Few things define the crypto hype better than the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, a collection of digital monkeys that by the end of 2021 became hugely popular and at their peak were priced at over $420,000.
Since then, the monkeys have seen a correspondingly spectacular price drop, and now the developer company Yuga Labs reports that it is laying off an undetermined number of employees while they undergo a restructuring, writes Bloomberg.
Celebrity heavy
Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Paris Hilton, Madonna and Justin Bieber were among the celebrities who bought in and helped boost the monkeys’ popularity in late 2021 and early 2022.
In April of the same year, the price peaked at 152 ETH, or $429,000, and the total collection of 10,000 monkeys then had a total market value of $4.2 billion.
Bored Ape Yacht Club Coingecko
The values of Bored Ape NFTs have since collapsed, and are today down 87 percent from their peak.
Justin Bieber is said to have bought his Bored Ape #3001 for 1.3 million dollars in January 2022, which this summer was out with a bid of 59,000 dollars, down 95 percent.
Madonna’s Bored Ape #4988, which she bought for $466,000 in March 2022, reportedly had the highest bid of $53,000.
Felt misled
Yuga Labs, which raised $450 million at a valuation of $4 billion in 2022, has since faced criticism from investors.
A December 2022 class action lawsuit alleges that Yuga, crypto startup MoonPay, and a number of celebrities including Bieber and Madonna tricked them into buying Bored Ape NFTs, without disclosing that the celebrities were being paid to promote the monkeys.
Tags: restructure collapse Finansavisen
