Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), the iconic collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is experiencing a precipitous fall in its floor price. This plunge raises questions about the future of BAYC and, more generally, the NFT market, whose health seems fragile.
Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC): a vertiginous fall for the famous NFT collection
The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Web3’s iconic collection, has seen the floor price of its non-fungible tokens (NFT) reach its lowest level since August 2021.
And the fall is more than vertiginous. The floor price of BAYCs has fallen by more than 90% compared with its all-time high, reached almost 2 years ago.
Yesterday, the Bored Ape floor price fell to 10.9 Ether (ETH), or around $34,000, according to data from NFT’s various marketplaces. You’d have to go back to the beginning of August 2021 to find such a low floor price (9.5 ETH at the time).
When questioned by several English-language media, Yuga Labs, the company behind the BAYC collection, declined to comment on the situation.
Floor price chart of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection
Launched 3 years ago, in April 2021, the collection had received extensive media coverage and had been promulgated by numerous celebrities.
BAYC has often been considered the industry’s “success story”, thanks to an active community and popular spin-off collections. Today, however, the NFT market is in difficulty, particularly that of profile photos (PFP NFT).
Historically, BAYC is the 1 collection in terms of sales volume on the NFT market, with over $3 billion recorded, according to CryptoSlam data.
BAYC: hidden partnerships and falling lawsuits
Several BAYCs acquired by celebrities such as Kevin Hart and Justin Bieber have resold for amounts very close to their original price. The current floor price is -90% of the historical low price of 128 ETH reached by BAYC in April 2022. Today, this floor price would represent around $395,000.
At the time, MoonPay allegedly sold BAYC to Kevin Hart and several other celebrities legitimately. But according to several investigations, the company also offered NFT BAYCs to stars in exchange for MoonPay promotion. These included Kevin Hart, Justin Bieber, Madonna and Jimmy Fallon. Unsurprisingly, MoonPay denied all these claims.
In late 2022, a class action lawsuit was filed, claiming that celebrities had promoted Bored Apes and MoonPay without disclosing their partnerships with the companies or whether they had received financial compensation.
In February 2024, Yuga Labs replaced its CEO, Daniel Alegre, a former Activision Blizzard executive, with Yuga co-founder Greg Solano. In the same month, Yuga Labs also acquired Proof, a competitor known for its Moonbirds collection.
These declines highlight the risks associated with the NFT market and the volatility inherent in this type of asset.
