What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is a collection of 10,000 unique non-fungible tokens (NFTs) minted on the Ethereum blockchain.¹ Each NFT is an ERC-721 token representing a piece of digital art, a cartoon ape with a distinct combination of procedurally generated traits.¹ Launched in April 2021 by Yuga Labs, the project rapidly transcended its origins as a digital collectible to become a cultural touchstone and a cornerstone of the Web3 movement.¹

BAYC is widely recognized for propelling NFTs into the mainstream consciousness, evolving from a niche crypto asset into a globally recognized brand and status symbol.⁵ Ownership of a Bored Ape NFT functions as a membership card to an exclusive digital club, granting holders access to a private community, exclusive events, and, most notably, broad intellectual property rights to the art of their specific ape.² This innovative approach to utility and ownership was a key driver of its success, setting a new standard for profile picture (PFP) NFT projects.

The brand, managed by Yuga Labs, has since expanded into a comprehensive ecosystem that includes derivative NFT collections such as the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and the Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), a gamified metaverse called Otherside, a governance and utility token named ApeCoin ($APE), and a dedicated Layer-3 blockchain, ApeChain.⁹

The collection experienced an extraordinary rise in value following its launch. The initial mint price was 0.08 ETH (approximately $220), but at the market’s peak in May 2022, the “floor price”, the cost of the cheapest available Ape surpassed 153 ETH (over $420,000).¹ This surge was fueled by high-profile celebrity acquisitions and major brand partnerships. However, the project has also faced significant market volatility, along with legal and ethical controversies that have drawn public scrutiny.¹²

The success of BAYC was not merely a product of its art or the broader NFT market boom; it was fundamentally driven by a pioneering fusion of digital scarcity with tangible, real-world utility and community access. While earlier NFT projects like CryptoPunks were valued primarily for their historical significance and rarity as digital art, BAYC introduced a “roadmap” of holder benefits from its inception.² This included access to an exclusive Discord server, a collaborative digital art space known as “THE BATHROOM,” and, critically, extensive commercial intellectual property rights.⁷ This utility created a powerful incentive for ownership that extended beyond pure financial speculation. The promise of future airdrops of valuable new assets (like BAKC NFTs and ApeCoin), access to exclusive real-world events like ApeFest, and the ability for owners to build personal brands or businesses using their Ape’s likeness established a self-reinforcing value loop.⁷ Owners were not just buying a static image; they were investing in an exclusive, evolving club with ongoing and expanding benefits. This model became the de facto standard for the wave of PFP NFT projects that followed, compelling the market to mature beyond simple digital art collection and demand clear utility, community engagement, and a long-term vision from new projects.

History

Founders and Conception

The Bored Ape Yacht Club was created by Yuga Labs, a blockchain technology company founded by Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, two friends with backgrounds in literature who had met in Miami in 2011.¹⁷ They operated under the pseudonyms “Gargamel” (Solano) and “Gordon Goner” (Aronow).¹ Solano, a former editor and book critic, introduced Aronow to the world of cryptocurrency in 2017, and the pair developed an interest in early NFT projects such as CryptoPunks and CryptoKitties.¹⁸

Lacking the technical skills to execute their vision, Solano and Aronow enlisted two software engineers they knew from university: Zeshan Ali and Kerem Atalay, who went by the pseudonyms “No Sass” and “Emperor Tomato Ketchup,” respectively.¹ The core concept for BAYC was to create more than just digital art; the goal was to build an exclusive membership club where the NFT itself served as the access key.² The “ape” theme was a nod to the crypto-native slang term “aping in,” which describes investing heavily into a new coin or NFT, often with a high degree of risk and conviction.⁵ The project’s lore imagined a future where early crypto investors, having become fabulously wealthy, are now “bored” and retreat to a secret club in a swamp.²

The four founders maintained their anonymity until February 2022, when an investigative report by BuzzFeed News publicly identified Solano and Aronow by analyzing public records associated with Yuga Labs.¹ Following this “doxxing,” Ali and Atalay chose to reveal their identities on Twitter as well.¹

