Furry Friends for Bored Apes

In June 2021, Yuga Labs announced it would provide even more value for holders of the illustrious Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs via a completely free NFT airdrop. A month later, in July 2021, the Bored Ape faithful finally learned what those NFTs would end up being: furry friends for their Bored Apes.

Much like how Larva Labs gave holders of its seminal CryptoPunks collection complementary NFTs in the Meebits collection, Yuga Labs would reward its holders with a free complementary NFT. Free, save for gas fees needed to mint the NFTs, of course.

On the surface, the Bored Ape Kennel Club seemed like a nice gesture at the time on Yuga Labs’ end. But is that all there is to these zany dog NFTs?

The most cost-efficient way into the Bored Ape ecosystem

When Yuga Labs made good on its promise, it airdropped Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs into the crypto wallets of anyone who held a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT at the time. To claim these NFTs, holders simply needed to mint them, fronting a nominal gas fee in the process.

The “adoption drive,” as it was called, was a massive success. All but 400 of the original 10,000 Bored Apes received a complementary Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT during the minting window, bringing the supply of these off-kilter doggos to roughly 9,600 minted in total. Although it might have been a great opportunity to make all of the minted Bored Ape Kennel Club NFTs correspond to existing Bored Apes in regard to traits, each Bored Ape’s canine companion also carried with it a set of randomized traits. Any holders interested in “matching up” their Bored Apes with BAKC with similar traits needed to do so via trades on the secondary market.

So how did this collection end up doing on the secondary market? Despite initially becoming available via a free airdrop, the relative exclusivity of Bored Ape Kennel Club boded well for its eventual value on the open market. Although it debuted on the secondary market at roughly 1 ETH, its price settled into a range far above that in the years that followed. As of writing, Bored Ape Kennel Club’s floor price sits at a healthy 10 ETH on OpenSea.

Now, 10 ETH may still be far from an accessible price point for entry-level collectors, but it’s still cheaper than anything else in the Bored Ape Yacht Club pantheon. As of writing, Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs feature floor prices of roughly 17 ETH on OpenSea. As for the mainline BAYC NFTs, you’d be looking at shelling out at least 80 ETH on OpenSea to enter this exclusive collectors club.

An NFT for a canine cause

Much like the rest of its NFTs projects, Yuga Labs have dedicated a portion of the earnings from the secondary sales of Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT toward animal welfare. Unlike the rest of its collections, however, this wasn’t just “a portion.” It was all the revenue generated from its initial stint on the open market. For a six-week window following the minting of these pups, Yuga Labs took in a 2.5 percent royalty fee on sales done via OpenSea, donating all of its earnings toward funding no-kill animal shelters and other dog-centric charitable causes. Its first donation went toward funding Wright-Way Rescue, and was handled by The Giving Block.

Following that six-week window, the royalty fee was waived entirely. That is, until a late December 2022 announcement indicated that Yuga Labs would claim a 2.5 percent royalty fee on BAKC NFTs traded on OpenSea once more. This announcement came a mere day after BAYC founder Gordon Goner expressed interest on Twitter in reactivating royalties for the dog project to fund further development.

Given the Bored Ape Kennel Club’s status as a BAYC offshoot, much of its future is tied to the future of the BAYC ecosystem as a whole. However, if recent news on the upcoming Trial of Jimmy The Monkey minting event is anything to go by, you’ll probably still need a Bored Ape — Mutant or otherwise — to enjoy the full spectrum of Yuga Labs’ initiatives and plans into the future.