The heat of Jay Chou's boring ape BAYC #3738 NFT theft has not completely dissipated, and more than 20 days later, Li Ning, known as the "light of domestic products", announced that he chose to hold hands with boring apes and launched a number of co-branded products, which once again pushed up the popularity of boring apes. It is worth noting that the boring ape, which has only been born for one year, is now a hot feast in the NFT circle, not only as of April 25, the boring ape BAYC floor price has risen to 147ETH, a record high, and the parent company behind it has also reached a valuation of $4 billion. Why is this NFT "monkey" so hot?
One after another crossed the circle
#FMCG Eight Talk ## Li Ning ## Jay Chou If you mention the star products in the NFT circle, the name of the boring ape will inevitably appear in the list, and with the recent various cross-border cooperation, it will continue to make a name for itself.
Li Ning is one of the brands that have recently chosen to hold hands with boring apes, and has attracted attention with the news of "[China Li Ning Boring Ape Trend Sports Club] Raid and Sale" on China's official Weibo on April 24. And from the current public information and pictures, it can be seen that this time will not only launch a number of Chinese Li Ning boring ape trend sports club series clothing according to the number #4102, but also the number #4102 will also become the director of the boring pop-up store.
Not only Li Ning, but other parties also started the idea of boring apes. According to public information, the AAX Exchange opened the first "NFT pop-up store" in Hong Kong on April 23, and displayed 14 NFT artworks from the private collection of members of the Bored Ape Club in the Boring Ape Area, and also had related peripheral products for sale. Earlier, a boring ape-themed restaurant officially opened in Long Beach, California, for 90 days as a pop-up store.
Just as the boring ape crosses the circle in sports, catering and other fields, its value is also further rising. According to the NFTGo.io data on April 25, the price of boring ape BAYC series NFT flooring has touched 147ETH, about $420,060, a record high, a 24-hour increase of 3.40%. YugaLabs, the parent company behind Boring Ape, raised $450 million in March, achieving a $4 billion valuation.
Open-ended gameplay motivates
Since its birth, the boring ape has actually only appeared for about a year, and its explosion has always been the focus of the NFT circle, and behind this, it is first of all inseparable from the starlight blessing of many stars, which has rapidly expanded its popularity and influence.
In addition to Jay Chou, who is the holder of boring apes, NBA stars Stephen Curry, Shaquille O'Neal, football player Neymar, tennis superstar Serena Williams, and justin Bieber, Mike Xintian, DJ Khaled, Eminem, etc. in the music circle also have boring apes, and have been displayed through relevant social platforms. Under such starlight, the boring ape received more and more attention.
At the same time, the open-ended gameplay of boring apes has also become the key to keeping its popularity high. Unlike some other IPs that need to be licensed separately in different fields, after the release of the Boring Ape NFT, the owner of the choice of open copyright means that the holder of the Boring Ape NFT can independently derive the relevant IP to enhance the value.
According to media reports, Universal Music Group announced the formation of a virtual band KINGSHIP last year, which consists of three boring apes and a mutant ape, and then the Universal Music Group label 10:22PM confirmed that the purchased NFT character ManagerNotAll will serve as the manager of KINGSHIP. The OneRepublic band has revealed that the band's lead singer Ryan Ted has formed a boring ape BAYC derivative meta-cosmic band BoredBrothers, and the first NFT song released is "DRIP".
Li Jie, a researcher at the Digital Cultural and Creative Industry Think Tank, believes that this layout of the boring ape not only makes the holder's play more diversified and drives the enthusiasm of the holder, but also mobilizes the whims of all parties from another angle, and transforms it into the boring ape, once again promoting the influence of the product.
The market space has not reached its peak
There is no doubt that NFTs are in full swing at the moment, and all walks of life are laying out around NFTs. According to a previous report released by NFT Data Nonfungible.com, the transaction size of NFT in 2021 reached $17.6 billion, an increase of 210 times over $82 million in 2020. Meanwhile, the number of buyers grew from 75,000 to 2.3 million, and investors made a total of $5.4 billion in profits from NFT sales last year.
The Boring Ape creation team once said in an interview with the media, "We are optimistic about the interoperable metaverse. In many ways, it's already emerging how people are adopting NFTs as their digital identities across platforms. But there is more room for development and ways to promote its adoption".
In Li Jie's view, based on the development of the current NFT market and the layout of related products, the boring ape has not yet reached the peak of development, and the heat will be maintained and further climbed in the next period of time, especially after more holders begin to use their boring apes to imagine new ways of playing, the space of the product will be further expanded, attracting more people's curiosity about the boring ape, pushing up the value of the product, resulting in a larger imagination space, and this imagination space is not just for the creative team of the boring ape. Also for the owner. Beijing Business Daily reporter Zheng Rui