Bored Ape Yacht Club Launches ApeCoin — Is It Worth the Investment?

After acquiring Larva Labs' collections CryptoPunks and Meebits, Yuga Labs announced that its project is building out a game-like metaverse platform, MetaRPG. Before these moves were decided and announced, Yuga Labs announced the impending ApeCoin for the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem. The coin is eligible to be claimed on March 17. Is ApeCoin worth the investment?

BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) owners will be granted ApeCoin (APE), which could explain the recent surge in price.

ApeCoin is "for web3 economy," according to its website. Valuing the intersection of culture, gaming, lifestyle, and the possibilities of Web 3.0, the ApeCoin is intended to encapsulate and capture "what's next."

APE will serve as the decentralized-protocol layer to all community initiatives within the ecosystem meant to "drive culture in the metaverse."

Holders of either BAYC and/or MAYC will be awarded ApeCoin for being part of the BAYC ecosystem. According to BAYC, 62 percent of ApeCoins are allocated to be distributed within the community, 15 percent of which will be eligible for grabs to BAYC/MAYC owners on March 17.

Following the announcement, the price of both BAYC and MAYC rose because many people expect that ApeCoin will quickly surge in value. The coin is slated to launch on large cryptocurrency exchanges soon to allow others to invest in the community.

According to the ApeCoin website, the ApeCoin community will be self-governed through the ApeCoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) in support of the Ecosystem fund.

The ApeCoin DAO will run through proposal processes for voting on how the Ecosystem fund will be distributed. To participate in the ApeCoin DAO one must be a member. To be a member, one must hold the ApeCoin.

The base layer to ApeCoin DAO is the APE Foundation, which is responsible for administering the decisions and tasks of and within the ApeCoin DAO to ensure the community's needs and wants are made a reality. The ApeCoin DAO will be consulted by a board that will uphold the vision and what's best for the community.

The board includes some notable names such as the founder of Reddit and 776, Alexis Ohanian, FTX Ventures in the gaming division, Amy Wu, and Yat Siu from software and venture capital company Animoca Brands.

While it's too early to tell the potential price protection for the token within the first 24 hours of launch, many collectors, investors, and crypto natives are excited about the launch. They're mainly excited to get exposure to the ecosystem and the metaverse via APE. Some investors think that ApeCoin will equally be a "blue chip" token.

The team at Yuga Labs and BAYC know a thing or two about capturing the culture and expanding the community via partnerships. They have captured the attention of many prominent celebrities. Innovating the NFT ecosystem through giving its token owners full IP rights, ApeCoin could provide access to further innovations.