Unravelling ApeCoin ($APE): Is It a Good Investment?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club has one of the most popular NFT collections. Each NFT represents a cartoon ape with different color schemes, facial expressions, and clothing. 

However, many seem to be perplexed at the high cost of these digital artworks. 

335 NFTs of the Bored Ape Yacht Club have been sold for $95.48 million in total in the last seven days. One NFT from the BAYC costs an average of $285,000. 

A new cryptocurrency has entered the space called ApeCoin by Yuga Labs (the originator of BAYC), which was launched on March 16, 2022. The coin had reached the heights 5 minutes into its debut trading day. 

According to the firm, ApeCoin will be a “token for culture, gaming, and commerce that will be utilized to empower a decentralized community at the forefront of Web3 development.”

The coin will act as a decentralized protocol layer for community-led activities to advance culture in the metaverse, host events, create digital products and anything one can dream of.  

In this article, let’s take a closer look at ApeCoin and understand it better. 

What is ApeCoin?

ApeCoin, more generally known as APE, is the native cryptocurrency of the Bored Ape Yacht Club(BAYC) ecosystem, which is the most popular NFT collection on Ethereum Blockchain. It is an ERC-20 utility and governance token used inside the APE ecosystem.

It is also the ecosystem’s utility token and can be used to buy goods and services.

The Coin is likely to serve as a ‘gate token,’ granting access to select aspects of the ecosystem, such as particular games and events.

APE has airdropped a total of 150,000,000 tokens to BAYC NFT owners. The users who own the APE NFTs are eligible to claim 10,950 APE.

This is a cryptocurrency you can buy and sell freely on a decentralized exchange, a type of digital trading post for cryptocurrencies.

ApeCoin Tokenomics

After just one day of trading, ApeCoin had a market capitalization of almost $2 billion, owing to its scarcity, as the total supply of tokens is limited to only one billion.

The overall supply is divided into the following categories.
The airdrop distribution depends on whether NFT owners hold a Bored Ape or a Mutant Ape and whether the NFT is paired with a Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT.

Holders of BAYC-related NFTs received 150 million tokens from the ecosystem fund as an airdrop.
The breakdown is as follows:
Bored Ape NFT = 10094 tokens
Mutant ape = 2042 tokens
Bored Ape + Kennel Club = 10950 tokens
Mutant Ape + Kennel Club = 2898 tokens

The allocation is driven by the difference in floor price between each collection of NFTs to enable a fair launch of ApeCoin for BAYC and MAYC NFT holders. BAYC and MAYC both have a 90-day claim period.
The unclaimed tokens will then be donated to the Ecosystem Fund.

DAO treasury and resources will receive 470 million tokens from the same pool, with 117,500,000 unlocked upon launch and 7,343,750 released monthly for the next 48 months.

It’s important to remember that there is no way to create more tokens, and there is no capacity for burning. The supply intends to remain constant.

The Ape Foundation and DAO

The APE Foundation manages ApeCoin. It is not an administrator but rather the Foundation upon which ApeCoin DAO holders might grow.
The Foundation promotes decentralized and community-led governance, intending to become even more decentralized over time.

It is responsible for day-to-day administration, bookkeeping, project management, and other duties that ensure the ApeCoin DAO community’s ideas get the support they need to manifest into reality.

The APE Foundation’s mission is to ensure that the APE ecosystem grows and develops fairly and inclusively.
It pays its expenses as ordered by the ApeCoin DAO using the Ecosystem Fund, which is held by a multi-sig wallet and provides an environment for ApeCoin holders to engage through open and permissionless governance processes.

ApeCoin DAO(Decentralized Autonomous Organization) exists because decentralized governance is essential for establishing and sustaining a globally distributed community.

All ApeCoin holders are eligible to join the ApeCoin DAO. Members can make decisions about Ecosystem Fund allocations, governance rules, projects, partnerships, and more through the APE Improvement Proposal Process.

The Board

At the request of ApeCoin DAO members, a special council on the APE Foundation, “the Board,” was established. Its mission is to administrate DAO proposals and serve the community’s vision.

Some of the prominent DAO members are:

• Alexis Ohanian: Co-founder of Reddit; General Partner & Founder of Seven Seven Six
• Amy Wu: Head of Ventures & Gaming at FTX
• Maaria Bajwa: Principal at Sound Ventures
• Yat Siu: Co-founder & Chairman of Animoca Brands
• Dean Steinbeck: President & General Counsel at Horizen Labs

ApeCoin Protocol

As mentioned earlier, ApeCoin is an ERC-20 governance and utility token utilized within the APE ecosystem to empower decentralized community building at the cutting edge of Web3.

As the ecosystem’s open-source protocol layer, ApeCoin serves various objectives.

• Governance: ApeCoin is the ecosystem’s governance token, and holders of ApeCoin can join the ApeCoin DAO.
• Unified Expenditure: 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.
• Access: ApeCoin grants access to aspects of the ecosystem that would otherwise be inaccessible, such as unique games, merchandise, events, and services.
• Incentivization: ApeCoin is a platform that allows third-party developers to join the ecosystem by integrating APE into their services, games, and other projects.

How to Buy ApeCoin(APE)?

Some of the largest exchanges, such as Binance, Coinbase, FTX, Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Kraken, and others, have already traded and listed APE.

It just takes a few minutes to open a cryptocurrency exchange account if you don’t already have one. 

• Create an online account.

Download any of the apps mentioned above and start the sign-up process to create an account.

• Buy a wallet (optional).

While it’s generally safe to deposit cryptocurrency on large exchanges, keeping most of your assets in a hardware wallet is preferable. Hardware wallets store cryptocurrency offline, providing protection against online hacking. 

• Make a Purchase.

Enter the amount you want to buy by adding a payment method using your bank account. 

The Future of APE DAO.

ApeCoin DAO will gradually evolve the proposal and vote procedures into a full, on-chain platform as selected by the community.

The DAO can accomplish this through the following steps:

i) DAO members will be hired by replacing the company’s assigned administrative, project management, and moderation staff
ii) Establishing a steering committee for the community
iii) Putting on-chain voting into practice
iv) Annually, members of the DAO’s Board of Directors are elected through a vote.

Is Apecoin a Good Investment?

The question arises- Is this a good investment for me?

The introduction of ApeCoin sparked a lot of interest in the crypto space and has increased by 17.42 percent since then. With a live market cap of $3,750,250,226 USD, CoinMarketCap now ranks it at #35.

Cryptocurrency is a volatile market. APE is at a very early stage in the world of crypto, so it is hard to speculate on its future market.
Due to the recent euphoria surrounding the crypto industry, the coin may experience a short-term increase. Still, the fact remains that there is just not enough information to know if this would be a good long-term investment.

Invest only if you are likely to undertake such risks and, if required, bear any losses.