTs or creating artwork that can be sold as NFTs. This is a mutation or evolution of the concept in some ways–each NFT depicting an official bored ape doubles as a membership card for BAYC.
Membership entitles you to freebies and other perks including access to an exclusive “graffiti board” called The Bathroom. BAYC cardholders also get access to the company’s exclusive Discord channel.
One perk aimed directly at NFT buyers and traders? Access to NFT drops that are provided to those who have digital wallets storing Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. And those freebies can wind up being sold for impressive sums according to certain sources.
BAYC Specifics
Bored Apes are described as being “ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain”. Ethereum.org describes ERC-721 tokens as being unique as they adhere to a specific NFT standard; “this type of Token is unique and can have different value than another Token from the same Smart Contract”.
This difference in value can be due to a number of factors including visual differences; “…for any ERC-721 Contract, the pair contract address, uint256 tokenId must be globally unique” but a converter can be employed to use a token ID as an “input” according to Ethereum.org, with the output being an image.
Bored Ape/Mutant Ape Map/Tracker
Curious to find out if a Bored Ape has been mutated or where a Mutant Ape came from? Use bayc.fungibleswap.com or mutants.fancyrats.io to map back to the original Bored Ape that a Mutant Ape originated from and vice versa.
Did you know that the Bored Ape and Mutant Ape Curtis that were featured on the cover of Rolling Stone are not part of the BAYC or MAYC NFT collection? That’s right, they do not exist except maybe on the Otherside. Nonexistent BAYC Curtis and MAYC Curtis were also featured in the SUPERBORED art toy line of 13″ dolls, a collaboration between SUPERPLASTIC and BAYC.
Bored Ape Benefits/Utility
Owning a Bored Ape provides both tangible and intangible benefits. BAYC are not just collectibles but collectibles with real world benefits and value.
Uniqueness
Each Ape (there are only 10,000) is a unique combination of 170 characteristics, including expression, clothing, fur, accessories etc.
Intangible Value
Value is highly subjective but BAYC includes strong influencers or celebrity involvement and community strength. Posting a PFP of an Ape has become a status symbol.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Membership Benefits
BAYC membership provides access to IRL (in real life) events such as the annual Bored Ape Fest. The first Ape Fest started on a yacht at the NYC.NFT event. Members also get access to a private digital area called “The Bathroom” that members can use as a graffiti board plus a special Discord server.
Commercial Rights
BAYC holders also get commercial usage rights for their NFTs. This means that they can use the NFT they own to sell products, media rights or use it commercially.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club Mobile Game
BAYC held a mobile game competition called “BAYC x MAYC Mobile Game competition.” The prizes ranged from Curtis plush toys and t-shirts to a BAYC pinball machine and “The Mutant Mobile,” AKA “a converted 2–2 Honda Accord decked out in MAYC regalia.
Exclusive Merch
Exclusive BAYC Merch Store was unlocked, featuring Limited Edition tees, hoodies, and other goodies only available to BAYC NFT holders.
Free Mutant Ape & Bored Ape Dog
First each member was able to adopt a Club Dog NFT for free. Then came the Mutant Apes. BAYC randomly airdropped 10,000 Mutant Serums to Bored Ape holders who could then mutate the serum exposing their Bored Apes to the serum by just paying the gas fees.
5 Caged Apes were also held back from the sale and airdropped to random Apeholders.
$APE Coin Airdrop
Yuga Labs unveiled APECoin, “a token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3. Track the key stats related to APECoin.
All BAYC holders received a free airdrop of 10,094 $APECoins. If they held onto their Mutant Ape they would have received 2,042 more $APE Coins. Plus, if they owned Apes with KAYC the were the total airdrops:
Bored Ape + Kennel Club = 10,950 $APECoin
Mutant Ape + Kennel Club = 2,898 $APECoin.
Here is peak value of the airdrop on opening for BAYC, MAYC and KAYC holders:
| BAYC NFT(s) | Airdrop | Max Value |
| Bored Ape | 10,094 | $397,703.60 |
| Mutant Ape | 2,042 | $80,454.80 |
| Bored Ape + Kennel Club | 10,950 | $431,430.00 |
| Mutant Ape + Kennel Club | 2,898 | $114,181.20 |
| * Peak Opening Day Price was $39.40 |
The Otherside and Otherdeeds Airdrop
Yuga Labs, creators of the Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection, launched The Otherside. This metaverse consists of 200,000 plots of “land” that are available through the purchase, or minting, of so-called “Otherdeeds” — NFTs that act as title deeds for the plots of virtual land. BAYC and MAYC holders were able to claim an NFT aka “Otherdeed” for 21 days after the initial sale, up 45,000 total.
See you on the Otherside in April. Powered by @apecoin pic.twitter.com/1cnSk1CjXS
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) March 19, 2022
Bored and Hungry
Restaurant developer Andy Nguyen plans the first restaurant tied to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Bored & Hungry, a popup, will launch April 9, 2022 for 90 days, at 2405 E 7th St. in Long Beach, California. Bored Ape owners are invited for a meal at Bored & Hungry on opening day, and there will be other Web3 and NFT-related surprises.
