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Bored Ape Yacht Club continues to rise! Yuga Labs explains the origin of the name and logo, with future governance to be handed over to the community

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Bored Ape Yacht Club continues to rise! Yuga Labs explains the origin of the name and logo, with future governance to be handed over to the community

Yuga Labs, the NFT studio behind the creation of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has been gaining immense popularity recently. In the past week, four out of the top 10 NFT projects with the highest trading volume on OpenSea were created by them. Today, Yuga Labs posted their first-ever tweet on Twitter, addressing some questions from fans and discussing their future plans.

Bored Ape Yacht Club Ecosystem Continues to Surge

Since announcing various collaborations with non-crypto entities like adidas, Animoca Brands, and celebrities towards the end of last year, the prices of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have been on a constant rise. According to data from CryptoSlam, BAYC has accumulated over $1 billion in trading volume since its launch in April last year, with the floor price now reaching 71.5 ETH, surpassing CryptoPunks' 68 ETH.

However, perhaps due to the high price of each Bored Ape, many investors looking to get in have turned to purchasing Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) projects instead, with the floor price growing by 119% in the past week to 15.75 ETH per ape. Additionally, the NFT Mega Mutant Serum, which can transform a regular Bored Ape into a Mutant Ape, sold for staggering amounts last week, with three sales at 1,542 ETH (approximately $5.8 million), 999 ETH (approximately $3.8 million), and 888 ETH (approximately $3.6 million) respectively.

Yuga Labs Talks About Themselves and the Future

The founding team of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, took to Twitter today to answer questions about themselves and discuss their plans for 2022. Below are the questions and their responses.

1. Where did the inspiration for the name Yuga Labs come from?

We are a group of homebodies, and Yuga is the name of a villain in the Legend of Zelda series, who has the ability to turn himself and others into 2D art. This is meaningful for an NFT company.

Yuga from Legend of Zelda

2. What is the inspiration behind the name Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC)?

For a long time, people have affectionately referred to themselves as apes in the crypto world, which is why some of the rarest and most valuable NFTs in the Cryptopunk series are apes.

We liked the idea of creating a full series around apes, who have become quite wealthy due to the rise of cryptocurrency but have also become extremely... bored. And what do these bored apes do? Perhaps retreating to a secret club in the swamp is a good choice.

Apes on CryptoPunks

3. Where did the inspiration for BAYC's logo come from?

We didn't want it to look too serious, so the club's appearance is loose and precarious. Everything about BAYC is meant to convey a spirit of irreverence and absurdity.

The "Yacht Club" is actually falling apart in the center of a large swamp. Therefore, it needed a dirty yet fun logo. We used ape bones to convey how bored these apes are - bored to death.

4. Did you envision BAYC growing as robustly as it has?

Frankly, no. While we poured all our efforts into this community, we cannot attribute our success solely to ourselves.

Prior to BAYC's launch, many NFT series used a bonding curve pricing structure and elements that were detached from their essence. By making every NFT holder equal and granting owners full commercial use rights over their NFTs, we laid the foundation for community prosperity, surpassing even our wildest imaginations.

5. How did the founders meet?

We were friends in real life with different backgrounds - Jewish, Cuban, Turkish, Pakistani. We started researching the BAYC project in February 2021 and collaborated with a group of artists to study apes, the club's appearance, logo, and more.

To date, we have 11 full-time employees and many contractors responsible for various aspects of BAYC, including games, merchandise, digital and physical experiences, treasure hunts, and more.

6. Where is the club headed in the future?

We see ourselves as temporary custodians of an increasingly decentralized IP. The goal is to make BAYC a community-owned brand that holds a place in world-class gaming, events, and streetwear.

There's still much to be done to ensure that when control is transferred to the community, we are in the most advantageous position possible.

7. Why enter the world of NFTs?

We genuinely believe ourselves to be gamers, who have been obsessed with MMORPGs since childhood, enjoying collaborating with strangers to obtain rare items hidden in dungeons. For anyone who has spent years of their life in games like World of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, Star Wars, Runescape, and others, the metaverse is very real.

NFTs have ushered in a new era of composability and ownership, and we believe they have the power to fundamentally improve the gaming experience, with some ideas on how to achieve this goal.