Economic news

Bored Ape NFT company raises around $285 million of crypto in virtual land sale

2022.05.01 17:05

Bored Ape NFT company raises around $285 million of crypto in virtual land sale
FILE PHOTO: A representation of cryptocurrency Ethereum is seen next to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of Yuga Labs “Bored Ape Yacht Club” collection displayed on its website, in this illustration picture taken March 24, 2022. REUTERS/Florence Lo/Illustration

By Elizabeth Howcroft

LONDON (Reuters) – The company behind the “Bored Ape” series of NFTs has raised around $285 million worth of cryptocurrency by selling tokens which represent land in a virtual world game it says it is building.

Last year, U.S. start-up Yuga Labs created the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, blockchain-based tokens representing a set of 10,000 computer-generated cartoon apes.

As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – crypto assets that represent digital files such as images, video, or items in an online game – exploded in popularity, Bored Ape prices surged to fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

They became one of the most prominent NFT brands, with Apes sold at top auction houses and owned by celebrities including Paris Hilton and Madonna.

Now, Yuga Labs – which raised $450 million in March in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz – has set its sights on the so-called “metaverse”.

In an online sale on April 30, Yuga Labs sold NFTs called “Otherdeeds”, which it said could be exchanged as plots of virtual land in a future Bored Ape-themed online environment called “Otherside.”

The “Otherdeeds” could only be bought using the project’s associated cryptocurrency, called ApeCoin, which launched in March.

There were 55,000 Otherdeeds for sale, priced at 305 ApeCoin each, and the company wrote on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) that these had sold out.

This means the sale raked in 16,775,000 ApeCoin, worth around $285 million as of Sunday, according to Reuters calculations based on the price of ApeCoin on cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (NASDAQ:COIN) at 1210 GMT.

It was not clear how the funds would be distributed, although the company said the ApeCoin would be “locked up” for one year.

The sale indicates the continued high demand for speculative, high-risk crypto assets related to online virtual worlds. NFTs are largely unregulated, and reports of scams, fakes and market manipulation are common.

While many are baffled by the idea of paying real money for land which does not physically exist, some virtual land NFTs have already fetched millions of dollars.

The Otherside metaverse will be a multi-player gaming environment, according to its website, which says it is currently under development.

Yuga Labs declined to say how many people were working on building Otherside or when it would be launched.

Yuga Labs’ Otherdeeds sale comes shortly after the Bored Ape Yacht Club official Instagram account was hacked and a phishing link posted, allowing scammers to steal victims’ NFTs.

Source

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Back to top button
bitcoin
Bitcoin (BTC) $ 76,394.47 0.55%
vested-xor
Vested XOR (VXOR) $ 3,405.08 99,999.99%
ethereum
Ethereum (ETH) $ 2,900.64 7.71%
tether
Tether (USDT) $ 1.00 0.11%
solana
Solana (SOL) $ 196.96 5.02%
bnb
BNB (BNB) $ 601.28 2.21%
usd-coin
USDC (USDC) $ 0.999292 0.02%
xrp
XRP (XRP) $ 0.556952 2.93%
staked-ether
Lido Staked Ether (STETH) $ 2,901.58 7.80%
dogecoin
Dogecoin (DOGE) $ 0.192505 1.32%
cardano
Cardano (ADA) $ 0.397196 10.95%
tron
TRON (TRX) $ 0.160645 1.29%
the-open-network
Toncoin (TON) $ 4.96 4.79%
wrapped-steth
Wrapped stETH (WSTETH) $ 3,417.63 7.38%
avalanche-2
Avalanche (AVAX) $ 27.63 4.05%
shiba-inu
Shiba Inu (SHIB) $ 0.000019 0.75%
wrapped-bitcoin
Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) $ 76,266.43 0.57%
weth
WETH (WETH) $ 2,903.03 7.66%
chainlink
Chainlink (LINK) $ 12.64 5.33%
bitcoin-cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) $ 385.12 2.78%
sui
Sui (SUI) $ 2.31 1.05%
polkadot
Polkadot (DOT) $ 4.16 2.24%
leo-token
LEO Token (LEO) $ 6.25 0.18%
usds
USDS (USDS) $ 0.998899 0.15%
uniswap
Uniswap (UNI) $ 9.03 3.47%
litecoin
Litecoin (LTC) $ 72.06 2.45%
wrapped-eeth
Wrapped eETH (WEETH) $ 3,050.31 7.81%
near
NEAR Protocol (NEAR) $ 4.27 2.09%
aptos
Aptos (APT) $ 9.82 4.30%
pepe
Pepe (PEPE) $ 0.000011 14.47%
bittensor
Bittensor (TAO) $ 516.49 1.10%
fetch-ai
Artificial Superintelligence Alliance (FET) $ 1.42 0.84%
internet-computer
Internet Computer (ICP) $ 7.84 1.10%
dai
Dai (DAI) $ 0.99899 0.05%
monero
Monero (XMR) $ 165.62 1.67%
stellar
Stellar (XLM) $ 0.101895 5.66%
ethereum-classic
Ethereum Classic (ETC) $ 20.24 4.92%
kaspa
Kaspa (KAS) $ 0.117046 2.03%
ethena-usde
Ethena USDe (USDE) $ 1.00 0.04%
whitebit
WhiteBIT Coin (WBT) $ 19.66 1.60%
aave
Aave (AAVE) $ 184.05 8.06%
polygon-ecosystem-token
POL (ex-MATIC) (POL) $ 0.348553 5.20%
blockstack
Stacks (STX) $ 1.69 0.81%
crypto-com-chain
Cronos (CRO) $ 0.093579 10.40%
okb
OKB (OKB) $ 40.20 2.25%
dogwifcoin
dogwifhat (WIF) $ 2.38 0.42%
mantle
Mantle (MNT) $ 0.697499 17.70%
first-digital-usd
First Digital USD (FDUSD) $ 0.998868 0.04%
arbitrum
Arbitrum (ARB) $ 0.584825 8.53%
filecoin
Filecoin (FIL) $ 3.79 3.52%