Launch and Initial Reception

The BAYC project’s pre-sale began on April 23, 2021, with some sources citing an official release date of April 21 or April 30.² The minting price for each of the 10,000 apes was set at a flat 0.08 ETH, equivalent to about $190–$220 at the time.¹ This price was intentionally set low to encourage wide and fair distribution, avoiding the “bonding curve” pricing model common at the time.¹⁶

Despite the project’s eventual success, its launch was notably slow. In the first week, only a few hundred apes were minted.⁵ The art for the apes was not revealed at the time of purchase; minters received a placeholder image, which may have contributed to the initial lack of momentum.⁵ The project’s trajectory changed dramatically on April 30, 2021. On that day, the art was revealed, and prominent NFT collector and influencer “Pranksy” discovered the project, purchased a large quantity of apes, and shared his enthusiasm with his followers on Twitter.¹⁶ This high-profile endorsement acted as a catalyst, sparking a wave of interest that led to the entire 10,000-ape collection selling out within 12 hours.¹

Corporate Growth and Acquisitions

As the value and cultural relevance of BAYC surged, Yuga Labs transitioned from a small startup into a major corporate entity in the Web3 space. In March 2022, the company announced a $450 million seed funding round led by the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), which valued Yuga Labs at $4 billion.¹⁰ This was one of the largest seed rounds for an NFT-centric company and signaled strong institutional confidence in Yuga Labs’ vision to build a media empire around its intellectual property. Other notable investors in the round included Animoca Brands, Coinbase, and Google Ventures.²⁵

On March 11, 2022, Yuga Labs executed a landmark strategic move by acquiring the intellectual property (IP) rights for the CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from their creator, Larva Labs.¹ The acquisition was a pivotal moment for the NFT industry, as it consolidated the two most valuable and historically significant PFP collections under the stewardship of a single company.²⁵ A key component of the acquisition was Yuga Labs’ commitment to grant full commercial IP rights to individual CryptoPunks and Meebits holders, a right they did not previously have under Larva Labs. This decision aligned the newly acquired collections with the BAYC model of empowering owners and was widely praised by the community.¹⁴

The company has also undergone several leadership changes. Nicole Muniz was appointed CEO in September 2021.⁷ In early 2023, she was succeeded by Daniel Alegre, the former President and COO of Activision Blizzard, who was brought in to oversee the company’s expansion into gaming and the metaverse.¹⁰ However, in a strategic shift announced in February 2024, co-founder Greg Solano returned to the CEO position, stating a desire to refocus the company on its Web3 roots and increase its agility and community focus.²¹

Date	Event	Significance
April 2021	Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection launches and sells out.	Establishes the foundational project and community that would anchor the Yuga Labs ecosystem.¹
June 2021	Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) airdropped to BAYC holders.	First ecosystem expansion; introduces the model of rewarding original holders with new, valuable assets.⁵
August 2021	Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) collection launches.	Expands the community at a lower price point and introduces novel minting mechanics via “serums”.⁵
March 2022	Yuga Labs acquires CryptoPunks and Meebits IP from Larva Labs.	Consolidates the top NFT PFP projects under one company, establishing clear market dominance.¹
March 2022	Yuga Labs raises $450M at a $4B valuation led by a16z.	Provides massive capital for expansion and signals strong institutional belief in the vision for a Web3 media empire.¹⁰
March 2022	ApeCoin ($APE) is launched by the ApeCoin DAO.	Introduces a fungible token for governance and utility, creating a decentralized layer for the ecosystem’s economy.²⁷
April 2022	Otherside metaverse “Otherdeed” NFT land sale.	Marks the company’s official expansion into the metaverse, generating over $300 million in primary sales.¹⁴
February 2024	Co-founder Greg Solano returns as CEO.	Signals a strategic shift to refocus the company on its core Web3 and community-centric vision.²¹
2024	ApeChain, a Layer-3 blockchain, is launched on Arbitrum.	Creates dedicated infrastructure to scale the ecosystem’s gaming and commerce ambitions, addressing past scalability issues.³⁰

