Despite the Hype, Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Token Sank
After trading for as much as $248 on Uniswap on launch, the APE token is now changing hands for $9.
Key Takeaways
- Claims for the highly anticipated ApeCoin airdrop went live today.
- Low liquidity levels resulted in APE selling for as much as $248 per token on Uniswap once distribution began.
- ApeCoin currently trades at around $9, which equates to a $90,000 airdrop for Bored Ape holders.
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Following yesterday’s ApeCoin announcement, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT holders were able to claim their token allocations at 12:30 UTC today. APE plummeted once trading opened.
Traders Dump Bored Ape Token
Another highly-anticipated airdrop has caused pandemonium in the crypto space.
Per an announcement from Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs yesterday evening, all Bored Ape and Mutant Ape NFT holders are eligible to claim an allocation of ApeCoin, the newly launched Bored Ape ecosystem currency and governance token for the ApeCoin DAO.
Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT holders can claim 10,094 tokens, while owners of the less valuable Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFTs were given 2,042 tokens. NFT holders can also boost the number of tokens they can claim by holding a Bored Ape Kennel Club NFT. Prices of Bored Ape NFTs soared in the hours leading up to the drop, with the floor price for one of the cartoon monkeys crossing 100 Ethereum for the first time since January.
Token recipients could claim their airdrop from 12:30 UTC. Like many previous airdrops of new tokens, liquidity initially started low, creating a “Wild West” environment in which trading bots and arbitrageurs battled it out in a winner takes-all game. Data from Etherscan shows one airdrop recipient sold 600 APE for $248 each on Uniswap (the same trader sold dozens of batches of 600 APE). Arbitrage bots also risked millions of dollars to eke out small profits between liquidity pools of different decentralized exchanges. Some unlucky traders were hit by Sandwich attacks, a complex transaction reordering process that extracts value from large transactions. One unlucky trader lost around $27,000 when attempting to buy APE tokens through Uniswap.
On centralized exchanges such as FTX, prices also soared on launch but quickly dropped. Although ApeCoin started trading at $5, it quickly rallied to $40 before crashing back down as airdrop claimers sold off their tokens. At press time, the APE token currently trades for around $9; however, low liquidity has caused sizable price differences between different exchanges.
The ApeCoin airdrop ranks among one of the biggest and most valuable airdrops to date. Bored Ape owners who claimed the full 10,094 tokens and immediately sold likely made upwards of $200,000 from their airdrop. At current prices, 10,094 tokens sells for around $90,000 despite the heavy drop.
It’s still too early to tell what price the market will deem appropriate for ApeCoin. However, at $9, the token’s fully diluted value sits at $9 billion. While there aren’t many points of reference to help guide traders, it’s worth noting that rumors of an investment in Bored Ape creator Yuga Labs from Andreessen Horowitz valued the company somewhere between $4 and $5 billion.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this piece, the author owned ETH and several other cryptocurrencies.
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