On March 17, 2022, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) announced on Twitter that the related ecological governance system token ApeCoin (APE) was officially launched.

For a while, it became the focus of public discussion. At the same time, BAYC also rose sharply. In the past 24 hours, the floor price rose by 13%, and the transaction volume exceeded 20 million US dollars.

Before that, there is another piece of news worthy of our attention, that is, the acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits by Yuga Labs, the parent company of BAYC. First, acquire two NFT masterpieces, and then issue ecological tokens. The steps are compact and interlocking. Undoubtedly, they have promoted the development of BAYC. In the past 7 days, the transaction volume has increased by 150% to exceed 49 million US dollars, and the floor price has increased by 45%.

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1. What is ApeCoin

ApeCoin is an ERC-20 governance and utility token used within the APE ecosystem. As the open source protocol layer of the ecosystem, ApeCoin has several functions:

Governance: ApeCoin is the governance token of the ecosystem, allowing ApeCoin holders to participate in the ApeCoin DAO.

Unified Spending: ApeCoin is the utility token in the ecosystem, providing a shared and open currency for all participants.

Access Rights: ApeCoin provides access to parts of the ecosystem that are not otherwise available, such as exclusive games, merchandise, events, and services.

Incentives: ApeCoin is a way for third-party developers to participate in the ecosystem by integrating APE into services, games, and other projects

The initial circulation of tokens is about 277.5 million (calculated based on the maximum receipt of all airdrops). Because APE is linked to BAYC and MAYC, the current market value of BAYC is 870 million US dollars, and the market value of MAYC is 480 million US dollars. Therefore, it is estimated that the initial circulation market value of APE is calculated at US$1, which is US$270 million. The valuation is one-sided and not intended as investment advice.

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2. The driving force behind ApeCoin

According to the ApeCoin website and accompanying press materials, ApeCoin was launched by the ApeCoin DAO, a new governance body of which all APE holders are members. Its purpose is to make proposals within the community, which are then voted on by token holders.

Other NFT projects have tried similar voting structures. Purchasing an NFT from a collection called “Nouns,” for example, makes you a member of the Nouns DAO, an online investment collective that has amassed $62 million in coffers. On a dedicated proposal page, Nouns owners can decide as a group what they want to do with the money. A typical suggestion is: "What if we made an NFT comic book?"

There is also an independent organization called the Ape Foundation, which will handle the day-to-day governance of the DAO, proposal management, and other tasks "to ensure that the ideas of the DAO community get the support they need to become a reality." This is a legal support for ApeCoin DAO.

A subcommittee of the Ape Foundation will also serve as the "Board" of the ApeCoin DAO, overseeing certain proposals. The initial board consisted of five high-profile cryptocurrency investors. Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian; Amy Wu, who leads the venture arm of cryptocurrency exchange FTX; Maaria Bajwa of Sound Ventures; Yat Siu of Animoca Brands; and Dean Steinbeck of Horizen Labs. Each board member serves a six-month term, and the ApeCoin website promises that DAO members will be able to vote on future members.

Somewhere floating in the middle of all this is a Cayman Islands-based consulting firm called Cartan Group, which gets paid $150,000 a month on a six-month contract; all five of the DAO’s active AIPs, or "Ape Improvement Proposal," both released by the company's co-founder Brian Tang.

So, in addition to the ApeCoin Protocol (the code behind the ApeCoin token), there is the ApeCoin DAO, the Ape Foundation, and the ApeCoin DAO Board of Directors.

But ApeCoin was not developed by the community of Bored Ape investors. At the center of this monkey galaxy, there is a black hole. Who the hell put this thing together?

The main company behind BAYC is Yuga Labs, a traditional business entity registered in Delaware. It’s reportedly in talks with venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz to raise money that would be worth $5 billion, and it recently made moves to effectively become the first major NFT monopoly.

Yuga Labs is also responsible for all major projects and acquisitions around BAYC. If you want to do anything with Bored Ape's IP, you have to go through Yuga Labs.

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3. Distribution and economic model of APE

The total amount of APE is 1 billion and will not be destroyed, that is, there will be no deflation.

