Several NFT collections created by industry giant Yuga Labs have sunk to historically low ETH valuations – while other NFT projects, including those acquired by the company, have grown in value on the wings of rising crypto prices.
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), for example, a collection that Yuga released in August 2021, is according to Coin gecko– meaning the cheapest NFT in the 20,000-piece PFP collection can be purchased for that price. It cost 3 ETH to create a Mutant Ape when the collection first debuted.
In the same way, Different act NFTs: Deeds for Virtual Land in Yuga’s Monkey-Themed Metaverse Game, Other side– ETH prices have been steadily declining over the past year, reaching their lowest ever bottom price last week: 0.21 ETH. The collection has been around ever since marginally recovered up to 0.23 ETH.
Although the price of ETH has more than doubled in value over the past year, those notable gains have not been able to offset the plummeting prices of Yuga NFTs. It cost 305 ApeCoin to record another deed to the collection launched in May 2022 an amount worth $5,800; Even taking into account ETH’s recent spectacular rise, Otherdeed’s floor price of 0.23 ETH equates to just $929.
Yuga’s major NFT collection, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has also seen a huge decline in recent months. While it once cost 152 ETH to buy even the cheapest BAYC NFT, the celebrity favorite profile photo (PFP) collection has since plummeted to a rock bottom price of just 15.29 ETH when writing. The last time Bored Ape NFTs went for 15 ETH was just months after the collection debuted, in August 2021.
It is true that 15 ETH now means more than twice as much as that amount a year ago. But again, the rising price of ETH cannot offset the rapid pace at which BAYC is losing value. A year ago, the cheapest Bored Ape NFT cost 72 ETH – an amount that even then, in the middle of the crypto winter, was worth around $108,000. That amount could buy almost two BAYC NFTs today (15.29 ETH, the project’s current minimum price, equates to about $61,600 at the time of writing).
What makes this point even clearer is the reality that not all NFT collections are currently suffering to the same extent as BAYC, MAYC, and Otherdeeds. CryptoPunks, for example: a blue-chip Ethereum NFT collection for which Yuga has purchased the rights early 2022– has almost doubled in value in USD since December Coin gecko. Just last week, an NFT from the collection sold for a whopping price $16.03 million.
So why is Yuga’s Ape verse suffering disproportionately in the recovering crypto and NFT market? Bored Ape projects aren’t the only Ethereum NFTs to have lost steam in recent weeks as Bitcoin Ordinals seem to attract more attention, but they are losing value faster than many other top projects in the space.
CryptoPunks, created in 2017, was the first NFT PFP collection to ever reach sky-high prices and take on broader cultural significance. Therefore, they represent a piece of crypto history and a type of value that has survived multiple market cycles. They are the top-level status symbol for many crypto die-hards.
When Bored Apes emerged in 2021, they attempted to forge a new business model for NFTs: one focused on advantages, parties, exclusivityAnd access. The concept worked well –very good—during the 2021/2022 NFT bull run.
But as the ice of the last crypto winter finally begins to melt away, will Yuga’s Ape-themed metaverse continue to appeal to NFT holders? Or will the next bull run leave it behind as rivals gain momentum?
Edited by Andrew Hayward