Bored Ape Yacht Club Founders Share Inspiration For Apes, Yuga Labs Name And What's Next

One of the most popular non-fungible token collections of all-time is Bored Ape Yacht Club. Founders of the project shared more details on the creation of the project this week in a Twitter Inc TWTR thread.

What Happened: Bored Ape Yacht Club launched in April 2021 with a mint cost of 0.08 Ethereum ETH/USD for each NFT.

Yuga Labs, the team behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, shared details of the launch and its name Monday night.

“We’re nerds, and Yuga is the name of a villain in Zelda whose ability is that he can turn himself and others into 2D art. Made sense for an NFT company,” the team said of the popular Nintendo Co NTDOY franchise. 

The team said they are gamers at heart and were obsessed with MMORPGs while growing up. MMORPGs linked strangers to team up to try and get rare items.

“The metaverse is very real to anyone who lost years of their life (and made lifelong friends) in World of Warcraft, Everquest, Star Wars Galaxies, Runescape, etc.”

When asked for the inspiration of the name Bored Ape Yacht Club and using an Ape, Yuga Labs responded by mentioning another well-known NFT collection.

“There’s a long history of people affectionately referring to themselves as apes in crypto, which is why some of the rarest and most valuable NFTs in the Cryptopunk collection are the apes.”

The team said they liked the idea of using apes and also liked the idea of the apes becoming so wealthy due to a rise in cryptocurrency prices that they become bored.

“Everything about the BAYC was meant to convey a spirit of irreverence and absurdity,” the team said of their logo.

An ape skull was chosen as the apes have become “bored to death.”

The team said they never believed the NFT project would be as successful as it has been. The team said they sought out to make a project that was fair, using equal pricing instead of what it calls predatory pricing strategies like bonding curve pricing.

Yuga Labs creators also wanted to give owners of the NFTs full commercial usage rights and help the holders be set up for future success.

The team consists of real-life friends with diverse backgrounds. The Bored Ape Yacht Club project was started in February with a team of artists working on the apes and logos.

Related Link: Celebrites That Own Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs 

What’s Next: Yuga Labs said the team now has 11 full-time employees and many contractors who work on items like physical experiences, scavenger hunts, merch and video games.

“We see ourselves as temporary stewards of IP that is in the process of becoming more and more decentralized,” the team said. “Our ambition is for this to be a community-owned brand, with tentacles in world-class gaming, events and streetwear.”

The team is excited about gaming opportunities for Bored Ape Yacht Club giving their love for the sector.

“NFTs usher in a new era of composability and ownership that we think has the ability to fundamentally improve gaming experiences. We have some ideas about how to make that happen.”

The team said it still has work to do before handing over the project to the community.

Bored Ape Yacht Club owners have been rewarded over the year with the launch of Bored Ape Kennel Club in June free to all holders and Mutant Ape Yacht Club in August free for holders via a serum airdrop. Serums have proven to be a strong return for holders, with Mutant Ape Yacht Club having a floor price of 14.9 ETH and some serums selling for millions of dollars. 

Bored Ape Yacht Club has a floor price of 69.99 ETH at the time of writing, higher than the 67.45 ETH floor of CryptoPunks, a project it flipped late in 2021.

With a mobile game coming, staking for $APE coin, a talent agency deal that could monetize apes and more potential surprises, the Yuga Labs team looks ready to deliver.

Photo courtesy of Boredapeyachtclub.com.