Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is an NFT collection that has become much more than just digital artwork. Through token gating and creating an exclusive, interactive community, BAYC has managed to maintain its value and appeal to its members. This article explores how BAYC has built its value through 1) a chat platform, 2) offline events and 3) digital experiences all gated to only its NFT holders. As you launch NFTs yourself for your community, consider how you can also build experiences in these three areas and gate them with your NFTs.
History of BAYC
BAYC is a collection of 10000 unique Bored Ape NFTs— unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain. They were designed primarily for use as profile pictures on social media, but it has evolved into a membership card for exclusive access to chat forums, physical BAYC events, unique digital experiences and Ethereum dApps. This dual functionality has increased the desirability and value of Bored Ape NFTs.
1 - Developing Community Through Gated Chat
BAYC invites its members to a token-gated, private Discord server where they can interact with other members, share valuable tips, and build relationships. The fear of losing access to this exclusive community makes members less likely to sell their NFTs.
2 - Developing Community Through Gated Offline Events
BAYC hosts various offline events for its members, including meetups, concerts, and a yearly festival called ApeFest. These events create strong bonds among members and increase the value of the NFTs by providing unique experiences that can only be accessed by BAYC members. There are even private clubhouses that are only available to BAYC members.
3 - Developing Community Through Shared Digital Experiences
BAYC offers several digital experiences exclusive to its members such as the BAYC private digital bathroom, new NFT collections such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC), ApeCoin tokens, a multiverse experience and private games. Let’s go into each of these a bit more.
BAYC Private Bathroom
As a member of the BAYC, collectors are granted access to the private bathroom. This is essentially a digital board where ape owners can paint a pixel on the bathroom wall every fifteen minutes. In an innovative art project, club members can collaborate on an art project while remaining anonymous due to high-quality security.
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)
The Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFT collection is a reward for BAYC holders. Although a BAYC holder does not directly receive a MAYC NFT in their wallet, BAYC holders receive a “special serum” NFT asset. This “special serum” gives the BAYC holder an option to create a variation of their current BAYC NFT. BAYC created 20,000 of these mutant Apes. The existing BAYC NFT holders had the option to to get 10,000 of them and they released 10,000 to the public for 3 ETH to bring new members on board. It worked — the entire set sold out within an hour, generating $96 million in the process.
Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC)
This NFT collection is another reward for BAYC holders. The Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) collection introduces dogs that can be “adopted” to be the best friend of your BAYC NFT. In fact, this NFT collection has become an essential part of the Bored Ape NFT ecosystem.
ApeCoin
BAYC introduced ApeCoin, an Ethereum-based governance and utility token used throughout the Yugaverse. ApeCoin is distributed to Bored Ape NFT holders and can be used to vote on governance proposals, access ecosystem features, and participate in various projects and partnerships. ApeCoin has attracted retail investors, diversifying the BAYC community and maintaining its value.
Otherdeed for Otherside
BAYC's Otherdeed for Otherside NFT collection allows users to buy real estate in a future metaverse developed by Yuga Labs. The teasers and images for the project feature Bored Apes prominently, suggesting their critical role in the metaverse. This development further increases the value of Bored Ape NFTs.
Gaming
BAYC has entered the gaming market with the BAYC v MAYC mobile game, allowing bored ape owners to compete with mutant ape owners for prizes, thereby increasing the value and desirability of Bored Ape NFTs.
Through these various NFT gated experiences it’s clear how BAYC NFT holders find tremendous value in their NFT. But it didn’t happen via the NFT alone. Yuga Labs, the company behind BAYC, needed to creatively build these chat, offline and digital experiences and then gate them to the community. The exclusivity and sense of community maintained the status and value of the BAYC NFTs. At the same time Yuga Labs created new ways to add additional NFTs to the BAYC ecosystem to raise funds but did so in a way that maintated the sense of community amongst holders via NFT gating experiences.
Panxpan is an online fundraising platform that helps schools, nonprofits and businesses raise money via NFT giveaways. But its not just the NFT that brings the value to your fundraiser participants. Its the chat, offline and digital experiences that you also need to build and gate with those NFTs. And we can help you with that as well.
Via the Panxpan platform you can build and NFT gate, Discord channels/servers, events, online courses, appointment booking, articles, videos and ecommerce pages. So you start by hosting a fundraiser where fundraising participants get one of your NFTs (that we can create for you). Then you build out these different NFT gated experiences so participants feel a sense of shared belonging and become loyal to your cause. And all of this is mostly just digital and your time and effort so you can keep most of the funds raised via your Panxpan fundraiser. You can learn more about our NFT fundraising platform here or start your NFT fundraiser here.