bored ape yacht club #4988

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Madonna Joins the Bored Ape Yacht Club: ‘I Finally Entered the MetaVerse’

"My very own Ape! What should I name her ?" Madonna wrote.

By Anna Chan

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Madonna has aped in. The Material Girl announced on Thursday (March 24) that she is now the proud owner of a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT — Bored Ape No. 4988, to be specific.

“I finally entered the MetaVerse …,………..My very own Ape! What should I name her ? … We all need protection from Evil Eye,” the pop superstar captioned an image of her Ape on Instagram. Her BAYC ape features the sleeveless logo T-shirt, S&M hat and eyes on its magenta body, and per Madonna, was acquired with the help of crypto startup MoonPay.

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According to OpenSea — a popular NFT marketplace — Ape No. 4988 was purchased by MoonPay on March 14. The price? A whopping 180 ETH, which converts to about $560,000 at press time.

Like many Bored Ape holders, the seven-time Grammy winner is now using her Ape as her Twitter profile picture.

Trending on Billboard

Madonna’s got another tie to the BAYC beyond owning one of the characters. Her manager, Guy Oseary, also represents Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, which was recently valued at an astounding $4 billion . The BAYC is one of the most successful NFT projects to date. It launched April 29, 2021, at .08 ETH (about $250 today) and sold out two days later. The current floor price, per OpenSea? 103 ETH — or $322,100.

More and more celebrities have been hopping on the NFT bandwagon as of late, with BAYC being a popular choice. In November, Post Malone spent more than $700,000 on Bored Apes Nos. 9039 and 961. Marshmello, Steve Aoki, The Chainsmokers, Lil Baby, Timbaland and many others are also among BAYC collectors. Timba has also created a BAYC metaverse entertainment brand called Ape-In Productions , which will use Bored Apes to perform music and sell items as NFTs .

NFT enthusiast Snoop Dogg bought Death Row Records — his former label — in February and announced shortly after that it would be an NFT label . “We will be putting out artists through the metaverse,” said the rapper during a Clubhouse chat. “Just like [Death Row] broke the industry when we was the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse.”

See Madonna’s Bored Ape announcement below:

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbgbbnjKSh8/

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“Queen of Pop” Madonna Picks Up Bored Ape #4988

by Eric Esposito March 26, 2022, 11:26 am

Madonna just crossed the “borderline” into the BAYC.

On March 24th, singer-songwriter Madonna revealed on Instagram that she purchased Bored Ape #4988 .

Madonna told her 17.8 million Instagram followers she “finally entered the metaverse” with her BAYC purchase. She also asked for suggestions on what to name Bored Ape #4988. Lastly, Madonna thanked the fiat-to-crypto platform MoonPay for helping her nab this valuable NFT. 

According to The Bored Ape Gazette , MoonPay bought Bored Ape #4988 on Madonna’s behalf for 180 ETH on March 14th. At the time of sale, Bored Ape #4988 cost roughly $464,400. MoonPay transferred this DMT fur Bored Ape into Madonna’s OpenSea wallet on March 23rd. 

There have been rumors Madonna was getting ready to join the Bored Ape Yacht Club for some time now. On January 3rd, BAYC member Lindsey Byrnes tweeted the image of Bored Ape #3756 and suggested it would be an ideal fit for Madonna’s Web3 avatar. Fourteen days later, Madonna wrote back saying she liked Byrnes’ pick and asked how she should proceed.  

Interestingly, Madonna’s manager Guy Oseary officially announced he’s representing the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s founder Yuga Labs. In addition to the BAYC, Oseary has made partnerships with other prominent NFT collections like the World of Women (WoW). 

Speaking of WoW, Madonna recently appeared as a WoW-styled avatar in Billboard’s “Women in Music” NFT series. Auctioned on the crypto exchange FTX US, this series featured three one-of-one NFTs designed by WoW’s head artist Yam Karkai. The other two Billboard NFTs had images of Christina Aguilera and Mariah Carey. 

Madonna is not the first celebrity to use MoonPay’s service to add a Bored Ape to her portfolio. Rappers like Snoop Dogg and Lil Baby have bought their BAYC NFTs with the help of MoonPay. There are even rumors Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk may have used MoonPay to purchase the gold fur Bored Ape #1837 for $1.5 million.

How does Madonna’s Bored Ape #4988 rank on Rarity Sniper?  

Within the 10,000 NFTs in the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Bored Ape #4988 is relatively rare. Rarity Sniper gives Madonna’s new NFT a respectable rank of 3794 and a Rarity Score of 1408.77.

Arguably, the defining feature of Bored Ape #4988 is its DMT fur, which occurs in 2.15 percent of the entire BAYC collection. Although DMT fur is a distinctive attribute, it’s not the rarest aspect of Bored Ape #4988. Bored Ape #4988’s black sleeveless logo T-shirt only appears in 144 other Bored Ape NFTs. 

A few features that bring down Bored Ape #4988’s score are its orange background, lack of earrings, and total trait count. Over 50 percent of Bored Ape NFTs have six traits, including Bored Ape #4988. 

