Yuga Labs is taking great pains to distance itself from the Apecoin token’s launch, which will be handled by an entity called ApeCoin DAO., which is made up of council members affiliated with the NFT project but are not employees or executives of the Yuga Labs.
Yuga Labs has had a wildly successful year, even among the fastest-growing crypto businesses.
The company is behind the NFT project Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC), which debuted in April of last year and has become the most valuable NFT project by market valuation. The cost of entrance to buy the cheapest of the 10,000 photos is currently roughly $240,000 in Ethereum.
Yuga Labs is looking to the future as it purportedly seeks funding at a $5 billion valuation (a spokeswoman for the business declined to comment on that amount), announcing a new partnership for a play-to-earn gaming title based on the much-hyped ApeCoin token.
Ape money and multimillion-dollar Ape paintings are probably not the future you envisioned for capturing Silicon Valley VCs’ full attention. On the other hand, Yuga Labs expects that the new game and token will spark a mainstream crypto economy based on their IP, which recently expanded to include the very valuable CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections after Yuga Labs purchased the assets from Larva Labs.
Building this economy will need some very specific legal wranglings to maintain regulatory compliance.
The SEC has stayed away from NFT initiatives for the most part — though not altogether — but crypto firms selling tokens that operate as unregistered securities have been a target of their attention.
Apecoin going DAO
As a result, Yuga Labs is taking great pains to distance itself from the token’s launch, which will be handled by an entity called ApeCoin DAO, which is made up of council members affiliated with the NFT project but are not employees or executives of the Yuga Labs.
The APE Foundation, which will oversee the ApeCoin DAO’s decisions, will manage the ApeCoin DAO. The DAO will also sport official BAYC branding, which Yuga Labs is “gifting” to it in the form of a 1/1 NFT of a blue Bored Apes logo.
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, FTX’s Amy Wu, Sound Ventures’ Maaria Bajwa, Animoca’s Yat Siu, and Horizen Labs’ Dean Steinbeck are among the ApeCoin DAO’s council members. If this all sounds a little confusing, Welcome to crypto in 2022.
Token holders will be able to vote on DAO decisions, while the special counsel “will carry out the community’s decisions,” according to a spokeswoman.
Despite the fact that Yuga will not formally launch the Ethereum-based token, the startup and BAYC project creators will hold approximately a quarter of the entire token supply, with owners of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes NFTs receiving a combined 15% of the overall token allocation.
Yuga Labs expects the Ape token to start trading “soon” on key exchanges like Coinbase, FTX, eToro, Kraken, OKX, Gemini, FTX, Binance, and Binance US, according to a representative.
The startup refused to make any executives accessible for an interview and declined to provide any additional information about the ApeCoin DAO’s relationship with Yuga Labs.
The following is the complete breakdown of the 1 billion APE coin token allocation:
- The Bored Apes Yacht Club founders will receive 8% of the proceeds.
- The Yuga Labs team will receive 16% of the proceeds (a portion of which equals 1 percent of the total token supply will be donated to the Jane Goodall Foundation Legacy Foundation).
- Fourteen percent of the money will go to “launch contributors,” which are likely to be Yuga partners and investors.
- Owners of the Bored Apes and Mutant Apes collections will receive 15% of the proceeds.
- As part of the DAO’s “ecosystem fund,” 47 percent will be dispersed over time.
Functions of Apecoin
The full scope of ApeCoin’s functionality is currently unknown. Still, it is evident that it will be used as in-game currency for several of Yuga Labs’ upcoming games, including a previously unreleased title being created with San Francisco-based gaming studio nWay. The firm has already released several battle games based on IP like Power Rangers and the WWE.
The unnamed game will use a play-to-earn crypto gaming mechanic, allowing gamers to earn tokens based on how much time and effort they put into the game.
p2e game
The mechanism was popularized by the game Axie Infinity, which has generated several billion dollars in transactions in the last year and prompted its parent firm, Sky Mavis, to receive $3 billion in funding. According to Yuga Labs, They will launch a new game this year.
This title will be published alongside a previously announced play-to-earn gaming title developed in collaboration with Animoca Brands. ApeCoin will also be helpful in an existing Animoca game called Benji Bananas, according to the developers.
According to a report published in The Block a few days ago, the company is also developing a separate gaming title called MetaRPG that will be compatible with several NFT projects. They even plan to expand into virtual land sales this year, efforts that Yuga estimates will bring the company’s net revenue to $455 million this year. Yuga Labs did not respond to a request for comment on the report.
NFTs have had a fantastic year and are already gaining traction with large IT firms.
Twitter has begun to offer limited support for NFT profile images. Facebook has recently stated that it intends to implement NFTs into Instagram, and Stripe has recently announced crypto support for NFTs.
NFTs have also sparked a passionate response among consumers, particularly gamers, who fear that they may instead supercharge micro-transactions rather than democratize game ownership. Others have highlighted worries about the impact of minting NFTs on energy-intensive blockchains on the environment.
Yuga’s move into gaming is undoubtedly a vital part of the BAYC brand’s expansion aspirations, but blockchain gaming is still a small market that it aims to expand.
“I don’t know how huge Bored Ape Yacht Club can be,” Yuga CEO Nicole Muniz said last month in an interview with the D3 Network. “But I think — I hope — Yuga will be big and that we will be able to produce lots of unique and interesting things and speak to the greater community in many ways.”
Some Verdict
If you are at this part, then congrats. As for the role of getting rich with Apecoin, it’s not entirely sure if this coin is going to the moon or not. Conclusion: there are many variables like Apecoin will be operated by DAO, leaving Yuga Labs to the safe side. So it’s best to watch and research first before involving in investments.
