BAYC Themed ApeCoin To Hit New Rock Bottom On ETH NFT Crash?

• Yuga Labs’ collections see a rapid downturn as ETH loses ground in NFT markets.
• Bored Ape Yacht Club community’s ApeCoin to launch its own Layer-2 chain.
• Looming unlock scares investors as $18.88M APE gets poured into circulation.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has been going through a rough patch, with the Yuga Labs’ flagship non-fungible token (NFT) collection dropping to yearly lows this week. On Monday, the floor price for one of the blue-chip BAYC profile pictures plunged to 10.49 Ether (ETH), depicting an over 93% drop from the collection’s prime moment almost two years ago.

While the recent drop to around 10 Ether (ETH) has put the Bored Apes back on the 𝕏 trending list, many traders have been quick to call the bottom at this range. Indeed, the 47% monthly downward spiral for BAYC digital collectibles comes at a time when Ethereum (ETH) NFTs are succumbing to Bitcoin’s Ordinals – a situation that would be hardly believable back in 2021.

Meanwhile, the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s community token ApeCoin (APE) is having a bumpy road to restore some of its former glory. The #112 seated APE has not only left the TOP 100 in terms of market capitalization, but also backtracked over 50% from the 3-month top served on March 13, 2024 at the $2.60 price milestone.

An Independent Blockchain To Save The Apes?

Back in February, ApeCoin DAO secured a tremendous milestone, when the decentralized autonomous organization picked the Arbitrum (ARB) tech stack as the most efficient Layer-2 scaling solution to build ApeChain. Given Arbitrum’s success as a Layer-2 scaling solution built atop Ethereum, this self-sufficient ApeChain would lend a hand to blockchain gamers, who are frequently complaining about the high fees on Ether.

Blockchain research agency Messari has recently updated crypto enthusiasts on ApeCoin’s (APE) progress during Q1 of 2024. Naturally, the deal to build ApeCoin’s own chain comes as the main achievement, while ApeCoin DAO spread $16.5 million across spend proposals by the community in Q1. Within a quarterly volume of $2.8B in APE trades, the rise in APE demand compared to Q4 of 2023 is evident in the 12% larger trading volume.

On top of that, ApeCoin inked 21.2% gains in the Q1 of 2024, finishing March at the $2 price mark and a $1.3 billion global market cap. However, things have gone downhill since April, as ApeCoin backtracked the gains to $1.07 on April 15, 2024, getting dangerously close to a new all-time low. Previously, APE fell to $1.01 on October 10, 2023, before rebounding to $2.60 on March 13, 2024.

More Unlocks Incoming: Who Let The Apes Out?

As pre-scheduled cryptocurrency unlocks are not something out of the ordinary, ApeCoin’s (APE) token unlocks are notorious for unlocking a big portion of the APE pie. To illustrate, yesterday’s unlocking event poured 15.6 million ApeCoin (APE) tokens into circulation, which equates to 2.48% of APE’s circulating supply.

Next up is another 15.6M APE unlock on May 17, 2024, releasing another $18.88 million worth of ApeCoin. Meanwhile, the native token of ApeChain’s chosen tech stack Arbitrum, ARB, falls in a similar category to ApeCoin regarding token unlocks, as the Layer-2 chain recently unlocked $113.95 million worth of ARB tokens. 

While this is significantly more than APE unlocks, it bears mentioning that ApeCoin’s max supply is capped at 1,000,000,000, while Arbitrum’s is 10 times more. Another key difference is that ApeCoin has already retraced a whopping 95% from its all-time peak at $26.70, in comparison to Arbitrum’s all-time high of $2.39.

On the Flipside

• Despite trading in a parallel descending price channel for the whole month, ApeCoin rebounded 5% on Thursday to trade at $1.25 as of press time.

Why This Matters

Originally launched by the Web3 heavyweight Yuga Labs , ApeCoin is a community-focused meme currency with multiple utility cases including blockchain gaming and funding developer initiatives.