Even though Bored Ape #4988 isn’t the “rarest” in the BAYC, any Bored Ape NFT is highly desirable nowadays. The BAYC still ranks as the most traded collection on OpenSea, and the floor price remains over $300,000.

© 2022 Rarity Sniper

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Celebrities That Own Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs

Here are the bored ape yacht club nfts owned by celebrities.

With massive hype around non-fungible tokens, many celebrities have “aped” into the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC). This collection of NFTs is by far the most popular in terms of volume, with the Mutant Apes and CryptoPunks following in its wake. As the hype around Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) intensifies, a growing number of enthusiasts contend that it wields even greater influence than the legendary CryptoPunk collection. BAYC has even gone so far as to host exclusive events for token holders, including a private concert in New York City featuring none other than Lil Baby and The Strokes.

Whether you're keen to buy a Bored Ape or eager to discover why NFTs are so valuable, this is your chance to delve into the exhilarating world of NFTs and unlock their incredible potential.

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Celebrity Bored Ape Owners

According to Tripsters, a derivative Bored Ape NFT project, Tom Brady is new the owner of Bored Ape #3667. According to on-chain data, Bored Ape #3667 was purchased for 133ETH before being transferred to the current wallet that holds it. The ape ranks as the 4,252nd rarest in the collection of 10,000.

Madonna purchased her first ape on March 14th, 2022. According to on-chain data, Madonna’s Bored Ape #4988 was purchased for 180 ETH, costing her over $500,000. Madonna currently uses her Bored Ape #4988 as her profile picture on Twitter. Some notable traits of Madonna’s ape include a quirky shirt and pink fur with blue eyes.

Aussie basketball player Ben Simmons joins the NFT space by purchasing Bored Ape #5164, adding to a sizeable NFT collection spread across two wallets. Simmons paid 100 ETH for Bored Ape #5164.

Justin Bieber purchased his first ape on January 29th, 2022 kicking off a new wave of volume in the market. Bieber’s purchase was questioned by the NFT community as he paid around 4x the “market value” assessed based on the item’s attributes and rarities. Justin seemingly didn’t care that his ape wasn’t the most rare – or that it was listed for 500ETH – he bought it anyways.

The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon recently joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Some notable traits of Fallon’s ape include a Blue background (12% of Apes), Navy Striped Tee (3%), Heart sunglasses (4%), Cream fur (6%) and Sea Captain’s hat (3%). Jimmy Fallon bought his Ape for 46.6 ETH in collaboration with crypto app Moonpay . Moonpay is a platform that allows users to easily buy NFTs without needing to use DApps like Opensea.

Singer and song writer Post Malone recently acquired 2 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for over $700,000. His purchase is featured in his recent music video with The Weeknd. Post Malone currently uses his Bored Ape #961 as his profile picture on Twitter. Some notable traits of Post’s ape include zombie fur and a cowboy hat.

Soccer star Neymar Jr of Paris Saint-Germain joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #6633. He bought his ape for 160 Ether, or about $400,000 at the time. Some notable traits of Neymar’s ape are Part Hat #2, Bubble Gum mouth, and holographic eyes.

Celebrity comedian and actor Kevin Hart joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club in January with ape #9258. He purchased the ape for 79.5 ETH, which cost Hart around $200,000 at the time. Hart’s ape features a spinner hat, ooo mouth, and angry eyes.

American personality and actress Paris Hilton recently joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club with ape #1294. As an advisor for prominent NFT protocols, Hilton’s been a long-time enthusiast of the space. Hilton purchased her ape for 119 ETH, or around $275,000 at the time.

American rapper and NFT collector Snoop Dogg owns a full set of BAYC, MAYC (M1 and M2) as well as a Bored Ape Kennel Club. Snoop Dogg, also knwon by his alias Cozomomedici on Twitter, also owns CryptoPunks, Artblocks, XCOPY and many other high-value NFTs.

Los Angeles Rams Linebacker Von Miller bought Bored Ape #4733 for 25 Ethereum. Some notable traits of Miller’s Ape include white fur, robot eyes and a cowboy hat. Miller also owns Ape #1432 which was transferred, presumably as a gift, from NFL athlete Dez Bryant.

American Rapper Dominique Armani Jones, known by most as Lil Baby, owns both a Mutant Ape and Bored Ape in his NFT collection. He shared his purchases with his 5.8 million Twitter followers, and he currently uses his Mutant Ape as his profile picture on Twitter. Lil Baby purchased his Bored Ape for 38 Ethereum, and it is now estimated to be worth around 70 Ethereum, or $300,000 at the time of writing.

Production American DJ duo The Chainsmokers were among the earliest celebrities to add a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT to their collection. This Cheetah Fur Bored Ape was purchased for 55 Ether, and the Duo uses it as their profile picture on Twitter. The artists bought their Bored Ape for 55 Ethereum, or about $225,000 at the time of writing.

NBA Star of The Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry has aped into the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #7990. He purchased his Ape  for 55 ETH. Notable traits include blue fur, zombie eyes and a tweed suit. Curry currently uses his Bored Ape as his Twitter profile picture.

