News earlier in the week that $2.4M worth of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) Non-fungible Tokens (NTF) had been stolen after BAYC’s official Instagram account was hacked and used to post a phishing link, as well as a broader deterioration in crypto market sentiment this week, has done little to deter the ApeCoin bulls.
Whilst the broader cryptocurrency market’s capitalisation has fallen a little over 1.5% to $1.76T in choppy conditions, according to TradingView, APE/USD has surged over 13.5%.
The cryptocurrency, up a further nearly 6.0% on Wednesday alone, is currently changing hands near $19.00 per token and is eyeing a breakout to fresh record highs above $20.00. That means ApeCoin’s market cap is now more than $5.2B, making it the 28th largest cryptocurrency on the market slightly more than one month after its launch.
Meanwhile, since the start of the month, APE/USD trades with gains of roughly 50% versus losses of nearly 14% for the broader cryptocurrency market.
What is ApeCoin?
ApeCoin is the native token of the APE Ecosystem which, according to CoinMarketCap, purportedly aims to “empower and incentivise” decentralised community building at the forefront of web3 development.
The APE Ecosystem was created by Yuga Labs, the creators of the wildly popular and expensive BAYC NFT collection.
Cryptocurrency analysts say that much of the recent upside in ApeCoin is related to Yuga Labs’ upcoming release of its own metaverse, called Otherside, on April 30. ApeCoin will function as the Otherside metaverse’s official currency, with the metaverse also likely to feature BAYC and other Yuga Lab NFT collections as in-game characters.
Rising BAYC NFT Price Floor Also Supportive For APE
ApeCoin seemingly has a strong positive correlation to the health of the BAYC NFT marketplace. Much of the cryptocurrency’s recent surge seems to be linked to a more than 30% rally in the ETH price floor to buy a BAYC NFT over the last few weeks.
At the start of the month, the price floor, according to NFT Price Floor data, was roughly 105 ETH versus its current level closer to 140 ETH.
What next for ApeCoin?
ApeCoin will undoubtedly continue to trade as a function of broader demand for Yuga Labs products. All trends currently point towards BAYC and Yuga Labs’ other NFT collections continuing to attract strong demand as a collectible and so-called “social” token.
But much will also ride on the success of the Otherside metaverse launch in three days’ time. Should engagement on the new platform exceed expectations, there is no reason why APE/USD can’t surge above $20.00 per token.
As APE/USD rallies to fresh record highs, traders should expect volatility as Fear-Of-Missing-Out (FOMO) kicks in and potentially spurs fresh demand, but also amid the risk that holders of ApeCoin sitting on a large profit opt to dump their positions.
