Bored Ape

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), often colloquially called Bored Apes or Bored Ape, is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection built on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-721 standard. The collection features profile pictures of cartoon apes that are procedurally generated by an algorithm.

The parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club is Yuga Labs. The project launched in April 2021. Owners of a Bored Ape NFT are granted access to a private online club, exclusive in-person events, and intellectual property rights for the image.

In 2022, Yuga Labs was valued at US$4 billion. This is due in large part to the sales of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection totalling over US$1 billion as well as high value auction sales from their investor, now defunct FTX. Various celebrities purchased these non-fungible tokens, including Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg and Gwyneth Paltrow. During their 2021-2022 peak valuation, individual Bored Ape NFTs sold for millions of dollars, the most expensive for over $24 million. By April 2024, they had lost approximately 90% of their value relative to their 2022 peak.