The BAYC Collection and Membership

Art and Traits

The 10,000 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs are pieces of generative art, meaning each one is algorithmically created by combining a predefined set of artistic elements.³ The collection features over 170 possible traits distributed across seven categories: background, clothes, earrings, eyes, fur, hat, and mouth.¹ This programmatic assembly ensures that each ape is unique. The lead artist responsible for the collection’s distinctive style is known as Seneca, who worked with a team of other freelance illustrators to develop the various traits.⁷

The market value of an individual Bored Ape is heavily influenced by the statistical rarity of its traits.¹ Certain traits appear far less frequently than others, making NFTs that possess them particularly desirable to collectors and investors. For instance, only 46 apes (0.46%) have “Solid Gold” fur, and just 69 (0.69%) have “Laser Eyes”.³ The combination of multiple rare traits can result in valuations that are orders of magnitude higher than the collection’s floor price. A prime example is BAYC #8817, which features the rare “Solid Gold Fur” trait and was sold at a Sotheby’s auction for $3.4 million in October 2021.¹

Membership Benefits and Utility

From its inception, BAYC distinguished itself from other NFT projects by emphasizing utility and community access, positioning ownership as more than just holding a digital image.⁶

Exclusive Community Access: A BAYC NFT acts as a verifiable membership card, granting the holder entry into a token-gated private Discord server.¹ This server became a key social hub for the community, allowing members to network with one another, including the many high-profile celebrities who joined the club.⁷
THE BATHROOM: One of the earliest and most iconic utilities was access to “THE BATHROOM,” a members-only digital canvas.⁷ Functioning as a collaborative graffiti wall, it allows each member to paint a single pixel on the canvas every fifteen minutes. This feature provided a simple yet effective way to foster a sense of shared space and creative community engagement.¹
Intellectual Property Rights: Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of BAYC membership is the broad intellectual property license granted to each NFT holder.⁸ Owners receive extensive personal and commercial usage rights to the specific artwork of their ape, allowing them to create and profit from derivative works such as merchandise, branding, and media projects.¹⁵ This feature is explored in greater detail in Section 7.
Airdrops and Future Access: Membership has consistently provided holders with priority access and eligibility for new assets within the expanding Yuga Labs ecosystem. These have included free airdrops of Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs, “mutant serums” to create Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and a significant allocation of ApeCoin tokens.⁵ These airdrops have often represented substantial value, rewarding early and long-term holders and further incentivizing participation in the ecosystem. Ownership also typically grants preferential access to future projects, such as the Otherside metaverse land sale.⁸

The Yuga Labs Ecosystem

Following the initial success of BAYC, Yuga Labs strategically expanded its intellectual property into a multi-faceted ecosystem, designed to increase utility for holders and broaden the brand’s reach. This rapid expansion created a powerful network effect, where each new component added value to the existing parts, building a defensible competitive advantage, or “moat,” in the Web3 space. The value of a BAYC NFT became intrinsically linked to the sum of all past and future benefits within this growing universe, making it difficult for competitors to replicate not just a single collection, but an entire integrated ecosystem.

Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC)

Launched in June 2021, the Bored Ape Kennel Club was the first expansion of the BAYC universe.³³ The collection consists of 9,602 unique dog-themed NFTs, each designed to be a companion for a Bored Ape.⁵ The BAKC NFTs were not sold but were offered as a free “adoption” to every member of the BAYC, who only needed to pay the Ethereum gas fees for minting.¹⁰ The claim period was open for one week.²¹ This move was framed as a direct reward to the early community for their support.⁵ As a charitable component, Yuga Labs initially applied a 2.5% royalty fee on all BAKC secondary market sales for the first six weeks, with all proceeds donated to no-kill animal shelters.³⁵

Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)

The Mutant Ape Yacht Club was launched on August 28, 2021, as a way to both reward existing BAYC holders and welcome new members into the community at a more accessible price point.⁵ The collection comprises up to 20,000 Mutant Apes and was created using a novel two-tiered distribution mechanism.⁵

First, each of the 10,000 BAYC holders was airdropped a “mutant serum” NFT. These serums came in three levels of rarity: M1, M2, and the Mega Mutant (M3) serum.⁷ A holder could expose their Bored Ape to a serum, which would generate a new Mutant Ape NFT with traits corresponding to the original ape but in a mutated form. The original Bored Ape NFT remained unchanged.¹⁰ The M1 and M2 serums produced mutants that retained a resemblance to the original, while the extremely rare M3 serum created a completely new and often highly valuable Mutant Ape.²¹