Drake Bell, from the T.V show Drake and Josh, owns a Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT. He also owns the ENS domain name DrakeBell.eth, and his Twitter profile handle displays his ENS Domain name.

Venture Capitalist and Managing Director of Boost VC Adam Draper purchased Bored Ape #9132 and uses it as his Twitter profile picture. He recently tweeted that he wants to fund founders that own Bored Apes, showing his support for the community. Draper’s Ape was purchased for 54 Ethereum, which is over $200,000 in USD.

EDM artist Steve Aoki owns several NFTs, including a CryptoPunk and Bored Ape Yacht Club. He’s also released his own NFT collection and has been involved in the NFT community longer than most celebrity Ape owners. Aoki purchased BAYC #8716 for 49 Ethereum. Notable traits on Aoki’s ape include said eyes, lumberjack shirt and fisherman’s hat.

Owner of the Dallas Mavericks and esteemed billionaire Mark Cuban has voiced his support for cryptocurrencies, and he’s recently gotten into NFTs, too. Cuban owns Bored Ape Yacht Club #1597 which was given to him as a gift. The estimated value of Cuban’s ape is $250,000 at the time of writing. Some notable traits of Cuban’s Ape include Cheetah fur, BAYC flipped brim hat and a Hawaiian shirt.

Timothy Zachery Mosley, also known as Timbaland, has joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Ape #590. The artists is an American musician, producer and songwriter. He recently partnered with BAYC to create a metaverse production company, “Ape In Productions.” Timbaland bought his Ape for 74.69 Ethereum, which is over $300,000 at the time of writing.

Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal, better known as Shaq, is a retired NBA star and celebrity influencer. Shaq has also purchased “Creatures” NFT which he’s shown off to his 15+ million Twitter followers. O’Neal has aped into the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which is Bored Ape Yacht Club’s 3rd collection, after the Bored Ape Kennel Club. He purchased his Ape for 4.8 ETH, which equates roughly to $20,000.

 NFL star and Denver Broncos Wide receiver Dez Bryant aped into the Bored Ape Yacht Club with Bored Ape #2902 which was transferred to him, presumably as a gift. This transaction occurred 5 months ago – at the time, Apes were selling for around 10 ETH. Today, Bryant’s ape is worth around 60 Ether, which is around $250,000. Notable traits on Ape #2902 include cheetah fur, sunglasses and king crown.

EDM artist and DJ Marshmello was an earlier adopter of NFTs. Not only does he own both a CryptoPunk and Bored Ape, but he has released several NFT collections for his fans. Marshmello bought a rare ape, which cost him about 75 Ether. Notable traits on his Ape include 3D glasses, a multicolor grin and bones tee.

Influencer and YouTuber Logan Paul has been vocal about his NFT collection on Twitter. He owns multiple CryptoPunks, and he’s aped into multiple Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, too. Paul bought his Ape for 34 Ether, and it’s estimated to be worth more than double this amount in Ether tokens today. Notable traits of Paul’s Ape include DMT fur, 3D glasses and a captain hat.

Dimitri Leslie Roger, better known as Rich the Kid, is an American rapper with over 8 million followers on Instagram. He flexes his Ape as both his instagram and twitter profile pictures. Roger also owns a Mutant Ape, which he previously used as his profile picture on social media. Notable traits on Roger’s Ape include black fur, crazy eyes and a black holes tee.

Future is widely regarded as one of the founding fathers of the “trap” genre dominating the music industry today. The mega-influencer aped in on November 28, 2021 with BAYC#4672. Future also picked up a Doodle and a Meta Birkin. Future is no stranger to spending large sums of money on luxury items. On Future’s episode of Sneaker Shopping with Complex, the father of 6 spent over $38,000 on a single trip to Barney’s. Future has been flexing his NFTs all over Twitter, and it seems like he’s really excited about what’s to come.

DJ Khaled is a pop sensation know for bringing together some of the biggest celebrities in the industry on his records. Khaled is an iconic figure known for his love of saying things like “we tha best” and “anotha one”. Khaled’s Ape was purchased by MoonPay and gifted to him in December 2021. Now that he’s into NFTs, he’s gonna want…

Detroit-native rapper Marshall Mathers is the first rapper to go platinum in 4 separate decades. It’s hard to understate his influence, but even Em’ couldn’t resist picking up a Bored Ape. Eminem purchased the Ape from Twitter user @ Gee__Gazza , who had been publicly hoping that Marshall would one day be the owner. At the very start of 2022, his dream became a reality when Em scooped it up from him for a measly 123.45 ETH, worth over $400,000 at the time of purchase.

Grammy nominated Philly-native rapper Meek Mill has been excited about web3 lately. Meek started off his 2022 with a brand new Bored Ape. He also teased that his next album might be available only as an NFT.