The complete details of the distribution of 1 billion APE tokens are as follows:

1. 8% will be owned by the founder of "Boring Ape" BAYC.

2. 16% will be donated to the Yuga Labs team (1% of the total token supply will be donated to the Jane Goodall Foundation Legacy Foundation).

3. 14% will go to "Launch Contributors", assumed to be made up of Yuga partners and investors.

4. 15% will be donated to owners of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes series.

5. 47% will be released over time as part of the DAO's "Ecosystem Fund".

The airdrop will be distributed at 8:30 am Eastern Time on March 17th (8:30 pm Beijing Time on March 17th):

1) The foundation will receive 620 million tokens, 150 million of which will be allocated to NFT holders in the BAYC ecosystem during the airdrop, and those who only hold Bored Ape NFT can get 10,094 tokens. Those who have Mutant Ape can get 2042 tokens, while holding Bored Ape and Kennel Club will get 10950 tokens, and holding Mutant Ape and Kennel Club will get 2898 tokens. Another 370 million coins will be unlocked at the beginning of the airdrop, 117,500,000 coins, and the rest will be unlocked linearly in the next 48 months, that is, 7,343,750 coins will be unlocked every month.

2) Yuga Labs and the charities it supports will receive 160 million tokens, of which 150 million will be locked for 12 months after the start of the airdrop, and then released linearly in 36 months, and the remaining 10 million tokens will be donated Give to charity.

3) Project contributors will receive 140 million tokens, of which 10 million will be unlocked at the beginning of the airdrop, and 25 million will be unlocked after 6 months, 12 months and 18 months respectively. 760,000 tokens issued in 33 months, and 833,000 tokens locked in 12 months and issued in 36 months.

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4. What can ApeCoin do? game or portal

As far as ApeCoin’s token utility is concerned, it’s unclear the full extent of the token’s utility, but it’s clear that ApeCoin is supposed to be used as an in-game currency for some of the games Yuga Labs is developing. It is reported that Yuga Labs previously announced that it has reached a partnership with San Francisco game studio nWay. Although the games jointly developed by the two parties have not been officially announced, nWay has released many battle games with physical IP, such as Power Rangers and WEE.

The game nWay and Yuga Labs are collaborating on has yet to release an official name, but it is almost certain that they will use a "play while earning" P2E encryption game mechanism, enabling users to earn tokens based on the time and energy they put into the game . In fact, the play-and-earn game mechanism has become relatively popular in Axie Infinity, and has completed billions of dollars in NFT transactions in the past year, and has prompted its parent company, Sky Mavis, to reach a valuation of $3 billion.

However, according to Yuga Labs, the new game will be released in 2022.

Interestingly, the game is likely to complement the play-and-earn game previously released in partnership with Animoca Brands, and Yuga Labs also noted that ApeCoin will work on existing Animoca titles such as “Benji Bananas.”

On March 17, it was reported that Yuga Labs also plans to launch an independent game called MetaRPG, which will be compatible with many NFT items and may venture into virtual land sales this year. Yuga Labs declined to comment on the report, which also said the company's net revenue is expected to reach $455 million this year as it accelerates the adoption and promotion of play-and-earn game mechanics.

From 2021 to 2022, NFT has experienced a huge sensation and has also been supported by many leading technology companies. for example--

• Twitter rolled out limited support for NFT profile pictures;

• Facebook recently said it plans to integrate NFTs into Instagram;

• Stripe also recently rolled out support for NFTs.

Not only that, but NFT has also sparked a backlash from consumers, especially gamers, who worry that NFT will not truly democratize game ownership, but will instead promote some hype transactions. In addition, some people in the industry have expressed concerns about the impact of casting NFT and energy-intensive blockchains on the environment.

Obviously, Yuga Labs' involvement in the game field is an important part of its BAYC brand growth plan, but blockchain games are still a "niche" field. With the further expansion of Yuga Labs' admission and opening up, the market size may increase. Accelerate expansion.

Nicole Muniz, CEO of Yuga Labs, previously said: "I don't know how big the market size of BAYC will be in the future. Of course, this is not to say that I don't think BAYC has no future, but I hope that Yuga Labs can develop further and promote We'll be able to create a lot of unique and special things and speak to the larger community in a different way."