Second, an additional 10,000 Mutant Apes were made available to the public through a Dutch auction that began at a price of 3 ETH.⁵ This public sale was conducted as a “stealth drop” with little advance notice to mitigate the impact of automated bots.⁵

ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin ($APE) is the official governance and utility token of the BAYC ecosystem. It is a fungible ERC-20 token launched on the Ethereum blockchain around March 16-17, 2022.¹⁴ The token was launched by the ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization, rather than directly by Yuga Labs. This structure was intended to create a degree of separation and decentralize the governance of the ecosystem, though Yuga Labs remains a significant influence and token holder.²⁷

The total supply of ApeCoin is fixed at 1 billion tokens.²⁸ At launch, 15% of the total supply was made available to be claimed by holders of BAYC and MAYC NFTs. Owners of a Bored Ape could claim 10,094 APE, while Mutant Ape owners could claim 2,042 APE. An additional bonus was given if the wallet also held a Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT.²¹ The remaining tokens were allocated to the DAO treasury, Yuga Labs, the project’s founders, and launch contributors, with most allocations subject to vesting schedules.²⁸

ApeCoin serves several key functions: it allows holders to vote on governance proposals within the ApeCoin DAO, it is the official currency for purchasing assets like virtual land in the Otherside metaverse, and it functions as the native gas token on the ApeChain blockchain, used to pay for transaction fees.¹

Otherside Metaverse

Otherside represents Yuga Labs’ ambitious expansion into the metaverse. Developed in partnership with the British metaverse technology company Improbable and Animoca Brands, Otherside is a gamified, interoperable virtual world that blends mechanics from massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) with Web3 principles of ownership.²¹ The platform is designed to support thousands of concurrent users in a single, shared environment, powered by Improbable’s M2 technology.²⁹

The project’s public launch occurred on April 30, 2022, with the minting of “Otherdeeds,” NFTs that represent plots of land in the Otherside.¹⁴ A total of 55,000 Otherdeeds were sold to the public exclusively in ApeCoin, raising over $300 million. An additional 10,000 were claimable by BAYC holders, with another 30,000 reserved for MAYC holders and Yuga Labs developers.²⁹ The immense demand for the sale caused unprecedented congestion on the Ethereum network, leading to transaction fees soaring to thousands of dollars per mint. Yuga Labs later refunded the excess gas fees to affected users.⁵

A core feature of Otherside is its focus on interoperability. Players are intended to be able to use NFTs from a wide range of popular collections, including BAYC, MAYC, CryptoPunks, Meebits, Cool Cats, and World of Women, as their playable 3D avatars in the game.²⁹ Ongoing development of the platform is being demonstrated through large-scale tech demos called “Trips,” as well as through companion games like

Legends of the Mara that expand the world’s lore.⁴⁰ The public release of a software development kit (SDK) is planned to allow landowners to build their own custom experiences.⁴⁰

ApeChain

Launched in 2024, ApeChain is a dedicated blockchain created to provide a scalable and efficient infrastructure for the ApeCoin ecosystem, with a primary focus on gaming and commerce.³⁰ The creation of ApeChain was a direct response to the scalability challenges encountered on the Ethereum mainnet, most notably the severe network congestion during the Otherside mint.³⁰

Following a vote by the ApeCoin DAO, ApeChain was built using Arbitrum’s Orbit technology stack.³⁰ It operates as an “Optimistic L3” (Layer-3) chain that settles its transactions on the Arbitrum One Layer-2 network, which in turn is secured by the Ethereum mainnet.¹¹ This architecture allows ApeChain to benefit from Ethereum’s security while offering significantly higher throughput and lower transaction costs. A key factor in choosing Arbitrum Orbit was its ability to support a custom gas token, enabling ApeCoin ($APE) to be used as the native currency for paying transaction fees on the network, thereby increasing its fundamental utility.³⁰ ApeChain is designed to offer fast block times and a reliable environment for developers building applications within the Yugaverse.⁴¹

