Bored Ape Yacht Club suggests its own 3D metaverse amid ApeCoin adoption

Since the launch of ApeCoin (APE) on March 17, it has gone on to become the most traded token among Ethereum whales. Now, the BAYC trailer posted to social media hints at a 3D gaming metaverse powered by Animoca, while TIME Magazine and other prominent firms will soon begin accepting ApeCoin as payment.

Yuga Labs teased its new Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) metaverse with a short trailer Otherside. The video references other NFT collections: Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, CrypToadz, Meebits, Nouns, and World of Women.

Now, this teaser is a curious addition to all the hype and speculation last week about where Yuga Labs plans to take BAYC next.

Last Thursday was the launch of ApeCoin, a token that can be claimed by Bored and Mutant Ape Yacht Club holders. The token was launched by ApeCoin DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization that’s officially affiliated with the BAYC franchise. Press materials around the launch painstakingly elaborated that ApeCoin DAO wasn’t to be equated with Yuga Labs or Bored Ape Yacht Club, which are both centralized entities.

Then, Yuga Labs announced last Friday that it acquired the intellectual property rights of the biggest and most valuable NFT collections CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs.

There aren’t many details on what Otherside will be for now. But, taken together, this week’s various announcements suggest a 3D BAYC gaming experience powered by Animoca.

ApeCoin DAO has recruited prominent folks in the crypto community to serve on its board, including Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and FTX’s Amy Wu. They’ll serve for six months, and then ApeCoin holders will vote for new members who serve one-year terms.

Meantime, blockchain metaverse developer Animoca, famous for The Sandbox, also tweeted that it was entering the BAYC universe: “Animoca Brands is excited to announce that we’ll be adopting @ApeCoin for the secret project we’ve been developing with @BoredApeYC.”

Clicking the link in the tweet takes users to a landing page with a reference to “FOMO,” “BAYC” and “305,” which was seen before in the BAYC trailer.

Meanwhile, developer nWay announced that it will use APE in an upcoming play-to-earn game based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, while Animoca’s unaffiliated Benji Bananas game will implement APE for token rewards. ApeCoin DAO has said that some future functionality will be reserved exclusively for APE holders, such as upcoming games and services.

There’s potentially much more on the horizon, too. For example, E11EVEN Residencies in Miami will accept APE payments, and Florida-based brewery SaltWater Brewery has announced much the same for its beer, while TIME, the New-York based news magazine and publisher, has announced that APE will soon be accepted as payment for its digital subscription services.

As a decentralized token, APE can potentially be adopted by a wide array of businesses and projects. And that’s the goal for ApeCoin DAO: the more useful it is, the more valuable it could potentially become. With the Web3 industry still potentially in the very early days, APE holders can only hope that it becomes a popular payment method for the metaverse.