What do you get when you combine a Bored Ape and a Mega Mutant Serum? Ethereum co-founder Taylor Gerring decided to find out. For only $3.5 million, tgerring.eth purchased one of the four remaining Mega Mutant Serums. These Serums were airdropped to Bored Ape holders for free and can be used to create a brand new Mutant Ape. Most of the Serums were “M1” and “M2” which produced the vast majority of Mutants on the market. However, there were 12 legendary “Mega Mutant” Serums that spawned Mega Mutants. These Mega Mutant Serums are the highest sales of any item in the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem, and they are generating a lot of hype for the Mutants.

Alexis Ohanian is the co-founder of Reddit and husband of Tennis legend Serena Williams. Ohanian has been busy with Web3 and founding a new Web3-focused venture capital fund, seven seven six, to help develop the exploding industry. Alexis joined the Bored Ape Yacht Club back in June of 2021 with BAYC#8121. As an avid collector of trading cards, Ohanian has been obsessed with NFTs lately, adding BAYC#882 to his portfolio recently.

Lamelo Ball has become one of only two NBA players – the other being Josh Hart – to possess two Bored Apes. His collection consists of Bored Ape No. 598 and No. 7226.

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THE BORED APE GAZETTE

#1 name in bored ape news .

• Mar 24, 2022

Madonna Aped Into The Bored Ape Yacht Club Via Moonpay. Find Out About Her Ape:

Madonna announced that she joined the bored ape yacht club on her instagram thursday evening., “i have finally entered the metaverse,” the material girl wrote along with a derivative version of her bored ape. “my very own ape thanks @moonpay. we all need protection from evil eye.”.

Madonna’s ape is Bored Ape #4988 . Bored Ape #4988 is a six trait DMT primate with a sleeveless logo tee, an s&m hat and a bored cigarette mouth. Based on these traits, Bored Ape #4988 is the 3436th most rare ape, according to Rarity Tools.

As Madonna said in her Instagram post, the pop star was onboarded into the BAYC by Moonpay. Moonpay purchased Madonna’s ape 10 days ago for 180 Eth, according to Opensea data. The company then transferred the DMT ape to Madonna’s wallet two days ago.

Madonna has been interested in joining the BAYC for a while. As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, Madonna replied to BAYC member Lindsey Byrnes’ tweet regarding the perfect ape for her.

“hi @madonna i’ve been saving this one for you #justifymylove /// @boredapeyc,” byrnes tweeted on january 3rd., two weeks after byrnes' tweet, the queen of pop replied to brynes and asked about the next steps. “@lindseybyrnes i’m glad you saved it for me, madonna tweeted on january 17th. “ape well chosen. now what”.

Madonna is just the latest artist to join the swamp thanks to Moonpay. As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalfia, Lil Baby, among several other entertainers have been onboarded by the crypto payment company.

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Bored Ape Yacht Club Launches BMW and Canned Beer Collabs!

• By Owen Skelton
• September 6, 2024

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is elevating its well-known NFT collection to a whole new level with two exciting new collaborations. The first initiative BAYC has undertaken is partnering with the German luxury automobile manufacturer BMW to launch a Bored Ape branded luxury car.

At the same time, the Bored Ape Yacht Club is entering the beverage market through a new partnership with Bored Ape Brewing Company . 

What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection comprises 10,000 unique NFTs that were hand-drawn by artists and that share a number of traits that make them distinct and different from one another.  Apart from their worth as digital art, Bored Apes also serve as tickets to an elite community. Owning one grants access to the various events, exclusive merchandising opportunities, and other perks.

BAYC has rapidly developed into a powerful brand that reaches well beyond the confines of a mere collection of NFTs. Yuga Labs the studio behind BAYC has shrewdly expanded the brand by collaborating with various industries, making Bored Apes more than just digital avatars. They have evolved into an exclusive lifestyle brand by bridging the gap between digital art and physical products

New Bored Ape NFT-Branded Items

Among BAYC’s latest ventures is its partnership with the luxury automobile maker BMW to create a Bored Ape-themed car that promises to thrill car fanatics and BAYC members alike. A collaboration between BMW and BAYC signals a whole new era for NFT-themed real-world luxury items and merges BAYC’s cutting-edge aesthetics with BMW’s renowned craftsmanship.

In addition, BAYC has partnered with the Bored Ape Brewing Co. to produce a canned beer showcasing the apes’ distinctive designs. The art on the cans is as creative as the Apes themselves, and they are their own collector’s items. Whether or not you’re a craft beer fan, these products offer a way to experience the Bored Ape culture in a new, refreshing way.

The latest collection of branded items also features fashion , apparel, and accessories. Each item in this impressive offering was purposefully designed to highlight the BAYC’s exclusivity and well-earned reputation for creativity.

Previous Partnerships

The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s ventures into branded products is part of a well-crafted strategy, not just random acts of branding. For several years, BAYC has been forming partnerships with big-name companies.

Adidas : As part of their “ Into the Metaverse ” collaboration, adidas launched limited edition sneakers featuring Bored Ape Designs. The partnership brought together the realms of fashion, sports, and digital art to establish Bored Apes as a cultural force.

Universal Music Group : BAYC’s influence in the music industry began when Universal Music Group created the virtual band “ Kingship ,” which is made up of avatars of Bored Ape characters. This was the brand’s first foray into the world of virtual entertainment.