This continuous and centralized expansion, while building a powerful brand, creates a fundamental tension with the decentralized ethos that Web3 and Yuga Labs publicly champion. Structures like the ApeCoin DAO and the permissionless nature of ApeChain are presented as moves toward decentralization. However, the strategic vision, core development, and IP control remain firmly in the hands of Yuga Labs. The ApeCoin DAO, while technically independent, is heavily influenced by Yuga’s roadmap and resource allocation.²⁸ Similarly, the launch of ApeChain, while a necessary technical solution, funnels ecosystem activity onto a platform endorsed and largely directed by Yuga. A 2025 proposal by Yuga’s CEO to potentially dissolve the ApeCoin DAO and reform it as a more streamlined, centralized “ApeCo” brings this conflict into sharp focus.²⁸ The long-term challenge for Yuga Labs will be to navigate this paradox: maintaining the cohesive product vision that has driven its success while genuinely empowering the decentralized community it relies on for its legitimacy and growth.

Market Performance and Valuation

Floor Price Trajectory

The market valuation of the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection has been characterized by a period of explosive growth followed by a significant correction, mirroring the broader trends of the NFT and cryptocurrency markets.

Initial Rise: After the collection sold out at a mint price of 0.08 ETH (approx. $220) in April 2021, the floor price began a steady and then exponential climb throughout the 2021 crypto bull market.¹ By late 2021, the cheapest available ape was valued at tens of thousands of dollars, and the collection had overtaken CryptoPunks as the highest-priced PFP NFT project.¹⁴
Peak Valuation: The floor price reached its all-time high of 153.7 ETH on May 1, 2022, a day after the highly anticipated launch of the Otherside metaverse project.⁸ At the time, this valued the floor of the collection at over $420,000 USD per NFT.⁸
Market Downturn: Following this peak, the BAYC floor price entered a prolonged and steep decline. This correction was part of a wider “crypto winter” that saw asset values across the digital asset space plummet.¹ The waning mainstream hype around NFTs also contributed to the downturn. By mid-2024, the floor price had fallen by over 90% from its peak, dropping to around 11 ETH, a level not seen since August 2021.⁴² As of late 2024, the floor price has stabilized in the 8-10 ETH range, equivalent to approximately $30,000–$40,000.¹
Market Capitalization: Despite the dramatic fall in floor price, BAYC remains one of the most valuable NFT collections by market capitalization. As of late 2024, the total market cap of the collection was estimated to be over 91,000 ETH, or approximately $411 million.⁸

Notable Sales

While the floor price represents the value of the most common apes, individual NFTs with rare traits have consistently sold for prices far exceeding this baseline, often fetching millions of dollars at public auctions and on secondary marketplaces. These high-profile sales were instrumental in cementing BAYC’s reputation as a blue-chip digital asset and a luxury good.

Item	Sale Price (ETH)	Sale Price (USD Approx.)	Date	Venue/Platform
BAYC #8817	N/A	$3.4 Million	Oct 2021	Sotheby’s Metaverse ¹
101 BAYC NFT Lot	N/A	$24.4 Million	Sep 2021	Sotheby’s ²¹
BAYC #2087	769 ETH	$2.3 Million	Sep 2021	OpenSea ²¹
BAYC #3749 (“The Captain”)	740 ETH	$2.9 Million	Sep 2021	Purchased by The Sandbox ²¹
BAYC #8585	697 ETH	$2.7 Million	Oct 2021	OpenSea ²¹
BAYC #7537	1,024 ETH	$1.23 Million	Jun 2022	OpenSea ²¹
BAYC #830	504.3 ETH	$1.92 Million	2024	N/A ⁴²

Cultural Impact and Mainstream Adoption

Celebrity Endorsements

A significant factor in BAYC’s rapid ascent into the mainstream was its widespread adoption by celebrities across various industries. Beginning in late 2021, a wave of high-profile figures from music, sports, and entertainment began purchasing Bored Apes and showcasing them as their profile pictures on social media platforms like Twitter.¹ This transformed the NFTs from a niche digital asset into a highly visible status symbol, akin to a luxury watch or a supercar in the digital realm.⁶

