The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection has taken the crypto world by storm. The collection of over 10,000 unique digital apes, each with its own individual trait, has become a symbol of wealth and status in the NFT market. As the popularity of BAYC continues to rise, so too does the number of clones and variations of the original collection. One such version is the Bitcoin Apes, a new project that inscribes copies of Bored Ape images onto the Bitcoin blockchain as ordinals. This project has been a significant contributor to the recent surge in Bitcoin Ordinals fees.
Bitcoin Apes are Just a Variant of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Collection
According to Dune Analytics data, the daily transaction costs for minting Bitcoin Ordinals inscriptions reached an all-time high on Thursday, March 23, at 9.28 BTC or around $257,460. The sudden spike has been attributed to the launch of Bitcoin Apes on the world’s oldest blockchain.
Bitcoin Apes are essentially copies of the original Bored Ape images that have been inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain. The concept is similar to that of Bitcoin Punks, where the first byte-perfect image of a Bored Ape that is inscribed is considered the original one.
According to a pseudonymous NFT historian named Leonidas in his interview with Decrypt, there are already 8,397 Bitcoin Apes that have been inscribed. Once all 10,000 exact copies of the Bored Ape Yacht Club images are minted out, it is estimated that more than $1 million will have been spent on inscribing them onto the Bitcoin blockchain.
The Value of Bitcoin Apes
Existing owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs can inscribe their original NFTs for free under ordinal projects. Despite that, the floor price for Bitcoin Apes is still displaying an upward trajectory.
The minimum cost to purchase a Bitcoin Ape is 0.0101 BTC, equivalent to around $285. On the Ordinals Wallet, the floor price is 0.21 ETH, approximately $380 on the Ordinals Market. In contrast, the minimum price to acquire a Bored Ape Yacht Club Ethereum NFT is 57.5 ETH, which is about $104,036 on the OpenSea platform.
There is, however, a significant number of worried Bored Ape Yacht Club claiming that the NFTs they own are being minted and exchanged on the blockchain. Leonidas doused them by saying that such concerns are unwarranted because the blockchains have a way of solving the problem of provenance for digital art. He believes that this is just another derivative project of an iconic profile picture (PFP) collection that “spreads the culture” of the original artifact to even more people, ultimately driving value back down to the official holders.
Bitcoin Apes Helping to Secure the Bitcoin Network
While concerns have been raised about the impact of Bored Ape Yacht Club clones on the original NFT collection, Leonidas argues that inscriptions like those of Bitcoin Apes may actually help secure the Bitcoin network by providing miners with a supplementary source of revenue. He further speculates that such projects could potentially address the question of what will happen when the pre-programmed block rewards of Bitcoin eventually run out in 2140.
The Spread of the Culture Behind the Iconic NFT Collection
The Bored Ape Yacht Club collection has become an iconic symbol of wealth and status in the NFT market. The spread of the culture behind the collection was inevitable, and Bitcoin Apes confirm that trend, according to Leonidas. Some Bored Ape Yacht Club owners may be concerned about the proliferation of clones, but the general consensus is that these inscriptions are helping to spread the culture of the original collection to more people and driving value back down to the official holders.
It should be noted that the proliferation of clones is not just limited to the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Similar projects have emerged for other iconic NFT collections in the past such as CryptoPunks and Meebits. These derivative projects are not only creating new opportunities for NFT enthusiasts but also increasing awareness and demand for the original collections.
Final Thoughts
As the popularity of NFTs continues to rise, it is likely that we will see more derivative projects emerge. However, it remains to be seen how the crypto community will react to these clones and their impact on the original collections. Some argue that they detract from the uniqueness and value of the original NFTs, while others see them as a way to spread the culture and increase demand for the original collections.
Ultimately, the success of these derivative projects will depend on the community’s perception and demand for them. As for the Bored Ape Yacht Club clones, the proliferation of Bitcoin Apes and other derivative projects is likely to continue. The impact of these clones on the original collection remains to be seen, but for now, they are contributing to the rise in Bitcoin Ordinals fees and helping to spread the culture behind the iconic NFT collection.
Giancarlo is an economist by profession with a career spanning nearly two decades. His professional journey has seen him assume vital roles in various government and private organizations such as the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), Megaworld Corporation, and the China Banking Corporation in the Republic of the Philippines.
In addition to his civic and corporate pursuits, his forward-thinking approach has led him to manage several prominent websites in the banking and finance sector, notably the Australia-based RateChoice, where he immersed himself in the world of emerging financial technologies and where he found particular interest in Bitcoin all the way back to 2013.
Prior to his addition to Blockzeit’s dynamic team, he held an essential role as Project Manager for initiatives encompassing blockchain, stablecoin, mining, special economic zone development, and iGaming. This noteworthy chapter in his career unfolded under the auspices of InPlan Consultancy Services, Inc., the think-tank of IMPERO Consortium Management Corporation headquartered in Manila, Philippines, and Tokyo, Japan. InPlan, led by a distinguished retired Cabinet member of the Philippines, collaborates directly with IMPERO’s core management team, contributing to strategic planning and business development endeavors.
