The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a 10,000-piece NFT collection centred around rich, futuristic apes who are bored and like to hang out at a bar, called the Metal Bar. Each piece depicts a seemingly disinterested primate who is either wearing a hat, or an eyepatch, or a halo, or a blindfold, or 3D glasses, or a leather jacket, or a turtle neck, or a disco shirt, or any combination of these against a backdrop that varies just as much as the apes’ accessories.
Each NFT is composed of seven attributes: the background, the clothes, the eyes, the earring, the fur, the hat, and the mouth. While the base ape figure is similar across the collection, the other attributes are randomised using an algorithm so that no two pieces are the same, making each one unique and more appealing.
Each Ape also doubles as a membership card into the Yacht Club, an exclusive club whose members include crypto thought leaders, A-list celebrities like Stephen Curry and Snoop Dog, and even billionaires like Mark Cuban. Club members get access to a secret discord server and the first pick of new collections from partners.
Since its inception in April 2021, the Bored Apes have risen to become one of the most successful collections in crypto with a floor price (the cheapest price of a Bored Ape) at $171,000 as of writing. The collection was created by a company called Yuga Labs which has achieved tremendous success in the NFT space by delivering on items on their road map and adopting a community-centred approach to creating collections and managing treasury funds.
If you wish to become a member of this exclusive club, you’ll need to buy a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT. Here’s how…
The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection lives on the Ethereum blockchain, so you’ll need ETH to purchase it. Start with buying some from any of our recommended exchanges that are known for their security and flexible funding methods.
Bored Apes are sold on OpenSea, a popular NFT marketplace on the Ethereum network. To access it, you’ll need a decentralised wallet. If you choose MetaMask, ensure you use a mobile version as the web extension doesn’t currently support NFTs.
Bored Apes are sold in ETH so you’ll need to get some into your wallet. Remember to send extra ETH to pay for transactions as gas fees on the Ethereum network are quite expensive. However, if you plan to buy a $171,000 Ape, a $200 gas fee shouldn’t be a problem.
Connect your wallet to OpenSea and search for Bored Ape Yacht Club in the search bar. You’ll be taken to the collection where available pieces are listed for sale.
You can now buy a Bored Ape. Select the Ape you want, click on Buy Now, and confirm the transaction in your wallet. Your NFT should appear in your wallet. If not, get the NFT token address from the Details section of the NFT buy page and add it to your wallet.
There is a maximum of 10,000 Bored Apes in the BAYC collection. No two pieces are similar as each Ape possesses unique attributes that are not replicated the same way in other pieces. Each piece is also ranked on a rarity scale that measures how rare the piece is based on how rare the attributes that make up the piece are.
For example, there are six possible earrings that Apes can wear. They are silver hoops, silver studs, gold hoops, gold studs, diamond studs, and crosses. Of these earrings, the cross is the rarest as only 149 Apes wear it compared to other earring styles like the silver hoops, which are worn by 882 Apes.
Each attribute, from the facial expression to the clothes, earrings, and background, ranks on a rarity scale. When several rare attributes are combined in one piece, the overall rarity of that NFT increases when compared with other NFTs in the collection. Thus, while all 10,000 pieces are unique, they do not command the same level of uniqueness. Some are rarer and more expensive than others.
The BAYC collection was created by a company called Yuga Labs which is also the creator of the BAYC sister collections: the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC). They are also developing a metaverse in which BAYC, MAYC, and BAKC NFTs will be playable avatars.
The company was founded by Greg Solano, a writer and editor who has co-authored game-related content with big names like WarCraft, and Wylie Aronow. The BAYC collection was designed by a team led by a New York-based Asian designer known as Seneca.
Since creating the BAYC collection, Yuga Labs has grown to include other successful collections. They recently acquired the rights to the CryptoPunks and Meebits collections from Larva Labs and received $450 million in funding from Andreeson Horowitz, a top-tier VC firm.
Yuga Labs is currently valued at $4 billion.
Besides being a cultural phenomenon, the BAYC is an exclusive club where holders share a discord group with people that they may otherwise have never had the opportunity to meet or interact with (celebrities, billionaires).
Bored Apes have also proven to be an effective store of value during bear markets. While the floor price gets pulled down with bearish trends, there hasn’t been a recorded case of the collection losing up to half of its value. The floor price is currently at 94.69 ETH from a high of 152 ETH.
Thirdly, BAYC is Yuga Labs’ premier collection and as such entitles holders to preferment in new projects that the company undertakes. For example, BAYC holders received free ApeCoins when the ApeCoin DAO was formed. The ApeCoin DAO is a decentralised autonomous organisation that oversees all activities within the Bored Ape metaverse, called the Otherside, and determines how community funds will be allocated. ApeCoin trades around $6 after reaching a high of $25.
Fourthly, certain decentralised applications allow you to use blue chip NFTs as collateral for loans. You deposit your Bored Ape and obtain a loan equal to a predetermined percentage of its market value.
Lastly, the BAYC collection confers status and prestige on its owner. It signals to anyone who cares to look that you are a wealthy elite who stays on top of the hottest trends. While this quality may not be directly quantifiable, good publicity opens doors.
The safest way to store bored apes is a hardware wallet like Ledger. These wallets support NFTs and keep your private keys offline so no one can send your collectables to another wallet without the physical device which should be in your possession. If you want to buy a Ledger wallet to keep your NFTs and coins secure, click the button below.
If a hardware wallet is not available, the next best option is a trusted decentralised software wallet like MetaMask.