The list of celebrity owners includes musicians Justin Bieber, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, and Post Malone; athletes Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal, and Neymar Jr.; and media personalities like Jimmy Fallon and Paris Hilton.¹ This influx of celebrity interest created a powerful marketing flywheel: each new high-profile purchase generated significant media coverage, which in turn drove up the collection’s perceived value and cultural relevance, attracting even more prominent buyers.⁴ However, this phenomenon later came under legal scrutiny, forming the basis of a class-action lawsuit that alleged many of these endorsements were undisclosed paid promotions orchestrated by Yuga Labs.¹⁴

Celebrity	Profession	NFT Owned (Ape #)
Justin Bieber	Musician	BAYC #3001 ⁴⁴
Eminem	Musician	BAYC #9055 ⁴⁴
Snoop Dogg	Musician	BAYC #6723 (and others) ⁴⁶
Madonna	Musician	BAYC #4988 ⁴⁴
Post Malone	Musician	BAYC #961, #9039 ⁴⁴
Jimmy Fallon	TV Host	BAYC #599 ¹
Paris Hilton	Media Personality	BAYC #1294 ¹³
Stephen Curry	Athlete (NBA)	BAYC #7990 ²¹
Neymar Jr.	Athlete (Soccer)	BAYC #6633, #5269 ¹³
Shaquille O’Neal	Athlete (NBA)	Mutant Ape #14452 ¹
Kevin Hart	Comedian/Actor	BAYC #9258 ¹³
Gwyneth Paltrow	Actress	BAYC #6141 ¹⁴
Timbaland	Music Producer	BAYC #590 ¹³
Mark Cuban	Entrepreneur	BAYC #1597 ⁴

Brand Partnerships and Commercial Ventures

Yuga Labs has actively pursued collaborations with major global brands, leveraging BAYC’s cultural capital to bridge the gap between Web3 and traditional industries. In a prominent partnership, sportswear giant Adidas purchased a Bored Ape NFT and collaborated with Yuga Labs on an “Into the Metaverse” NFT project.¹ Luxury fashion house Gucci has also partnered with Yuga Labs to integrate the brand into its metaverse strategies.⁴⁷

The permissive IP rights granted to holders have also catalyzed a wave of independent commercial ventures. Universal Music Group’s 10:22PM label formed KINGSHIP, a virtual music group consisting of three Bored Ape and one Mutant Ape characters, with plans to release music and perform in the metaverse.¹⁴ Grammy-winning music producer Timbaland launched Ape-In Productions, an entertainment company dedicated to discovering and developing virtual artists and animations from the BAYC ecosystem.¹³ In another high-profile media crossover,

Rolling Stone magazine partnered with BAYC to release limited-edition physical and digital magazine covers featuring artwork from the collection.¹⁴

Community and Events

Reinforcing the “members-only” ethos of the project, Yuga Labs organizes ApeFest, an exclusive annual festival for BAYC and MAYC holders.¹⁴ These multi-day events have been held in major cities like New York and Hong Kong and have featured A-list entertainment, including musical performances by The Strokes and Lil Baby, and comedy sets from Chris Rock and Aziz Ansari.¹³ These real-world gatherings serve to strengthen community bonds and provide tangible value to membership beyond the digital realm.

Intellectual Property Rights

The Commercial Use License

A defining and revolutionary feature of the Bored Ape Yacht Club project is its approach to intellectual property (IP) rights. Unlike many earlier NFT projects, which retained full copyright and trademark control over their art, Yuga Labs granted individual BAYC and MAYC owners an unlimited, worldwide license to use, copy, and display the artwork of their specific purchased NFT.¹⁵ This license explicitly includes the right to create derivative works for commercial purposes.¹⁵

This means that a holder can legally produce and sell merchandise such as clothing, prints, or accessories featuring their ape’s image. They can also use their ape as the face of a brand, feature it in media projects like music videos or animated series, or license its likeness to third parties.² This model effectively transformed each of the 10,000 NFTs into a potential commercial asset.

