The ApeCoin (APE) is an Ethereum-based coin that was released in March of this year for the developing Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem. Since its debut, NFT holders have claimed around 93 million tokens. It’s valued at roughly $810 million.

In March, there were 1 billion of them in total, with CoinMarketCap reporting that about 28% are currently in circulation. Currently, the ApeCoin is 17.97% down with a live market cap of $2,624,656,648. However, the ApeCoin team continues to assure holders that many of the total supply of tokens will vest gradually over the next few years.

While ApeCoin is ostensibly the official token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and acts as a reward for holders of Bored Ape NFT collectibles, the official line is that it wasn’t created by Yuga Labs, the team behind the Bored Apes.

Instead, it’s officially the creation of ApeCoin DAO, a new decentralized autonomous organization created to govern the token and its roadmap forward. Based on tweets from Yuga folks and board members, there was clearly a lot of attention put on precise and uniform messaging, likely for regulatory reasons.

ApeCoin DAO has recruited some prominent folks from around the crypto community to serve on its initial board, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and FTX’s Amy Wu, and they’ll serve for six months before APE holders vote for the next members on an annual basis.

Who gets it?

If you hold a Bored Ape Yacht Club or Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT in your wallet, then you can claim a certain amount of free tokens from the official ApeCoin website. Each NFT draws its own allocation of tokens, so if you own a bunch, your token rewards will stack.

While current Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFT holders benefited the most at first because they were all given a free cache of valuable tokens to sell, anyone may now buy APE from prominent exchanges.

Why would you want to, though? According to the APE team, there are after-sale services available, such as special games supplied to Apecoin holders as a mark of appreciation.

ApeCoin is designed for utility and governance. This means that it’s a decentralized token that can be used for payments and transactions within Web3 apps of all sorts, even those not created or controlled by Yuga Labs or related to the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

And because ApeCoin is governed by a DAO, holders will have the ability to vote on community-led proposals that determine the future of the token. For example, there are already governance proposals regarding things like ecosystem fund allocation and staking rewards. That might sound dry and dull to some, but it may impact future benefits for APE holders.

The ApeCoin is also being used in Play-To-Earn games. For example, nWay recently announced that it will use APE in an upcoming play-to-earn game based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club. 

APE has the potential to be utilized by a wide range of businesses and initiatives as a decentralized token. And that is ApeCoin DAO’s goal: the more beneficial it is, the more valuable it may become. With the Web3 sector still in its infancy, APE holders can only hope that it grows in popularity as a metaverse payment option.