Bored Ape Yacht Club Floor Price Doubles to 10 ETH as Speculative Crypto Appetite Returns

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices have climbed from approximately 5 ETH to over 10 ETH over the past month, while ApeCoin has rallied from below $0.10 to around $0.16 on sharply higher trading volumes, according to data cited by CoinDesk. Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge attributed the gains in part to a valuation correction, saying prices had become disconnected from holder activity during the downturn. 

BAYC and ApeCoin Gains Coincided With Wider Crypto Market Rally 

The BAYC rebound coincided with broader gains in higher-volatility crypto segments, including memecoins, according to CoinDesk’s MemeCoin Select Index. Memecoins ranked among the best-performing digital asset sectors last week, outperforming DeFi tokens as traders rotated into higher-volatility assets. 

Figge, who took over as CEO of Yuga Labs last month after holding various executive roles at the company since 2022, attributed the BAYC price recovery in part to a valuation dislocation rather than purely renewed speculation. He told CoinDesk: 

“It’s clear from the numbers that for some time, as far as blue-chip digital collectibles go, it was oversold. You had this huge compression in price, but if you actually look at an overlay graph, unique holders were actually up.” 

Figge acknowledged the limits of that argument directly. “A cynic will say prices doubled and the unique holder count didn’t double,” he said. “But that’s really just recovery from a period where things fell disproportionately.”

Figge Points to DeFi Security Risks as Factor Behind Renewed NFT Interest 

Figge pointed to growing stress in DeFi as a contributing factor behind renewed NFT demand, referencing recent exploits and declining yields in DeFi lending as factors that have weighed on sentiment in that sector, referencing the security risk directly: 

“With one well-planned hack, you can lose it all. That has to get solved in DeFi, but it’s definitely made people rethink the idea that it’s the only use case.” 

Figge did not elaborate further on the DeFi comparison, but according to him, one data point circulating in that context was a $2.8 million NFT-backed loan tied to a CryptoPunk, with the lender set to earn approximately $138,000 in interest over 90 days. 

Pudgy Penguins Also Rallied as Traders Watched for a Potential OpenSea Token Launch

Other major collections also posted gains in the same period. Pudgy Penguins also posted strong gains in recent weeks, while traders speculated about a long-rumored OpenSea token launch that some have suggested could boost marketplace activity. 

In an essay published last week, pseudonymous NFT analyst ‘Van’ argued that while speculative activity largely collapsed after 2021, institutions including MoMA, Centre Pompidou, and LACMA have acquired blockchain-based artworks over the past four years. The essay attributed this claim to ongoing acquisitions and exhibitions. 

Yuga Labs Held More Than 30 In-Person Meetups Worldwide Over the Past Month

Figge said Yuga Labs has refocused on community-building efforts, including more than 30 in-person meetups worldwide over the past month. “A lot of what made Bored Ape work in the first place, the social layer, hasn’t really been serviced in recent years,” he said. “We’ve gone back to basics.” 

Figge stopped short of suggesting speculation has ceased to drive the market. “It would be naive to say financial speculation isn’t a huge driver,” he said. “Whatever happens in this cycle will rhyme with the last one, but it’s never going to be exactly the same.” Yuga Labs did not provide additional projections for BAYC floor price performance going forward.