The Bored Ape Yacht Club and the associated NFT collections have turned into one of the most widely-discussed topics of 2021, and the buzz doesn’t seem to fade in 2022.
The team hinted a few months ago at creating a native cryptocurrency – the APE coin – that would power the entire ecosystem. Now it has become a reality.
In this article, we’re taking a closer look at the long-awaited APE coin by Yuga Labs – the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club – and everything you should know about it.
What is the APE coin?
Simply put, APE Coin is the native cryptocurrency of the BAYC ecosystem. It is designed to be the decentralized protocol layer for various initiatives that are meant to be community driven.
It’s built on Ethereum’s ERC-20 token standard, and its address can be found here. The cryptocurrency is traded on some of the biggest exchanges, such as Binance, FTX, Huobi, KuCoin, Bybit, Kraken, and so forth.
APE Tokenomics
The total supply of APE is set at 1 billion tokens. There is no possibility of minting other tokens through its contract interface, and this supply should never increase. Moreover, there is also no burning capacity, so the supply will not decrease either.
The total supply is distributed as it follows:
150 million tokens from the ecosystem fund were airdropped to BAYC-linked NFT holders in the following proportions:
- Bored Ape NFT = 10094 tokens
- Mutant ape = 2042 tokens
- Bored Ape + Kennel Club = 10950 tokens
- Mutant Ape + Kennel Club = 2898 tokens
470 million tokens from the same fund go to DAO Treasury and Resources where 117,500,000 of them are unlocked at launch and 7,343,750 will be unlocked monthly for 48 months.
The 16% that will go to Yuga Labs and for charity are divided as it follows:
- 150 million will go to Yuga Labs on a 12-month lockup, then 4,166,666.67 tokens unlocked per month for 36 months.
- 10 million tokens or their equivalent value will be donated to the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation with an initial lock of 12 months, and 277,777.78 tokens unlocked per month for 36 months after that.
There are also 14% to launch contributors that fall under different lockups, and 8% of the tokens will go to the founders of BAYC under a 12-month lock-up and 2,222,222.22 unlocked tokens per month after that.
The Ape Foundation and the DAO
Stewarding APE coin is the foundation of the monkey – it’s the base layer where custodians and the DAO can build. From the official website:
The Foundation facilitates decentralized and community-led governance and is designed to become more decentralized over time. It is tasked with administering the decisions of the ApeCoin DAO and is responsible for day-to-day administration, bookkeeping, project management, and other tasks to ensure the DAO community’s ideas have the support they need to become a reality.
The DAO itself, on the other hand, exists to provide energy to the community of APE holders. The ape enhancement proposal processes would enable DAO members to make decisions on applications, projects, partnerships and beyond the Ecosystem Fund.
The DAO’s board will act as a council of the APE Foundation, and its members are tasked with oversight of the Foundation administrators. The Board has a purpose of administering DAO proposals and serve the overall vision of the community. These are the initial DAO members:
These are:
- Reddit’s Alexis Ohanian
- Amy Wu – head of business and games at FTX
- Maaria Bajwa – director at sound ventures
- Yat Siu – co-founder and president of Animoca Brands
- Dean Steinbeck – President and General Counsel at Horizen Labs
The APE Coin Protocol
As mentioned above, APE is an ERC-20 token that serves the purposes of governance, but it also brings utilities when used within the APE ecosystem.
The open source protocol layer of the whole ecosystem has several purposes to fulfill:
- Incentivization
APE should serve as a tool for developers to participate in the ecosystem by incorporating it into their products, games, services, etc.
- Governance
As explained above, governance is one of the main purposes of the APE as it allows holders to participate in the DAO.
- Access
Cryptocurrency provides access to parts of the ecosystem that are otherwise unavailable. These would include merchandise, events, games, etc. – exclusive to holders.
Being the utility token of the ecosystem, APE also gives its participants a currency that can be used without any centralized intermediaries.