Coinbase : BAYC partnered with Coinbase to announce an animated trilogy of short films based on the club’s NFTs and the overall BAYC storyline.

The brand collaboration have not just enhanced BAYC’s visibility; they have also elevated its influence across different sectors.

The Cultural Significance of BAYC

The emergence of products branded with Bored Apes is more than just an expansion into new markets. It’s a statement on the brand’s cultural authority. Some of the biggest names in entertainment have been instrumental in boosting the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s profile. Snoop Dogg , Eminem , and Steph Curry have all showcased their apes. These high-profile endorsements have helped to elevate Bored Apes to the status of cultural symbols.

In its essence, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has become a digital and real-world luxury symbol, with merchandise that spans from automobiles to alcoholic beverages and fashion. Each item reflects the unique and creative spirit of the BAYC community,and we can only anticipate which exciting collaborations lie ahead.

Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by  Owen Skelton .

Owen Skelton is an experienced journalist and editor with a passion for delivering insightful and engaging content. As Editor-in-Chief, he leads a talented team of writers and editors to create compelling stories that inform and inspire.

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How Four NFT Novices Created a Billion-Dollar Ecosystem of Cartoon Apes

By Samantha Hissong

Samantha Hissong

J ust last year, the four thirtysomethings behind Bored Ape Yacht Club — a collection of 10,000 NFTs, which house cartoon primates and unlock the virtual world they live in — were living modest lifestyles and working day jobs as they fiddled with creative projects on the side. Now, they’re multimillionaires who made it big off edgy, haphazardly constructed art pieces that also act as membership cards to a decentralized community of madcaps. What’s more punk rock than that?

The phenomenal nature of it all has to do with the recent appearance, all over the internet, of images of grungy apes with unimpressed expressions on their faces and human clothes on their sometimes-multicolored, sometimes-metal bodies. Most of the apes look like characters one might see in a comic about hipsters in Williamsburg — some are smoking and some have pizza hanging from their lips, while others don leather jackets, beanies, and grills. The core-team Apes describe the graffiti-covered bathroom of the club itself — which looks like a sticky Tiki bar — in a way that echoes that project’s broader mission: “Think of it as a collaborative art experiment for the cryptosphere.” As for the pixel-ish walls around the virtual toilet, that’s really just “a members-only canvas for the discerning minds of crypto Twitter,” according to a blurb on the website, which recognizes that it’s probably “going to be full of dicks.”

(Full-disclosure: Rolling Stone just announced a partnership with the Apes and is creating a collectible zine — similar to what the magazine did with Billie Eilish — and NFTs.)

“I always go balls to the wall,” founding Ape Gordon Goner tells Rolling Stone over Zoom. Everything about Goner, who could pass for a weathered 30 or a young 40, screams “frontman,” from his neck tattoo to his sturdy physique to the dark circles under his eyes and his brazen attitude. He’s a risk taker: Back during his gambling-problem days, he admits he’d “kill it at the tables” and then lose it all at the slot machines on the way to the car. He’s also the only one in the group that wasn’t working a normal nine-to-five before the sudden tsunami of their current successes — and that’s because he’s never had a “real job. Not bad for a high school dropout,” he says through a smirk. Although Goner and his comrades’ aesthetic and rapport mirror that of a musical act freshly thrust into stardom, they’re actually the creators of Yuga Labs, a Web3 company. 

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Goner and his partners in creative crime — Gargamel, No Sass, and Emperor Tomato Ketchup — were inspired by the communities of crypto lovers that have blossomed on platforms like Twitter in recent years. Clearly, people with this once-niche interest craved a destination to gather, discuss blockchain-related developments, and hurl the most inside of inside jokes. Why not, they thought, give NFT collectors their own official home? And Bored Ape Yacht Club was born.

This summer, 101 of Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club tokens, which were first minted in early May, resold for $24.4 million in an auction hosted by the fine-art house Sotheby’s. Competitor Christie’s followed shortly thereafter, auctioning off an art collectors’ haul of modern-day artifacts — which included four apes — for $12 million. Around the same time, one collector bought a single token directly from OpenSea — kind of like eBay for NFTs — for $2.65 million. A few weeks later, another Sotheby’s sale set a new auction record for the most-valuable single Bored Ape ever sold: Ape number 8,817 went for $3.4 million. At press time, tokens related to the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem — this includes the traditional apes, but also things called “mutant” apes and the apes’ pets — had generated around $1 billion. “My name’s not even Gordon,” says Goner, who, like the rest of Yuga Labs’ inner circle, chooses to hide his true identity behind a quirky pseudonym. “Gordon Goner just sounded like Joey Ramone. And that made it sound like I was in a band called the Goners. I thought that was fucking cool. But when we first started, I kept asking, ‘Are we the Beastie Boys of NFTs?’ Because, right after our initial success it felt like the Beastie Boys going on tour with Madonna: Everyone was like, ‘Who the fuck are these kids?’ ” (Funnily enough, Madonna’s longtime manager, Guy Oseary, signed on to rep the foursome about a month after Goner made this comment to Rolling Stone .) He’s referring to the commotion that immediately followed the first few days of Bored Ape Yacht Club’s existence, when sales were dismal. “Things were moving so slowly in that weeklong presale,” recalls Goner’s more soft-spoken colleague, Emperor Tomato Ketchup. “I think we made something between $30,000 and $60,000 total in sales. And then, overnight, it exploded. All of us were like, ‘Oh fuck, this is real now.’ ” The 10,000 tokens — each originally priced at 0.08 Ethereum (ETH), around $300 — had sold out. While the crypto community may have been asking who they were, the general public started wondering what all the fuss was about. Even Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry started using his ape as his Twitter profile picture, for all of his 15.5 million followers to behold. 

