The BAYC ecosystem
How the BAYC inspired a creative boom of derivative collections.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 randomly generated ape avatars that serve as membership tokens to an exclusive club. Since their creation, two extensive roadmaps have brought holders an abundance of utility and reward. Apes have received two airdrops including a free Bored Ape Kennel Club and a Mutant Ape Yacht Club, both NFTs with values ranging in the thousands. Furthermore, owners have had the chance to purchase exclusive merch and attend events, namely the Apefest held in NYC which saw live performances and a party on a real-life yacht. Their roadmap 2.0 is only set to extend this value with plans for a token, a DAO, and they have also partnered with Animoca Brands to produce a blockchain NFT game.
Since their creation in April, the value of apes has skyrocketed from a 0.08 mint price to a floor that is now above 50 ETH, with some apes even reaching valuations of millions. This week, NFT photographer John Knopf sold his ape for 347 ETH after holding the NFT for over 8 months, clearly illustrating the extent to which apes have exploded in value. So much so that high profile celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon and DJ Khaled have aped in, as well as a recent partnership with corporate giant Adidas. Evidently, the BAYC has the capacity to reach a mainstream audience, much further than the crypto and NFT world.
Perhaps of most value, and what sets the BAYC aside from most other projects is its stance on licensing and commercial rights. The BAYC grants its holders complete access to use and monetize their NFTs. Subsequently, it has enabled the project to flourish, where the community has taken the illustrations into their own hands and extended the ecosystem through their own, derivative sub-projects. Essentially, holding a bored ape allows you to create a business around your asset, whether or not you choose to do so, it has seen the project grow extensively.
Since April, a number of projects have emerged, taking full advantage of their commercial rights to the apes that they own. In this article, we will discuss a number of prominent derivative collections and ideas that have stemmed directly from the BAYC.
AIP
APE-IN productions is an artist-owned entertainment company co-founded by grammy winner Timbaland, and a team of BAYC members. The brand is set to amplify, launch, and promote Bored Apes as successful music artists in the metaverse and so far they have released two tracks. The hip-hop group named TheZoo was the first to have their song released as an NFT with Apesh!t and following this, the second track “Take Off”, was released. AIP has future plans for exciting collaborations and bringing token holders opportunities to participate at the highest levels of creative media.
TBAC
The Boring Ape Chronicles is a collection created by renowned NFT artist Timpers, and recently joined by his twin brother Insight. The project is comprised of 6 interconnected artworks that each depict a pixelated and vibrant world. Additionally, there are 6 chapters of lore that amount to over 5000 words, further bringing the adventure to life.
The story revolves around the bored apes who embark on a quest in search of the sacred artifact, the diamond fleece. Across the 6 episodes, they encounter danger, magic and suspenseful locations, all of which are brought to life by the rich lore. The collection is limited to just 100 editions in the first series making the NFTs scarce and sought after, but the journey does not end there.
Holders of the collection are set to be rewarded with the diamond fleece NFT, a 3D model of the sacred artifact, a TBAC merch baseball cap, a collectors edition eBook, an animated production, a series 2 reserve, and they will also gain exclusive access to Timpers genesis pfp project Chimpers, a collection of 100 1/1 avatars, and the first pfp project he has worked on outside of the prominent pixel art project Nouns.
Myth division
Myth division is a company that creates animations, comics, film, and television with 20+ years of experience in Hollywood and now they are invested in BAYC & NFTs. With a team that has helped manage multi-billion dollar IP franchises before, they are one of the most experienced creative teams to utilize the BAYC commerical rights. The first series of the comic reflects on the origin story of Ape #5636 and documents the journey of the American Ape as he searches for the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Jenkins the Valet: The Writer’s Room
The Writer’s Room is one of the most exciting experimentations with the ape IP that takes 6,942 non-fungible tokens, each of which gives holders voting rights and acknowledgment in a generative story book. Apes and mutants can choose to license their NFTs in the book in return for a continuous fee, generated from the revenue of the book.
There are different tiers of voting power that holders can enter, a valet ticket that gives 5 votes, a yacht key that gives 10 votes, a valet stand that gives 50 votes, and a yacht that gives 215 votes. Across these levels, the integration of your ape also differs starting from being acknowledged in the book, featuring in the game, featuring as an extra, and lastly featuring as a character in the book.
Subsequently, all of these factors present holders with a unique position to contribute to the creation process of the book, taking them from a consumer to a contributor.
The first iteration of Jenkins the Valet will be a full-length fictional story written by award-winning author Neil Strauss, but there are plans for expansion across a multitude of mediums in the near future.
Apesthetics
Apesthetics is one of the first luxury, streetwear fashion brands that combine the physical with digital in their products. Founded by the ape connaisseur Dfarmer, he has invested in a vast collection of apes to support his brand. The genesis cheetah gang drop was comprised of 250 hoodies and sold out within minutes, since then his series has continued with Pimp Gang, the Bowler Gang and many more are on the way. Every clothing item comes with a Kong Silo chip and is therefore equipped with its own unique smart contract sewn into the fabric. Like NFTs, this enables its owners to verify the product’s authenticity, an exciting crossroads between tech and merchandise.
The Red Ape Family
From a pfp to an animated comedy sitcom, The Red Ape Family is the first-ever NFT that takes bored apes into a sitcom series where 4 red apes, a dog, and a lazy lion embark on a mission to Mars. The team is comprised of entrepreneurs and creatives as well as executive producer 2 Chainz, a renowned American rapper. Additionally, they offer a number of benefits to their token holders including distributing streaming revenue to holders, opportunities to win NFTs, the chance to feature your ape, merch, and airdops.
SurrealApes
Surreal Apes are a new machine-generated, BAYC derivate collection created by well-known Twitter banner creator and ape holder Gerry, as well as FancyRats, Dejen, & Asherah. Their collection launched just 3 days ago and has already gained traction in the ape community with the giveaway transforming 10 lucky apes into surreal apes. Burning a Mint-Pass generates a Surreal Ape and Mint-Passes will be released in Limited Editions 100/100.
Bored Ape Comic
The Bored Ape Comic was one of the first BAYC derivate collections to hit the blockchain with their first issue comprised of 10,000 copies, a chromium, gold, and silver set of editions that all sold out. Since then they have created a radio show, held giveaways, and are currently in the process of rebranding as well as creating their second issue ready for the metaverse!
Bored Wine Co
Bored Wine Co is the first wine brand that utilizes the Bored Ape illustrations in its beverage product. The NFT is a digital image backed by real physical wines stored in a bonded warehouse in London, UK. Additionally, the brand is developing a wearable based on the wine bottle design that can be displayed in the metaverse. Currently, they are releasing a rare mutant vintage into the world, where holders can mutate their wine NFT!
Yawn of the apes
YOTA is a series of animated shorts inspired by the BAYC and created by ape member Hunter_NFT. They have acquired OG status as one of the earliest Bored Ape-inspired collections and since their launch in June, they have produced 3 episodes on Youtube and continue to grow their series!
Bored Vibes
Created by renowned Bored ape collector and Dreamworks animator PaperD, Bored Vibes is one of his most popular derivative collections on OpenSea that combines both Bored apes and crypto toadz by supergremplin. The art is an example of what can be achieved when collections open up their IP, and since then, his derivative NFTs have become popular amongst the BAYC community.
There are a number of collections in the BAYC ecosystem that currently exist, and they may not have been mentioned in this article. If you have any honorable mentions, make sure to comment them down below!