In the months following its April 2021 launch, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has emerged as one of the main reasons Wall Street should take the nascent non-fungible token (NFT) market seriously thanks to its recent sale Turnover over $1 billion.

Celebrities imitate BAYC

For the uninitiated, BAYC is a collection of 10,000 anthropomorphic ape cartoons dressed in trendy clothes and infamous expressions. Every ape is actually an image file and should be worthless in a sane world. Still, they’ve managed to earn staggering amounts of money, sometimes from some of the most famous celebrities in the world.

For example, the famous American TV host Jimmy Fallon bought an image of a bored ape wearing a striped T-shirt and heart-shaped sunglasses for nearly $220,000 last November. Most recently, Oscar-winning rapper Eminem Paid nearly $462,000 for an ape It’s kind of like him.

Meanwhile, one of the rarest bored apes with golden retriever traits, fetched $3.4 million Another rare laser-eyed great ape broke a record in an online auction at Sotheby’s in October, which sold to Sandbox for $2.9 million a month earlier.

But what’s the selling point?

The BAYC series derives its value from NFTs, digital proofs of ownership recorded on public blockchains. Consider Bitcoin (bitcoin), but each “coin” is indivisible and unique to some extent.

At the same time, most NFT projects, including BAYC, are settled through the Ethereum blockchain, with their native token Ether (Ethereum).

But rarity isn’t the only reason people pay millions for boring apes. In addition to having unique avatars, people can also earn access to exclusive membership clubs through tokens. This puts them into the inner circle of the elite, Bringing them status and more lucrative opportunities.

APE FEST 2021 details posted in BAYC Discord:https://t.co/KjYGPhYWCP

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— Bored Ape Yacht Club (@BoredApeYC) October 1, 2021

Evan Luthra, CEO and founder of EL Group International and member of BAYC’s exclusive club, discusses the allure of elite associations. The 26-year-old angel investor called membership “very powerful for Wall Streeters.”

“I think every day new celebrities join the club.”

Bored Ape collectibles also enable their owners to enter private message boards on Discord and gain privileged access to other NFTs.

Boring Ape Yacht Club “base price”

Bored Ape collectibles also enable their owners to enter private message boards on Discord and gain privileged access to other NFTs. These NFTs then have a certain resale value, as indicated by their rising “floor price,” which reflects the lowest possible bid price for the collectible.

As of January 7th, BAYC reserve price At 68 ETH, or about $217,800, it is up 380% from its mid-August low.

Noelle Acheson, head of market insights at Genesis Trading, said, BAYC is more flexible in cooperation Cypherpunk, which was one of its only previous high-profile collections of NFTs.

These collaborations include BAYC-inspired adidas gear, contracted talent agency, potential boring ape music group, and others Related assets Lazy ape figures appeared around.

“As a result, the concept of a floor price — driving institutional investment in NFTs and their increasing use as loan collateral — no longer depends solely on how much investors think others will pay in the future,” Acheson explained. and added:

“The appreciation potential of floor prices and assets also now depends on what else NFTs can be used for, not just display.”

Luthra agreed, adding that continued celebrity engagement with BAYC will further increase its recognition among retail and institutional investors. This may bring more demand for its NFT series, which in turn pushes up its reserve price.

The “meta” factor

Jelmer Rotteveel, co-founder of NFT series MoonwalkerFM, adds a bullish support to BAYC’s core valuation: continued hype around Yuan, rebranded from Facebook to support the social media giant’s metaverse ambitions.

“With the advent of Meta, we will enter a new way of communicating and doing business,” he told Cointelegraph, adding that NFTs will become an integral part of the Metaverse realm, with users supporting unique digital avatars, such as the boring ape, Interact with each other digitally.

He added:

“I believe people will be watching the development of NFT projects like BAYC more closely, as you see in cryptocurrencies, and they will step in one by one.”

Acheson cites its CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s statement They will work on decentralized metaverse applications.

“Whether we believe him or not — investors may consider getting in before these flows,” she added.

Will Wall Street copy NFTs?

As mentioned, BAYC’s net sales recently crossed the $1 billion mark, almost 10% of Apple’s 2021 revenue. At the same time, the NFT sector as a whole handled $41 billion in sales, almost equal to global art sales that year, Data from Chain Analytics show

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management, Admission Many of their clients have been looking for exposure in the NFT space without going back and forth through their intimidating technology.

In response, bitwise roll out A dedicated fund last month that tracks its own Bitwise Blue-Chip NFT Collectibles Index — a basket of top 10 NFT collectibles weighted by market cap — and buys and holds art from BAYC, CryptoPunks and other NFT projects.

related: The NFT world is bridging the gap between niche and mainstream

The “Blue Chip NFT Index Fund” is only available to institutional investors who have invested at least $25,000 in the product.

Rebekah Keida, marketing director at New York-based investment management firm XBTO, favors the prospect of incorporating blue-chip NFT projects such as BAYC or CryptoPunks into Wall Street funds.

Keida said it will open the floodgates for accredited investors to put thousands or even millions of dollars into these digital projects.

She told Cointelegraph: “The opportunities offered by increased capital flows enhance the legitimacy of top NFT projects while allowing investors to diversify into crypto.”

Showing confidence in asset managers’ ability to lead Meta into the Metaverse space, Luthra, in turn, will benefit NFT projects such as BAYC, saying:

“If Meta believes that the future lies in Metaverse, and that’s where they put their time and energy into, then it’s logical for asset managers to deploy capital into the industry. As the space matures and there are more opportunities, I believe we We will see more Metaverse-related funds emerge to take advantage of this opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Sami Chlagou, CEO of the Cross the age metaverse game, likened Meta’s potential involvement in the NFT space to “lighting a light in the heads of investors who are far behind on the concept.”

“Whether you think Meta’s decision is good or bad, the fact remains that when one of the largest social networking groups is open to innovation and known for changing our environment, it opens its doors and wants to be involved.”

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