The license is inextricably linked to the ownership of the NFT token on the blockchain. If an owner sells their NFT, the IP license automatically transfers to the new owner.¹⁵ However, Yuga Labs explicitly retains ownership of all overarching brand names, trademarks, and logos, including “Bored Ape Yacht Club,” “BAYC,” “Mutant Ape Yacht Club,” and their associated branding. This ensures that while individual holders can commercialize their own ape, Yuga Labs maintains control over the collective brand identity.¹⁵

This decision to grant commercial IP rights was a calculated strategic move that transformed the community of holders into a decentralized, self-motivated global marketing and brand-building engine. It fundamentally altered the economics and growth trajectory of an NFT project. By empowering owners to build their own ventures, a powerful flywheel effect was created. When a holder launches a successful product or media project using their ape, it increases the visibility and cultural relevance of the entire BAYC collection. This, in turn, raises the value of all 10,000 apes, including the one being commercialized. The holder is thus financially incentivized to promote their own asset, which simultaneously promotes the parent brand at no direct cost to Yuga Labs. This model demonstrated a new paradigm for brand building in the digital age, leveraging the core Web3 principles of ownership and decentralization to achieve exponential, organic growth that has since been widely emulated across the NFT space.

Legal Precedents and Interpretations

The novel IP structure of BAYC has been tested and clarified in significant legal disputes, most notably the lawsuit Yuga Labs, Inc. v. Ryder Ripps. This case has produced several landmark rulings that are helping to shape the legal framework for NFTs in the United States.

A critical outcome of the litigation was the court’s affirmation that NFTs are legally considered “goods” for the purposes of the Lanham Act, the primary U.S. federal trademark statute.⁵⁰ The defendants had argued that NFTs, being intangible, could not be classified as goods and were therefore ineligible for trademark protection. The court rejected this argument, establishing a crucial precedent that allows NFT collections to be protected under trademark law, similar to physical products.⁵²

The court also provided a vital interpretation of the rights granted to NFT holders. It ruled that Yuga Labs had only granted a copyright license to the specific artwork of each ape, not a trademark license for the overarching BAYC brand.⁵² This distinction reinforces that while a holder can commercialize the visual appearance of their individual ape, they cannot use the “Bored Ape Yacht Club” name or logos in a way that implies an official endorsement or creates brand confusion. This legal clarification upholds the power of the central entity (Yuga Labs) to protect its brand integrity while still allowing for decentralized commercial activity by its community members.

Controversies and Criticisms

The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s high profile has been accompanied by significant controversies and criticisms, spanning legal battles over intellectual property, allegations of financial misconduct, and public safety issues.

Allegations of Racist Imagery and the Ryder Ripps Lawsuit

In late 2021, artist and provocateur Ryder Ripps began a public campaign alleging that the BAYC collection and its branding contained coded racist and neo-Nazi dog whistles.⁵⁴ Ripps’ claims, detailed on a website he created, pointed to perceived similarities between the BAYC skull logo and the Nazi

Totenkopf symbol, the name “Yuga Labs” and its alleged connection to esoteric right-wing ideologies, and the historical use of simian imagery as a racist caricature.⁵⁵ Yuga Labs and its founders have consistently and vehemently denied these allegations, dismissing them as a coordinated trolling campaign and highlighting the founders’ own diverse backgrounds (Jewish, Cuban, Turkish, and Pakistani) as a refutation.¹⁴

The dispute escalated in May 2022 when Ripps launched a satirical copycat NFT collection called “RR/BAYC,” which used the exact same images as the original BAYC collection.⁵⁸ Yuga Labs responded by filing a lawsuit against Ripps and his collaborator Jeremy Cahen for trademark infringement, cybersquatting, and false advertising.⁵⁹ Ripps defended his project as a form of appropriation art and critical commentary protected by the First Amendment.⁵³

In April 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California granted summary judgment in favor of Yuga Labs, ruling that Ripps’ collection was not protected artistic expression and was likely to cause consumer confusion. The court awarded Yuga Labs nearly $1.6 million in damages.⁵⁸ However, in a major development on July 23, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed the summary judgment on the trademark infringement and cybersquatting claims.¹⁴ The appellate court concluded that Yuga Labs had not proven consumer confusion

as a matter of law and that the question must be decided by a jury at a full trial. The court did, however, uphold the dismissal of Ripps’ counterclaims against Yuga Labs.⁵⁰

