Bored Apes creator Yuga Labs launches its own ApeCoin token

Yuga Labs is letting more people into their Bored Ape club, with the launch of its own ApeCoin token and a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) tasked with overseeing it.

Why it matters: Prior to the token launch, being a part of the Bored Ape Yacht Club required owning one of 10,000 NFTs issued by Yuga Labs.

• But even the cheapest of Bored Apes go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
• ApeCoin allows even those who are not ethereum-rich to participate in the ecosystem by purchasing it through a variety of crypto exchanges.

Details: 8% of ApeCoin tokens will go to the BAYC founders, 16% will go to the Yuga Labs team, 14% to launch contributors (i.e., Yuga partners and investors), 15% to Bored Apes and Mutant Apes collectors, and 47% will be released as part of the DAO’s “ecosystem fund.”

• It's that last 47% which will become available to the general public.

Of note: A portion of the allocation — equal to 1% of the total token supply — will be donated to the Jane Goodall Legacy Foundation.

Yes, but: While Yuga Labs will have a fairly large number of ApeCoins at launch, the company is being careful to separate itself from stewardship of the token.

• Instead, ApeCoin is launching with a new corporate parent — the Ape Foundation — and a DAO that governs it.

• "It’s much more complicated to construct a legally compliant token and set it up in a responsible, sustainable way," Bored Ape's Twitter page read, after it was asked in October about releasing coins.
• ApeCoin DAO council members include Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, FTX’s Amy Wu, Sound Ventures’ Maaria Bajwa, Animoca’s Yat Siu, and Horizen Labs’ Dean Steinbeck.

What they're saying: “Today we’re making the ‘Club’ bigger with ApeCoin,” Ohanian said in a statement to the press.

• “Web3 is being integrated into our art, music, and culture more and more everyday and it all starts with community. I believe this community will build, expand, partner, and disrupt in a massive way.”