Bored Ape Yacht Club BAYC cracks the code for NFT fandom

Mark Mulligan, Karol Severin, Srishti Das and Tatiana Cirisano
Cover image for Bored Ape Yacht Club

Case Study

Launched in April as the flagship creation of media company Yuga Labs, BAYC is a collection of ten thousand cartoon ape NFTs, priced at 0.08 ETH apiece. The collection has generated more than $1 billion to date and counts many celebrities, like Snoop Dogg and Jimmy Fallon, among its community of owners. In December, BAYC partnered with blockchain game developer Animoca Brands to develop a play-to-earn game, integrating the NFTs. Other future plans include an in-person Miami ‘clubhouse’ for NFT owners and a decentralised autonomous organisation (DAO).

BAYC has achieved massive sales and fandom thanks to two innovations which give the NFTs utility (i.e. a use) and context (cultural significance). First, unlike with most NFTs, owners of BAYC NFTs are granted full commercial usage rights to their ape, meaning that they can sell products based on the image (but cannot use the BAYC name or logo). Already, this has led to new projects, like Universal Music Group’s virtual ape band, Kingship, Timbaland’s entertainment company, Ape-In Productions, and 2Chainz’s ape-centric animated sitcom, The Red Ape Family. All will further amplify the BAYC brand, build context around it, and broaden the market for BAYC by giving fans who cannot afford an ape a way to participate. Secondly, NFT owners unlock access to both an online community (with exclusive physical merchandise) and real-life events that build communal experiences, such as ‘Ape Fest’ in early November, which included performances by The Strokes and Aziz Ansari. 

BAYC taps into fans’ desire to collect with NFTs that have utility and context, as well as offering communal experiences and a form of expression and identity. BAYC NFT owners show off their membership status by using their apes as Twitter profile photos, wearing the exclusive merch and attending members-only events. While the fan experience could still be improved by a universal place to display NFTs, BAYC serves as a model for building fandom through digital collectibles.