No.171
ApeCoin APE
the Bored Ape that grew a wallet and got the vote
π Part mascot, part ballot. An NFT face that the troop handed a treasury and a gas pump.
π¬ βI started life as a picture, a Bored Ape on someone's screen. Then the whole troop got a token, and they handed me the gavel. Now I fuel my own jungle. Not bad for a face. π¦β
- From an NFT crowd: APE grew out of the Bored Ape Yacht Club community, not from a brand-new blockchain.
- March 2022: launched by the ApeCoin DAO, so holders could vote on a shared treasury.
- October 2024: its own ApeChain went live, with APE as the gas token.
- Supply is locked at 1 billion APE forever: all minted at launch, none added since.
π The Story
Most coins are born as money first. This one was born as a face.
2021. A studio called Yuga Labs released the Bored Ape Yacht Club, ten thousand cartoon apes you could own as NFTs. Owning one became a kind of club membership, and a loud, chaotic community of ape-holders grew up around it. But a picture can't vote, and it can't pay for things. The troop had a clubhouse but no shared money.
March 17, 2022. So the community got a token. The ApeCoin DAO and the APE Foundation launched APE, an ordinary Ethereum ERC-20 coin, to be the jungle's shared currency and ballot. Note who did not launch it: not Yuga Labs directly. Yuga adopted APE as its main token and helps out as a contributor, and its founders received a large slice of the supply, but the token belongs to the DAO. From day one, holders could vote on proposals (called AIPs) deciding how a big community treasury, the Ecosystem Fund, gets spent.
October 2024. The ape grew his own jungle. ApeChain launched, a blockchain built on Arbitrum's Orbit framework, with APE as its native gas token, the fuel you burn to move around on it. After a testnet nicknamed 'Curtis', the mainnet went live with native yield staking baked in. Whether that makes ApeChain a Layer 2 or a Layer 3 is a labeling debate, not a difference you will feel as a user.
And so a profile picture became a chief with a wallet, a vote, and a kingdom.
π Stats
𧩠How it works
APE itself is just an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, so it has no security of its own; it borrows Ethereum's proof-of-stake. It isn't a single-purpose coin moving down a line. It sits at the center of one ecosystem and wears three hats at once: a ballot for the ApeCoin DAO, the shared currency of the Bored Ape community, and the native gas of ApeChain (live since 2024).
π Light & Shadow
- A famous, ready-made community. The Bored Ape brand gave APE recognition and a crowd from day one
- Real holder power: APE is a governance token, so owners vote on how the Ecosystem Fund is actually spent
- A fixed supply of 1 billion, all minted up front and none added since, so no surprise inflation diluting it later
- It now anchors its own chain, ApeChain, where APE is the native gas token
- Its value is tied to NFT hype. When interest in Bored Apes cools, APE tends to cool with it
- Founders and insiders received a large early allocation, and the supply unlocked over a multi-year schedule, which can weigh on the price
- DAO governance is messy in practice: large token-holders can sway votes far more than small ones
- It has no chain security of its own, leaning entirely on Ethereum, and ApeChain is still young and unproven
𧬠Evolution lineage
APE is not a fork of any coin. Its family tree is an ecosystem, not code: it is the fungible-token evolution of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT world. (Sibling collectibles from the same studio, Yuga Labs: BAYC, MAYC, CryptoPunks.) Technically it is an Ethereum ERC-20 that later spawned its own ApeChain.
π§ Meet other friends
β FAQ
- What is ApeCoin?
- An Ethereum ERC-20 token launched in March 2022 that grew out of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT community. Holders use it to vote on the ApeCoin DAO, and it is the gas token of the project's own chain, ApeChain.
- Did Yuga Labs create ApeCoin?
- Not directly. APE was issued by the ApeCoin DAO and the APE Foundation. Yuga Labs, the studio behind the Bored Apes, adopted APE as its main token and helps the DAO as a contributor, and its founders received a large share of the supply.
- How many ApeCoin are there?
- The supply is permanently fixed at 1 billion APE. All of it was created at launch and no new coins will be minted, so unlike Dogecoin it is not inflationary.
- What is ApeChain?
- A blockchain that launched in October 2024, built on Arbitrum's Orbit framework. It uses APE as its native gas token and offers native yield staking. Whether that makes it a Layer 2 or a Layer 3 is a labeling debate, not a difference you will feel as a user.
β οΈ Not investment advice. All figures are for information only.