What is ApeCoin?

ApeCoin is the native cryptocurrency of the APE ecosystem established on March 16, 2022. The APE token is a decentralized token for various community-led activities and services. ApeCoin runs on the Ethereum network and it is an ERC-20 token. APE is managed by the ApeCoin DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) and is backed by the APE Foundation.

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Quick Facts

• APE is the native coin of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), an NFT that is highly popular with buyers like Justin Bieber and Eminem.

• There are four NFT collections that are associated with the APE ecosystem: BAYC (Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) and Otherside Metaverse

• APE was airdropped to owners of BAYC and MAYC before it became tradable.

How Did It All Start: The Bored Ape Fiasco

The APE token is largely associated with the huge hype of the Bored Ape NFT collections that have garnered a lot of attention in recent years.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)

It all started with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) which was created by Yuga Labs. This collection consisted of 10,000 unique Apes NFTs and stored as ERC-721 tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.

A distinct feature about the NFT is that it features an ape that looks distinctly bored. Each NFt is unique in the sense that it may have a different background, clothing items, moods, features or eyes.

The ape NFTs were released in groups and were ready for purchase using ETH. The first few releases cost around $300. However, as the NFT started to gain traction, the prices skyrocketed to several hundred thousand dollars with some even being sold for millions of dollars.

The Bored Ape NFT’s got so popular due to five main reasons:

• Scarcity- The NFTs are capped at only 10,000 which made them limited edition and scarce.

• Expensive - The NFTs were already priced at a pretty high price from the start which made an impression that it was worth having.

• Metaverse Currency- There was a belief that the NFTs would be a currency of the future which exploited its popularity.

• Famous people - Justin Bieber was just one of the many people who bought into the NFTs which eventually attracted popularity

• Art Investing - Investing into art was often a thing only the rich could afford and the same was seen with these NFTs.

• Exclusivity - The NFTs offered access to members-only areas such as THE BATHROOM. You will need one to enter places like these.

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)

Since there are only 10,000 BAYC NFTs, a second edition of the Bored Ape NFTs was released under the name The Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC).

A total of 20,000 apes underwent mutation. 10,000 mutant serums have been airdropped to first BAYC NFT holders. Each BAYC NFT can only make one mutant using a single variety mutation. An additional 10,000 mutant Apes were also released for public sale.

Do you know, there is also a game available for MAYC? Find the game here.

Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC)

BAKC is a set of dog NFTs offered to every single member of the BAYC for free. BAYC members only have to pay for gas fees to obtain it.

Similar to Apes, the 10,000 BAKC NFTs have their own appearance, personalities and some oddities. According to the team, there are no further plans of releasing any future pets for the Apes.

Otherside Metaverse

The Otherside metaverse is a metaverse space created by Yuga Labs. This is similar to virtual Metaverse spaces such as Decentraland and the Sandbox.

The other side consists of 200,000 plots of lands that are available through the purchase, or minting, of so "Otherdeeds". Otherdeed is Otherside’s NFTs that act as title deeds for the plots of virtual land. It is only possible to mint or purchase Otherdeed by using APE coins.

The Otherside is a gamified metaverse. It combines both web-3 virtual world and multiplayer online role playing games (MORPGs) mechanism. It is like a massive virtual world that has been developed as an online multiplayer game.

where the players own the world and your NFTs can become playable characters and interact with other characters.

Is ApeCoin A MemeCoin?

At first glance, ApeCoin may seem like a meme coin but there does seem to be some utility behind it.

ApeCoin works to facilitate Web3 in the APE ecosystem. Through this network, it allows creators to sell their digital artworks and facilitate various services such as games and entertainment.

In the Ape Ecosystem, there are two main key roles of ApeCoin which is as a utility and governance token.

As a utility token, APE token provides access to new products launched within the APE ecosystem. APE will also be the main currency of the Otherside metaverse platform.