Andy Nguyen is a restauranteur, entrepreneur, Web3 enthusiast, owner of Bored Ape #6184 and two Mutant Apes
These are just some of the benefits and the developers continue to innovate with the project to keep it relevant.
Celebrities & Famous People Who Have Bought Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs
From sports, entertainment, crypto influencers and beyond here some some of the famous names that have bought into the exclusive, world of Bored Ape NFTs.
- Akash Nigam
- Andrew Sendejo
- Andrew Wiggins
- Any Milonakis
- Andy Nguyen
- Arizona Iced Tea
- E11EVEN
- Eminem
- Bassjackers
- BitBoy
- Brandon McManus
- Brandon Stokley
- Cameron Jordan
- Cameron Winklevoss
- Club Necaxa (Mexican Football Club)
- Cole Anthony
- Colin Kaepernick
- Crystal Hefner
- Daryl Morey
- Deepak Thapliyal
- Demario Davis
- Dennis Novikov
- Dez Bryan
- Dillion Francis
- Diplo
- DJ Khlaed
- Evan Luthra
- FaZe Banks
- Future
- Hassan Whiteside
- Gary Vaynerchuk
- Gunna
- Gwyneth Paltrow
- Jake Miller
- Jamie Vernon
- JaVale Mcgee
- Jay Chou
- Jimmy Fallon
- John Legere
- John Terry
- Josh Hart
- Just Maiko
- Justin Bieber
- Kevin Hart
- Kikkydina
- Kingship
- KSI
- Kygo
- LaMelo Ball
- Lil Baby
- Lil Durk
- Logan Paul
- Madonna
- Marcus Stroman
- Mark Cuban
- Mark Ingram
- Marlon Humphrey
- Marshmello
- Martin Garrix
- Meek Mill
- Memphis Depay
- Michael Carter-Williams
- Mike Shinoda
- MrFreshAsain AKAfresh
- Murda on the Beat
- Nacho Figueras
- Neymar Jr.
- Ozzy Osbourne/Sharon Osbourne
- Paris Hilton
- Patrick Mouratoglou
- Post Malone
- Pranksy
- Presnel Kimpembe
- Raoul Pal
- Rich the Kid
- Rudy Gobert
- Serena Williams
- Shaquille O’Neal
- Shawn Yue
- Snoop Dogg
- Stan Wawrinka
- Stephen Curry
- Steve Aoki
- Steven Galanis
- Synyster Gates
- Takeoff
- Taylor Gerring
- Tobias Harris
- The Chainsmokers
- The Moon
- Timbaland
- Tinie Tempah
- Tom Brady
- Tommy Mottola
- Travis Barker
- Tyler Polumbus
- Umar Kamani
- Von Miller
- WakaFlockaFlame
- Wiz Khalifa
BAYC Founders
Wylie Aronow (@GordonGoner) “REFORMED LEVERAGE ADDICT.”
Wylie is from Miami and lived in Chicago for a while, where he was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune in a “Readers of the Week” story where he and a friend were asked about what books they were reading (he said he had recently enjoyed a translation of the work of Russian author Nikolai Gogol).
Got doxxed against my will. Oh well.
Web2 me vs. Web3 me pic.twitter.com/uLkpsJ5LvN
— GordonGoner.eth (@GordonGoner) February 5, 2022
Greg Solano @CryptoGarga) “STARCRAFT OBSESSED. EATS SMURFS.”
Greg, aka “Gargamel,” also hails from Miami and is childhood friends with Gordon Goner. He is an editor and book critic on a few literary websites, and attended the University of Virginia. He co-authored a book about World of Warcraft along with one of the game’s designers.
Got doxed so why not. Web2 me vs Web3 me. pic.twitter.com/jfmzo5NtrH
— Garga.eth (@CryptoGarga) February 5, 2022
No Sass @SassBAYC “HERE FOR THE APES. NOT FOR THE SASS.”
The identity of “No Sass,” is Zeshan and he is an engineer.
Welp, here we go…
Hey, I’m Zeshan. Nice to meet y’all (:
Web2 me vs. Web3 me pic.twitter.com/0AnqurQ1el
— Sass (@SassBAYC) February 8, 2022
Emperor Tomato Ketchup @TomatoBAYC “SPENT ALL THEIR MONEY ON FIRST PRESSES AND PET-NAT.”
The identity of “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” is Kerem and he is also an engineer.
Seems like the cat is out of the bag anyway, so…
Hi, I’m Kerem ????????
web2 me vs. web3 me pic.twitter.com/v7i4JDCTlc— EmperorTomatoKetchup (@TomatoBAYC) February 8, 2022
Joe Wallace has covered real estate and financial topics, including crypto and NFTs since 1995. His work has appeared on Veteran.com, The Pentagon Channel, ABC and many print and online publications. Joe is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News.