Bored Ape art isn’t as valuable as it is because it’s visually pleasing, even though it is. It’s valuable because it also serves as a digital identity — for which its owner receives commercial usage rights, meaning they can sell any sort of spinoff product based on the art. The tokens, meanwhile, act like ID cards that give the owners access to an online Soho House of sorts — just a nerdier, more buck-wild one. Noah Davis, who heads up Christie’s online sales department for digital art, says that it’s the “perennial freebies and perks” that solidify the Bored Ape Yacht Club as “one of the most rewarding and coveted memberships.” “In the eyes of most — if not almost all of the art community — BAYC is completely misunderstood,” he says. However, within other tribes of pop culture, he continues, hugely prominent figures cherish the idea of having a global hub for some of the most “like-minded, tech-savvy, and forward-thinking individuals on the planet.” Gargamel is “a name I ridiculously gave myself based off the fact that my fiancée had never seen The Smurfs when we were launching this,” says Goner’s right-hand man, who looks kind of like a cross between the character he named himself after and an indie-music-listening liberal-arts school alum. He’s flabbergasted at the unexpected permanence of it all. “Now, I meet with CEOs of billion-dollar companies, and I’m like, ‘Hi, I’m Gargamel. What is it that you would like to speak to me about?’ ” 

The gang bursts out in laughter.

In conversing, Gargamel and Goner, whose relationship is the connective tissue that brought the others in, are mostly playful — but they do bicker, similar to how a frontman and lead guitarist might butt heads in learning to share the spotlight. They first met in their early twenties at a dive bar, in Miami, where they were both born and raised, and immediately started arguing about books. “He doesn’t like David Foster Wallace because he’s wrong about things,” Goner interjects, cheekily, as Gargamel attempts to tell their story. “He hasn’t even read Infinite Jest . He criticizes him, and yet he’s never read the book! He’s like, ‘Oh, it’s pretentious MFA garbage.’ No, it’s not.” Gargamel then points out that he has read other books by Wallace, while No Sass, who still hasn’t chimed in, flashes a half-smile that suggests they’ve been down this road more than once before. “I think, on the whole, he was the worst thing to happen to fucking MFA programs, given all the things people were churning out,” says Gargamel. They eventually decide to agree that Wallace, like J.D. Salinger, isn’t always interpreted correctly or taught well, and we move on — only after Goner points out the tattoos he got for Kurt Vonnegut and Charles Bukowski “at like 17,” but before diving too deep into postmodernist concepts. Goner and Gargamel’s relationship speaks to how the group operates as a whole, according to No Sass, whose name is self-explanatory. “There’s always a yin and yang going on,” he says. Throughout the call, No Sass continues to make sense of things and keep the others in check in an unwavering manner, positioning him as the backbone of the group — or our metaphorical drummer. “It’s like, I’ll come up with the idea that wins us the game,” Goner says, referencing his casino-traversing past. “And his job is to make sure we make it to the car park.” No Sass’ rhythm-section counterpart is clearly Tomato, the pseudo-band’s secret weapon who’s loaded with talent and harder to read. (He picked his name while staring at an album of the same name by English-French band Stereolab.) The project’s name, Bored Ape Yacht Club, represents a club for people who got rich quick by “aping in” — crypto slang for investing big in something unsure — and, thusly, are too bored to do anything but create memes and debate about analytics. The “yacht” part is coated in satire, given that the digital clubhouse the apes congregate in was designed to look like a dive bar in the swampy Everglades. 