As a governance token, it gives the holder voting power. Each APE token equals one vote. There is also an opportunity to delegate a vote to another user.

Just like any DAO (Decentralized autonomous organization), ApeCoin DAO aims to build a democratized global community. All APE holders can participate in improving the ecosystem through voting.

Why Should You Own the APE Tokens?

Usability - ApeCoin is the ecosystem’s utility token, providing shared and open money that can be employed without centralized intermediaries for all of the ecosystem’s members.

Supply - Limited Supply of only 1 Billion. The scarcity elements will prevent total price loss.

Governance - ApeCoin is the ecosystem’s governance coin. Holders of APE can join ApeCoin DAO.

Access - ApeCoin can be used as access to aspects of the ecosystem that are unavailable to the public such as unique games, merchandise, events, and more.

Collaboration - ApeCoin allows third-party developers to join the ecosystem by integrating APE into their services.

The maximum supply of APE is 1 billion tokens. A part of them will be locked for DAO contributors and will only be released 4 years later. The unlock schedule starts counting on March 17, 2022.

What Can We Expect From ApeCoin In The Near Future?

In the future, it is expected that ApeCoin will be used for payments as it is an ERC-20 token. Thus, most merchants should be able to recognise it as Ethereum is now becoming one of the better known blockchains.

It also is used as NFT rewards where NFT holders will get incentives in ApeCoin. The token is also incorporated into games that could be play-to-earn and this would incentivize players.

ApeCoin is also planning to integrate with the upcoming project, Otherside.

This could potentially push up the price of the ApeCoin as the metaverse projects become more developed.

ApeCoin would be used as a transaction token on the Otherside and if it has play-to-earn games within the metaverse, the tokens may also be used as rewards for the players.

The Founding of ApeCoin

The launch of ApeCoin was inspired by the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Yugalabs is the company behind Ape Ecosystem. Besides that, they also own other famous NFT collections, like CryptoPunks and Meebits.

Founded in 2021 and headquartered in Miami, Florida. Yugalabs is known for their involvement in NFTs, metaverse and digital collectibles.

Yugalabs participated heavily in creating APE as they also serve as a community member in the ApeCoin DAO.

Both ApeCoin and ApeCoin DAO are, however, not controlled by Yugalabs or ApeCoin Foundation. According to their website, APE is a token made to support and was controlled and built on by the community. Thus, APE is created by ApeCoin DAO.

How Much Does ApeCoin (APE) Worth?

The APE coin was first traded on March 18, 2022 for $8.954 with total volume of 1,525,061,969. APE all-time high (daily average) was recorded on April 28,2022 with $27 with total volume of 2,884, 337,693. The latest APE’s price list can be viewed on Coinranking.

According to Etherscan, currently there are 90,923 wallet holders of APE. The coin is widely accepted, as at October 2022, it constantly stayed in the top 100 coins on Coinranking. This portrays the high demand of APE.

How To Buy ApeCoin (APE) Tokens?

You can buy ApeCoin from major exchanges like Binance, Huobi, OKX, FTX, DigiFinex, Coinbase and more.

However, if you wish to buy the token without using exchanges, you can use instant swap exchanges such as Sushiswap, Uniswap and Matcha. Instant swap allows you to instantly change cryptocurrencies to APE without a middleman.

Instant swap does not require any account creation. It just needs you to connect your wallet to use the facility.

Final Thoughts on ApeCoin

The ApeCoin project is a very young and early project but it had managed to steal the limelight from other cryptocurrencies upon its launch. This is because it is already associated with the popular NFT, Bored Apes.

The token creators are promoting the utility of the token by incorporating the use in the metaverse projects and also to incentivise NFT holders.

Price action is hard to predict with the ApeCoin as it is very reliant on its NFT projects and also influenced by the cryptocurrency market as a whole.

It is expected that as the APE NFT collection and ecosystem grows, the value of the ApeCoin will also grow to follow the same trajectory.