ApeCoin has now overtaken Decentraland’s MANA token, to become the largest metaverse token with a market value of $5.07 billion. In fact, the token has become the focus of the metaverse sector of the cryptocurrency space, as it leads in terms of traction, volume of transactions and number of holders.
Just a little over a month after its launch, the ApeCoin, the native token of one of the world’s most prestigious NFT collections, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has made its way into the top 30 by market capitalization, ranking #29 as of the time of this writing.
In what seems to be a bearish week for crypto and tech stocks as a result of the market reacting to a very hawkish United States federal reserve, ApeCoin has shown to be resilient, as it is bullish by over 30% in the last 7 days, recording a volume of transaction of $14.2 billion, representing approximately 800 million APE.
The reason for the bullish momentum seen in ApeCoin, despite the sea of red, amongst majority of the tokens in the cryptocurrency space, is as a result of excitement and anticipation seen last week, as the platform’s developer community, Yuga Labs, hinted at debuting its major metaverse project, ‘Otherside’. The metaverse is scheduled to launch on the last day of April, with ApeCoin, being the native token of the virtual reality space.
The ‘Otherside’ Metaverse
In a series of tweets from mid-March, Yuga Labs has been dropping hints at launching a prominent metaverse for the community. On March 19, Yuga Labs posted a short teaser film depicting the “Otherside” metaverse.
Apart from incorporating ApeCoin and Several NFTs in the said Metaverse, pseudonym “Renegademaster,” a Bored Ape owner, said on April 20 that Yuga planned on launching a massive land sale. According to him, there will be 200,000 plots with half of them being the genesis sale (30% dropped to BAYC and MAYC holders and 70% public sale). Each land shall contain rare artifacts, natural resources or ‘KODA’ NFTs.
According to a pitch deck from Yuga Labs anticipates its revenue to reach $455 million before 2022 ends, largely from the sale of virtual land in its metaverse. The full pitch deck has further disclosed that Yuga’s metaverse intends to expand its offering beyond virtual land. Yuga Labs wants to build an interoperable metaverse or a “metaRPG” and design a Software Development Kit (SDK) that will provide developers with the right tools to build for any community.
How the crypto space is reacting to the news
- The news of the launch of the metaverse has stoked the interest of whales in ApeCoin and the whole Yuga Labs ecosystem. Weeks after launching ApeCoin to serve as the native token for Yuga’s projects, the token has become the fifth most-purchased asset according to data by Whalestats.
- This week, APE has become the most traded token by the top 100 ETH whales with that clique accumulating over 2.3 million APE tokens worth $41.5 million as of the time of this writing.
- Also due to the news, data from DappRadar show that BAYC NFTs have seen a 254.13% rise in volume in the last 24 hours with the collection’s floor price jumping 18.71% in the last seven days amid a surge of NFT purchases.
- Other projects by Yuga Labs include Mutant Apes and the Kennel Club which have also seen a spike in trading volume.
What to expect from land sales
- Yuga Labs has decided to launch the minting of Otherside land in a Dutch auction-style, with bidding only accepted in ApeCoin. The move is likely to cause a dip in the token’s prices.
- The Yuga Labs team explained that the APE token collected from the auction events will be locked up for one year. It added that no further voting will be organized in the ApeCoin DAO either. Users will also need to do the KYC to join the minting event.
- The team specifically mentioned that the mint will be done in ApeCoin while the gas fees will be paid in the Ethereum (ETH). It was also mentioned that the starting price for the auction will be revealed later this week. According to the announcement, BAYC and MAYC holders will be able to claim the NFT for 21 days just after the auction.
Bottomline
With all said, ApeCoin is still bullish by over 1,700% since its launch in March 2022. It is amongst the top 10 most traded cryptocurrencies in the last 7 days and also in the last 24 hours as investors scramble to purchase the token as a requirement to own digital lands to be released. There are now over 50,000 wallets that own the token as due to interest, APE futures saw $7.9 million in losses from short trades.
The token is still one of the top performers even as the BAYC’s official Instagram handle was exploited on Monday, resulting in losses totalling $13.7 million, as reported by Nairametrics. An unofficial “mint” link was sent out by the Instagram account to unsuspecting followers, with the wallets of those who clicked the link being compromised.