Gargamel, whose college roommate started mining Bitcoin back in 2010, got Goner into crypto in 2017, when the latter was bedridden with an undisclosed illness, bored, and on his phone. “I knew he had a risk-friendly profile,” Gargamel says. “I said, ‘I’m throwing some money into some stupid shit here. You wanna get in this with me?’ He immediately took to it so hard, and we rode that euphoric wave of 2017 crypto up — and then cried all the way down the other side of the roller coaster.” At the start of 2021, they looked at modern relics like CryptoPunks and Hashmasks, which have both become a sort of cultural currency, and they looked at “crypto Twitter,” and wondered what would happen if they combined the collectible-art component with community membership via gamification. The idea was golden but they weren’t technologically savvy enough to know how to build the back end. So, Gargamel called up No Sass and Tomato, who both studied computer science at the same university he had attended for grad school. “I had no idea what was involved in the code for this,” Gargamel admits. “I read something that said something about Javascript, so I called them and said, ‘Do you guys know anything about Javascript?’ And that couldn’t be further from what you’re supposed to know.” While they were tech-savvy, No Sass and Tomato were not crypto-savvy. They both wrote their first lines of solidity code — a language for smart contracts — in February of this year. “I was like, ‘Just learn it! It’s going to be great. Let’s go,’ ” recalls Gargamel. “From a technical perspective, some of the stuff that we’ve built out has had relatively janky workflows, which people then seize upon, asking us how we did it,” says Tomato. “It’s actually stake-and-wire or whatever, but nobody else has done it.” A lot of “stress and fear” went into the first drop, according to No Sass: “We were constantly on the phone going, ‘Oh, shit, is this OK? Is it going to explode?’ ” He shakes his head. “I wish we still had simple NFT drops. We can pump those out superfast now.” “Every single thing we do scares the shit out of me,” adds Tomato.

They started out with unsharpened goals of capitalizing on a very clear trend. But a fter one particularly enervating night of incessant spitballing, Goner realized that all he really wanted was something to do and for like-minded people to talk to in an immersive, fantastical world. Virtual art was enticing, but it needed to do something too. “We’d see these NFT collections that didn’t have any utility,” Goner says. “That didn’t make any sense to me at the time, because you can cryptographically verify who owns these things. Why wouldn’t you offer some sort of utility?”

Gargamel told him the next day he loved the clubhouse idea so much that he’d want to do it even if it was a failure. They realized they just craved “a hilarious story to tell 10 years later,” Gargamel says. “I figured we’d say, ‘Yeah, we spent 40 grand and six months making a club for apes, but it didn’t go anywhere.’ And that’s how we actually started having fun in the process.” Goner chimes in: “Because at least we could say, ‘This is how we spent our summer. How ridiculous is that? We made the Bored Ape Yacht Club, and it was a total disaster.’ ”  Gargamel interjects to remind everyone that Tomato ended up reacting to their springtime victory by buying a Volvo, the memory of which incites another surge of laughter. They haven’t indulged in too many lavish purchases since then, but they all ordered Pelotons, Tomato bought a second Volvo, and they all paid their moms back for supporting them in becoming modern-day mad scientists. “I’ll never forget the night that we sold out,” says No Sass. “It was like two or three in the morning, and I hear my phone ring. I see that it’s Tomato and think something has gone terribly wrong. I pick up the phone and he’s like, ‘Dude, you need to wake up right now. We just made a million dollars.’ ” Nansen, a company that tracks blockchain analytics, reported that for one night Bored Ape Yacht Club had the most-used smart contract on Ethereum. “That’s absurd,” says Gargamel. “Uniswap [a popular network of decentralized finance apps] does billions and billions of transactions. But for that one night, we took over the world.” At press time, the foursome — let’s just go ahead and call them the Goners — had personally generated about $22 million from the secondary market alone. “Every time I talk to my parents about how this has blown up, they literally do not know what to say,” adds Tomato, whose mom started crying when he first explained what had happened.

Since its opening, the group has created pets for the apes via the Bored Ape Kennel Club, as well as the Mutant Ape Yacht Club. The latter was launched to expand the community to interested individuals who weren’t brave enough to “ape in” at the beginning: Yuga Labs unleashed 10,000 festering, bubbling, and/or oozing apes — complete with missing limbs and weird growths — via a surprise Dutch auction, which was used to deter bots from snatching up inventory by starting at a maximum price and working its way down. With a starting price of 3 ETH — or about $11,000 — this move opened up the playing field for about an hour, which is how long it took for the mutants to sell out. (The team also randomly airdropped 10,000 “serums,” which now pop up on OpenSea for tens of thousands of dollars, for pre-existing Apes to “drink” and thusly create zombified clones.) When they sold 500 tangible hats to ape-holders in June, the guys spent days packaging products in Gargamel’s mom’s backyard in Florida. “Immediately, some of them sold for thousands of dollars,” Gargamel exclaims. “It was a $25 hat. We were like, ‘Holy shit, we can be a Web3 streetwear brand. What does that even look like?’ ”

But the team is still searching for ways to create more value by building even more doors that the tokens can unlock. They recently surprised collectors with a treasure hunt; the winner received 5 ETH — worth more than $16,000 at press time — and another ape. And on Oct. 1, they announced the first annual Ape Fest, which runs from Oct. 31 through Nov. 6 and includse an in-person gallery party, yacht party, warehouse party, merch pop-up, and charity dinner in New York. Goner tells Rolling Stone that they’re currently discussing partnership ideas with multiple musical acts, but he refuses to reveal additional details in fear of jinxing things. Further down the line, the Goners see a future of interoperability, so that collectors can upload their apes into various corners of the metaverse: Hypothetically, an ape could appear inside a popular video game like Fortnite , and the user could dress it in digital versions of Bored Ape Yacht Club merch. “We want to encourage that as much as possible,” says Gargamel. “We’re making three-dimensional models of everybody’s ape now. But, y’know, making 10,000 perfect models takes a little bit of time.” At the start of the year, the guys had no idea their potentially disastrous idea would become a full-time job. They were working 14 hours a day to get the project up and running, and after the big drop, they decided to up that to 16 hours a day. “None of us have really slept in almost seven months now,” says Goner. “We’re teetering on burnout.” To avoid that, Yuga Labs has already put a slew of artists on staff and hired social media managers and Discord community managers, as well as a CFO. “We want to be a Web3 lifestyle company,” says Goner, who emphasizes that they’re still growing. “I’m a metaverse maximalist at this point. I think that Ready Player One experience is really on the cusp of happening in this world.” If Bored Ape Yacht Club is essentially this band of brothers’ debut album, there’s really no telling what their greatest hits will look like.

