Some of you might know what an NFT is. If this is new to you then I suggest that you check out an article I did before on the subject. NFT stands for non-fungible token. A non-fungible token is a digital representation of a unique asset. This means an NFT is unique and there is none other similar to it i.e. no two NFTs are the same. NFTs allow people the ability to digitally assume or give ownership, manage, gain or give permissions, and or transfer assets. Today I am talking about the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs collection.

Overview Of The NFTs Industry

The NFTs industry expanded exponentially in 2021. Most of us got to even know about NFTs for the first time last year. The demand for NFTs in 2021 was sky-high. Over US$25 billion in total was spent on purchasing NFTs in 2021. In 2022 much like for cryptocurrencies, the demand for NFTs has somehow declined. The most expensive NFT ever sold to date is The Merge, digital artwork by an artist called Pak. It sold for US$91.8 million. On average, as many as 50 000 NFTs are sold every week. Now, let us discuss more the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

The Story Of The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Collection

From US$200 To At Least US$420 000

Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs came onto the scene in April 2021. At the time they were just costing a mere US$200 each i.e. 0.08 Ether (the cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain). A few months later the price surged to over US$200 000 each. Fast forward to this year, just over a year after they launched, the cheapest you can find cost around US$420 000 (i.e. 145 Ether) each. Some of the global celebrities who have purchased Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs are Timbaland, Eminem, Neymar, Jimmy Fallon, and Paris Hilton. Justin Bieber bought him for US$1.29 million. The fact that several celebrities own Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs is remarkable. Owning Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT has become a status symbol.

Breaking Down NFT Collections And What Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs Are

In the world of NFTs, there are two types of NFTs. You have one-offs e.g. an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet that sold for US$2.9 million. Such types of NFTs mean there is only one of them. Then there are NFT collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs being an example. Each NFT within that collection will have attributes or characteristics unique to it. What makes it a collection is that all those NFTs will be based on a similar format or template. A relatable example I can give is a deck of playing cards – that is a good illustration of what NFTs collections are.

NFTs collections started being a thing in 2017. An NFT collection becomes a collection when you set a fixed number of NFTs to fall under that collection. In the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs case, the collection has 10 000 NFTs. Remember I said they initially cost US$200 each. This means when they were launched in April 2021 they were all made available for purchase at that price. Then as time went on and people started trading them around, their value spiked. For Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, several factors led to this spike in value. The major one though was the buy-in by global celebrities. These celebrities made it even trendier by making their Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs profile pictures on social media.

In essence, the NFTs in this case are different digital artwork illustrations of the facial expressions of a bored ape. So what makes other Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs more expensive than others? Well, remember the hallmark of NFTs is the exclusivity which depicts how rare something is. Thus if something is one of a kind, that drives up its value. That same principle applies to NFT collections. The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs collection has 10 000 NFTs. Let us suppose that only 7 of those NFTs (bored apes in this case) are wearing a purple headband. That makes them exclusive and they become more expensive due to that. That is why one can cost US$420 000 whilst another can cost US$1.29 million.

Interesting times we are living in right? You must acquaint yourself with what is happening in the world of blockchain tech and cryptocurrencies. It would be interesting to see how digital art and NFTs perform in the Zimbabwean context. We do have two Zimbabwean digital artists that have made a name for themselves in the global NFTs industry. They are Hulio Draws and Vintage MozArt; I once did articles on them. Within Zimbabwe, do you think NFTs stand a good chance of becoming a trending mainstream thing? Let me kindly see your thoughts in the comments below.