Why are lazy monkey NFTs so expensive?
Although NFTs have existed for five years, the nonfungible token boom didn't start until 2021. It happened at the same time as the debut of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 Lazy Ape NFTs featuring cartoon monkeys that have come to represent the entire industry. The past year has seen BAYC develop into a bellwether for NFTs, much like bitcoin is for the overall crypto market.
What are Lazy Monkey NFTs?
Yuga Labs' Lazy Ape is an NFT collection built on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Each NFT is known as an Ape.
These digital artworks depict bored simians. They all have a similar appearance and feel, but each monkey has a unique combination of facial expressions, accessories, and outfits, so no two are alike.
This combination of features—or the relative rarity of each variety—could be the driving force behind the Lazy Apes' popularity. "Rarity" is a formal measure of each Ape's uniqueness in the BAYC community.
What makes Lazy Monkey NFTs so expensive?
- Utility Lazy Ape is valuable not only because it serves as a digital identity but also because it comes with commercial usage rights. Lazy monkey NFT owners can not only resell the NFT for a profit but also sell spinoff products based on the art.
One Bored Ape owner created a Twitter account for his Ape and created an entire backstory in which the Ape is Jenkins, a valet at the Yacht Club. Jenkins is personable, crypto-savvy, and tells incredible stories—the ideal combination for a successful Twitter account. Jenkins' story is enhanced by the fact that he was the cheapest Ape in the collection, which influenced his character as a valet. People are drawn to the classic "underdog rise" story on a basic level.
- Limited supply Basic economics: because there are only 10,000 Bored Apes, the supply of NFT art is quite limited. With the brand's massive popularity, we have a high-demand/low-supply dynamic that will inevitably drive prices up.
Furthermore, some Bored Ape avatars in the same collection are rarer than others. Each monkey is a unique, randomly generated combination of 170 characteristics such as background colour, earrings, expression, headwear, clothing, etc. This derived scarcity also contributes to some Bored Apes' high prices.
- Celebrity Support Celebrities nowadays are showing immense interest and support for Lazy Apes. BAYC NFT is owned by Jimmy Fallon, Post Malone, Mark Cuban, Paris Hilton, Stephen Curry, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Shaquille O'Neal. It's also common knowledge that involving celebrities in anything can increase interest—and prices.
Because of the significant celebrity involvement, Bored Apes have become a status symbol — similar to a digital Veblen good — the higher the price, the more people want one.
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Unique content BAYC provides Lazy Ape holders with exclusive content benefits, some of which are detailed in the roadmap on the BAYC website. The roadmap is a to-do list that the founders intend to cross off when they reach their sales percentage targets.
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Early entry to the NFT world While Bored Apes NFT is not the first among NFT collections, they are one of the few available. Not to overlook the novelty, but it does contribute to the movement's success. For example, CryptoPunks are valuable because they are the first NFT collection.
BAYC acquired Cryptopunks in early March 2022, significantly reducing competition and establishing their position as forerunners of the NFT-community movement. BAYC intends to grant CryptoPunks owners intellectual property and commercialization rights, as they have with Bored Ape owners. This will inevitably increase demand, resulting in a price increase.
Author: Priya Kumari
Priya is a passionate content writer and the co-founder of Finendorse. She is an enthusiastic crypto investor and has a huge interest in the upcoming digitisation age.