A Brief History
On April 17, 2021, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) introduced the world to "swamp" through a four-tweet thread, offering everyone a chance to win a Bored Ape.
Four days later, four pseudonymous masterminds - Gargamel, Gordon Goner, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and No Sass - deployed the contract 0xBC4CA0EdA7647A8aB7C2061c2E118A18a936f13D, creating Yuga Labs' first collection: the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
The Idea:
The Sale
The sale had no bonding curve (a mathematical formula determining token price, based on its supply, in decentralized exchange), and each NFT was sold for an all-inclusive price of 0.08 ETH + Gas. Despite unimpressive sales for the first six days, on May 1st, early BAYC Minters and Pranksy's tweets went viral, resulting in all BAYC NFTs selling out within 12 hours. The team generated a revenue of 800 ETH or $2.2 million at the time. In those days, belief in the NFT ecosystem was budding, and projects that didn't sell out in the first few days were considered failures. From these humble beginnings, Yuga Labs would go on to create an empire, dubbed "Decentralized Disney," in under two years.
Blue Chip NFTs
At the time of writing, Yuga Labs' ecosystem is home to the best-performing NFT collections and is considered the Blue Chip of NFTs:
Bored Ape Yacht Club (10,000)
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (20,000)
Cryptopunks (acquisition from Larva Labs) (10,000)
Meebits (acquisition from Larva Labs) (20,000)
Bored Ape Kennel Club (9,602)
Bored Ape Chemistry Club
M1 Serum
M2 Serum
M3 Serum
Otherside
Koda
Lands
HV-MTL
Vessels
10KTF & Wagmi-San (Acquisition)
Twelve Fold Ordinals on BTC
Yuga Labs also boasts 66 trademarks and counting. In the past six months, these 16 collections made up 34.6% of the entire NFT industry, generating a total trading volume of $2 billion. According to NFT rankings, BAYC has the third-highest all-time trading volume among NFTs, behind Axie Infinity and CryptoPunks, with a trading volume of $2.88 billion or 1,030,104 ETH. Yuga Labs is also venturing into the metaverse with their Otherdeed NFT collection, accounting for nearly 90% of the total virtual world trading volume. Additionally, they have contributed to the creation of the ApeCoin Foundation and DAO, hosted various real-life events, and collaborated with multiple brands to educate and attract new users to the web3 world.
Yuga Labs Team
What sets the Yuga Labs team apart is their ability to under-promise and over-deliver, particularly in terms of technological capabilities. They excel at storytelling, and each event is designed to engage the community with the brand and one another. One of their first events was a treasure hunt, which had thousands of participants working together in teams to solve clues and win prizes.https://twitter.com/BoredApeYC/status/1437580836099006465
The Airdrop
The Mutant Ape Airdrop was another unique event. BAYC holders were airdropped one of three Mutant Serums based on a seemingly random mechanism. In the backend, the serum was burnt, and a mutant was generated based on the user's traits.
This approach created value, made the experience enjoyable, and generated revenue in several ways:
It allowed early BAYC holders to cash out a portion of their profits.
It appealed to NFT collectors by introducing a "grail full set" to collect, which includes a matching BAYC, BAKC, and respective M2 and M1 mutants.
It established a tier system in the Mutant Ape collection based on art style rather than pricing.
It generated additional revenue for the company through:A new collection that brought in $96 million in primary sales.
Recurring income from Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) sales in the secondary market.
A 2.5% royalty from the intermediary consumable collection, Bored Ape Chemistry Club, which has a total volume to date of 59,000 ETH.
The surprise mint of MAYCs after the airdrop rewarded dedicated fans who were at the right place at the right time. The auction's price never fell below 3 ETH.
The Yuga Labs team focuses on delivering value to their believers and followers while making the experience fun, engaging, and profitable. In upcoming posts, we will discuss the:
IP flywheel
Yuga Labs ecosystem
ApeCoin DAO
Gaming
And we will also attempt to answer the question: Where does Yuga Labs go from here?