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A Blockchain Primer and Bored Ape Headscratcher – Podcast

Why in the world would a collection of nonfungible token (NFT) gorilla avatars called the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), run by 30-somethings using aliases like “Emperor Tomato Ketchup” and “No Sass” and adored by celebrities , spiral on up to a multibillion-dollar valuation (…and, by the way, how can you yourself get stinking crypto-rich?!)?

If you don’t have a clue, you might be one of the crypto-newbies for whom the New York Times recently pulled together its Latecomer’s Guide to Crypto and whom mutual funds companies are trying to ease into the brave new world.

You also might have a thousand questions that go beyond cartoon apes and get into the nitty-gritty of how cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies work and how to sidestep the associated cybersecurity risks.

Those risks are big, throbbing realities. The latest: Ronin, an Ethereum-linked blockchain platform for NFT-based video game Axie Infinity, on Tuesday put up a blog post advising that 173,600 ether tokens and 25.5 million USD coins – valued at nearly $620 million as of Tuesday – had been drained from its platform after an attacker used hacked private keys to forge two fake withdrawals last week.

According to Forbes , blockchain analytics firm Elliptic pegs it as the second-biggest hack ever.

New Technology, Old Hacks

Cryptocurrency and related technologies may be shiny new concepts, but the techniques crooks are using to drain them aren’t necessarily newfangled. As of its Wednesday update, Ronin said that it looks like the breach was pulled off with old-as-the-hills social engineering:

> “While the investigations are ongoing, at this point we are certain that this was an external breach. All evidence points to this attack being socially engineered, rather than a technical flaw.” —3/30/22 Ronin alert.

Dr. Lydia Kostopoulos, senior vice president of emerging tech insights at KnowBe4 , stopped by the Threatpost podcast to give us an overview of this brave new world of blockchain: a landscape of new technologies that are making wallets swell and shrink and hearts to flutter in dismay when such things as the Ronin hack transpire.

She shared her insights into everything from how such technologies work to what the associated cybersecurity risks are, including:

• How blockchain technologies, including NFTs, work.
• The cybersecurity risks that might emerge from the use of NFTs/cryptocurrency, including popular scams/social engineering attempts circulating today.
• Steps individuals/businesses can take to protect themselves.
• What is driving their popularity and if NFTs are here to stay.
• Regulations on blockchain technology.

You’ve heard it a thousand times before, but Dr. Kostopoulos says it’s real: Blockchain technology is transformative. Look out for state-backed currencies and blockchain-enabled voting that can’t be tampered with, for starters. Look for NFT invitations to artists’ performances that keep giving as those artists reward their ticket holders with future swag. And for the love of Pete, don’t lose your cold wallets if you want to keep your crypto safe.

If you don’t yet know what a cold wallet is, definitely have a listen!

You can download the podcast below or listen here . For more podcasts, check out Threatpost’s podcast site .

Moving to the cloud? Discover emerging cloud-security threats along with solid advice for how to defend your assets with our FREE downloadable eBook ***, “Cloud Security: The Forecast for 2022.”*** We explore organizations’ top risks and challenges, best practices for defense, and advice for security success in such a dynamic computing environment, including handy checklists.

traffic.libsyn.com/digitalunderground/032522_KnowBe4_Lydia_mixdown_2.mp3

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economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/cryptocurrency/crypto-investment-in-mutual-funds-style-mudrex-launches-coin-sets/articleshow/87099763.cms?from=mdr

media.kasperskycontenthub.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/103/2022/03/30153635/Bored-Ape-Yacht-Club-NFT-scaled-e1648669046321.jpeg

roninblockchain.substack.com/p/community-alert-ronin-validators?s=w

threatpost.com/microsite/threatpost-podcasts-going-beyond-the-headlines/

www.coingecko.com/en/nft/bored-ape-yacht-club

www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/active-investor/beyond-bitcoin

www.forbes.com/sites/jonathanponciano/2022/03/29/second-biggest-crypto-hack-ever-600-million-in-ethereum-stolen-from-nft-gaming-blockchain/?sh=280f0f0c2686

www.knowbe4.com/

www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/03/18/technology/cryptocurrency-crypto-guide.html

www.vanityfair.com/news/2022/02/bored-ape-yacht-club-revealed