Beginnings of the BAYC
A new NFT art collection of procedurally-generated primates gradually transformed into the much-hyped and exclusive BAYC community. The basic concept is the uniqueness of each picture. Each ape has some distinctive attributes, such as:
- Facial expression
- Sunglasses
- Fur color
- Background
- Clothing, etc
10.000 BAYC tokens were created on the Ethereum blockchain. They were presented at the auction site OpenSea in April 2021. The price at the start of sales was 2 ETH per ape. The collection’s authors are only known by pseudonyms. For example, CGargamel and Gordon Goner are responsible for the artistic side of the project, and No Sass and his colleague Emperor Tomato Ketchup are in charge of technical issues. The anonymous artists are grouped together in a startup called Yuga Labs.
The main sources of inspiration for the creation of BAYC were the famous novel by Pierre Boulle and the CryptoPunks collection “The Planet of the Bored Apes,” well-known in the NFT community, in which each image has a distinctive feature. The key difference from CryptoPunks is that the owners of BAYC tokens receive ownership rights to the image of their apes, including for commercial use.
The project was originally designed solely as an NFT collection, but over time the owners of BAYC tokens actually became members of the exclusive “Bored Ape Yacht Club.” Members of this closed community can enjoy a number of privileges, such as:
- Access to a special server in Discord where you can chat with all BAYC token holders
- Access to private parties organized by the project’s authors (e.g., Ape Fest)
- Access to The Bathroom, a virtual room where every 15 minutes BAYC holders can leave one pixel on the virtual board
- Each BAYC holder in June 2021 is given a random unique dog from the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC)
According to the project’s authors, as BAYC evolves, its members will gain new privileges.
BAYC Becomes a Big Deal
The NFT project has generated noticeable interest not only among ordinary users but also among celebrities. At the end of October 2021, BAYC #8817 was sold at Sotheby’s for a record-breaking $3.4 million. Among the celebrity owners of BAYC tokens are rapper Eminem, basketball player Stephen Curry, tennis player Serena Williams and other famous names. Bored Apes also appear in an Adidas advertising campaign.
Many celebrities (e.g., Post Malone) used the cryptocurrency service MoonPay to buy BAYC tokens. MoonPay was also a key partner and sponsor of Ape Fest, a private party for BAYC participants.
According to CryptoSlam, as of February 7, 2022, BAYC ranks first among NFT collections in terms of daily sales volume, exceeding $3.6 million. To date, Bored Apes have already been sold for more than $1.3 billion.
Origins of The Mutant Ape Yacht Club
MAYC is a direct continuation of BAYC.
In August 2021, the authors unveiled an NFT collection featuring pictures of mutant apes. The collection potentially has a total of 20,000 NFTs. The first 10,000 MAYC tokens were generated and auctioned off within an hour. Tokens were priced at 3 ETH at the start of sales and gradually dropped to 0.01 ETH for nine hours. On that day, the collection’s authors made about $96 million.
Interestingly, the premiere of the MAYC collection was accompanied by the announcement of the Mutant Ape Arcade mobile game.
According to CryptoSlam, as of February 7, 2022, total sales of MAYC NFTs have already exceeded $838 million. By purchasing an image of a Mutant Ape, owners automatically become members of and receive the same privileges as BAYC.
Another 10,000 Mutant Apes could be created by owners of the original BAYCs using a special NFT serum.
What is Mutant Serum?
The MAYC serum is an NFT used in conjunction with the BAYC token. Each single-use serum automatically turns a Bored Ape into a Mutant Ape. After applying it, the user is left with the modified mutant MAYC version as well as the original BAYC token. On the day of the MAYC release, the project’s authors randomly distributed 10,000 of these serums among BAYC holders, creating the conditions for the generation of another 10,000 MAYC tokens.
It is worth noting that the final image of the Mutant Ape depends directly on the type of serum used. The following types of serums were distributed among BAYC holders in limited numbers:
- M1 — minimal modifications to the monkey’s face and mouth
- M2 — different kinds of growths and changes in body parts
- M3 — mutant monkey in a completely new appearance
The rarest is the M3 (Mega Mutant) serum—there are only eight in existence. At the end of 2021, Ethereum Foundation co-founder Taylor Gerring purchased the M3 serum at an OpenSea auction for $3.6 million. He then streamed the transformation of his monkey into a mutant on Twitter.
What’s Next for BAYC and MAYC?
Due to the great success of BAYC and MAYC, the creators decided to expand the Yuga Labs team by hiring Discord managers, artists and a CFO. The team also plans to implement the possibility of Bored Apes appearing in different metaverse platforms. One of the authors of BAYC under the pseudonym Gordon Gonnor said in an interview with Rolling Stone that one of the project’s main goals is to become a lifestyle company for Web 3.0.
In addition, BAYC tokens imply commercial rights to the acquired image. For example, the owner of a BAYC token has the right to produce a movie or make merch with a unique image of his monkey. This fact makes these NFT collections even more popular and opens wide prospects for commercial use in the future.