Class-Action Lawsuit Over Unregistered Securities

In December 2022, a class-action lawsuit was filed against Yuga Labs, its parent company, talent manager Guy Oseary, and a long list of celebrity promoters, including Justin Bieber, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, and Madonna.¹² The lawsuit alleges that the defendants engaged in a wide-ranging scheme to artificially inflate the value of BAYC and MAYC NFTs, as well as the ApeCoin token, through a series of misleading celebrity endorsements.¹⁴

The core of the complaint is the allegation that these celebrity promotions were not organic but were part of a coordinated campaign where celebrities were secretly paid for their endorsements, often through the crypto payment firm MoonPay, without disclosing their financial interest to the public.¹² The plaintiffs argue that this conduct constitutes the promotion of unregistered securities and that they suffered significant financial losses when the value of these assets collapsed after the period of manufactured hype.¹² The case is ongoing and represents a significant legal challenge to the marketing practices prevalent in the NFT space during its peak.

ApeFest 2023 Incident

During the ApeFest event held in Hong Kong in November 2023, a number of attendees reported experiencing severe eye pain, vision problems, and skin irritation.¹⁴ Medical professionals identified the symptoms as consistent with photokeratitis, a painful condition caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) light, similar to a sunburn on the corneas.¹⁴ The injuries were widely attributed to the improper use of high-intensity UV or industrial-grade lighting at one of the event’s venues.¹⁴ Yuga Labs issued a statement acknowledging the reports, stating they were investigating the cause and that “much less than 1% of those attending and working the event had these symptoms.” They encouraged affected individuals to seek medical attention.¹⁴

General Criticism

Beyond specific legal and safety issues, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has faced broader criticism. Some art critics have dismissed the project’s artistic merit, labeling it a “gimmick” and arguing that its focus on financial speculation and exclusivity is detrimental to the broader art world.¹⁴ The project’s extreme price volatility and its reliance on celebrity-driven hype have led to accusations that it functioned as a speculative bubble or a “greater fool theory” scheme, where profits are derived from selling overpriced assets to new buyers.¹² Additionally, like all projects operating on the Ethereum blockchain before its transition to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism in September 2022, BAYC drew criticism for the significant energy consumption and environmental impact associated with its transactions.

References

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Explained: Is It a Good Investment? (2022). Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/bored-ape-yacht-club-6747275
Bored Ape Yacht Club. (n.d.). Yuga Labs. https://boredapeyachtclub.com/
Bored Ape Yacht Club. (2024). IQ.wiki. https://iq.wiki/wiki/bored-ape-yacht-club
The Definitive List of Bored Ape NFT Celebrity Owners. (2023). Boardroom.tv. https://boardroom.tv/bored-ape-nft-celebrity-owners/
Bored Ape. (2025). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bored_Ape
Most Expensive Bored Ape: Record-Breaking NFT Sales. (n.d.). Coinpaper. https://coinpaper.com/4902/most-expensive-bored-ape-record-breaking-nft-sales
What is Bored Ape Yacht Club? (n.d.). Kraken. https://www.kraken.com/learn/what-is-bored-ape-yacht-club
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Floor Price, Stats & Details. (2025). CoinGecko. https://www.coingecko.com/en/nft/bored-ape-yacht-club
Welcome to Yuga Labs, Home of BAYC, MAYC, Otherside. (n.d.). Yuga Labs. https://yuga.com/
Yuga Labs: The NFT Company Taking Over the Metaverse. (2022). NFT Now. https://nftnow.com/guides/yuga-labs-an-overview-of-the-nft-company-taking-over-the-metaverse/
ApeChain. (n.d.). L2BEAT. https://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/apechain
NFT Endorsed by Celebrities Prompts Class Action. (2022). Greenberg Traurig LLP. https://www.gtlaw-overheardontheblockchain.com/2022/12/27/nft-endorsed-by-celebrities-prompts-class-action/
Del Pino, V. (n.d.). Celebrity Owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs. Medium. https://medium.com/@delpino_victor/celebrity-owners-of-bored-ape-yacht-club-nfts-31241fcfe112