**Behind the $3 Billion Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Collection**

Following the success of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, Yuga Labs is now aiming to build a metaverse ecosystem.

Before the explosion of NFT profile picture (PFP) collections, developers and content creators rarely built utility around their projects. Instead, they often sold products for quick profits based on the NFT craze and moved on to the next opportunity.

This changed with the emergence of Yuga Labs and its Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, which consists of 10,000 unique monkey NFTs and is now valued at $3 billion.

### What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC, drew inspiration from CryptoPunks—a project that created a library of characters with unique traits and varying degrees of rarity. Yuga Labs elevated the PFP NFT concept by making BAYC owners members of an exclusive club with perks such as early access to sales and commercial rights to the NFTs they purchase.

This explains the sharp increase in BAYC prices since its launch in April 2021. At that time, each NFT was priced at 0.08 ETH, or approximately $190. The entire collection of 10,000 original apes sold out, but the ongoing buying and selling of these NFTs continue to generate millions of dollars monthly. As of early this year, BAYC achieved a total revenue of $1 billion. The lowest price for an NFT in this collection is currently $304,000.

The BAYC collection is built around a futuristic storyline where wealthy but bored individuals form a club to meet each other. The characters, themed around apes, reflect the types of personalities one might encounter in a future crypto club.

Yuga Labs was founded by two friends known as Gargamel and Gordon Goner, who remained anonymous until February, when their identities were revealed as Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow. Both entered the crypto space in 2017, discovered NFTs as a way to showcase creativity, and frequently contributed to cryptocurrency-related movements. They hired software engineers with the pseudonyms Emperor Tomato Ketchup and No Sass to bring their ideas to life.

### What are MAYC and BAKC?

Following BAYC's success, Yuga Labs continued to build on their model to maintain member satisfaction and prestige. In less than a year, the company launched new NFT collections as part of its reward plan for BAYC holders.

First came the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), featuring 10,000 digital dog NFTs designed to accompany the ape characters. These were given away for free to BAYC members.

Next was the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), a mutated or zombie version of the Bored Apes. Yuga Labs offered free "mutation serum" to BAYC NFT holders to create Mutant Apes with some resemblance to the original apes or with extremely rare traits.

### Acquisition of CryptoPunks and Meebits

On March 11, Yuga Labs expanded its NFT ecosystem by acquiring CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. Both are prominent competitors to BAYC in terms of value and supporter base. This move positioned Yuga Labs as a leader in the PFP NFT market. Yuga Labs now holds all intellectual property rights, branding, and copyright for CryptoPunks and Meebits.

### How Does Yuga Labs Operate?

The company builds a community-focused business model with various utilities for NFT buyers. The goal of the management team is to continuously push the boundaries of the NFT ecosystem, making their products and services designed to ensure exclusivity for the BAYC community. ApeCoin (APE), issued by Yuga Labs, is described as a governance token used to empower a decentralized community leading Web3.

Yuga Labs is now aiming to become an NFT empire with projects such as the metaverse called Otheride and play-to-earn games.

However, the company is not without criticism. In an interview with Time, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin commented on BAYC, saying: "The danger is owning monkeys worth up to three million dollars—it feels like a different form of gambling."

— Diep Anh (according to Coindesk)