Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have taken the crypto market by storm over recent years.

While crypto enthusiasts insist there are myriad possible use cases for NFTs, the most popular—and valuable—application of this unusual crypto technology has been works of art that exist solely on the blockchain.

By most metrics, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is the most successful NFT art collection. BAYC’S current market capitalization is valued at around $US1.1 billion, according to CoinGecko.

In recent months, there have even been stories of Bored Apes being stolen by hackers, including a bizarre phishing scheme involving the actor and producer Seth Green.

“Well (friends), it happened to me. Got phished and had four NFTs stolen,” Green tweeted in May.

While stealing blockchain art monkeys might seem somewhat abstract, it’s easier to understand given the titanic valuations behind the Bored Apes. In April 2022, entry-level prices reached nearly $420,000—that’s expensive art, making them fat targets for heists.

So what’s the deal with these curiously named NFTs?

Here’s a guide to all things Bored Apes, including a look at its history, meteoric rise, recent controversies and stratospheric pricing.

What Is the Bored Ape Yacht Club?

The Bored Ape Yacht Club is an NFT collection created by Yuga Labs on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Each individual NFT is referred to as an Ape.

These digital artworks portray, well, bored simians. They all share a common look and feel, yet each Ape features a unique combination of facial expressions, accessories and outfits, so no two are the same.

It’s this combination of features—or the relative rarity of each combo—that may be the very thing that underpins the popularity of the Bored Apes. In the BAYC community, “rarity” is a formal measure of the uniqueness of each Ape.

There are dedicated websites that score Apes for their rarity. According to Rarity Tools, Bored Ape No. 8135 recently held the highest “custom rarity score”. Notable features for Bored Ape No. 8135 include a dagger in its mouth, a “trippy captain’s hat”, and a silver stud earring.

Other than rarity, there’s nothing ostensibly unique about the artworks themselves—they’re just pictures of monkeys, after all. What separates BAYC from the crowd is that it has become a cultural phenomenon.

For the NFT cognoscenti, owning a Bored Ape means more than just possessing a digital cartoon monkey—it’s a ticket granting the holder access to an exclusive membership club with perks like merchandise, parties and ApeCoins (APE), among other things.

How Many Bored Ape NFTs Are There?

Created via an algorithm, there will only ever be 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs in circulation.

As noted above, each Ape is unique. While it may share a feature, or several features, with other Apes, no two are identical. This drives BAYC’s non-fungible nature, which is the key to NFT valuations.

Scarcity also means BAYC NFTs are highly illiquid. OpenSea, the biggest NFT marketplace, has previously taken the action of freezing the listing of certain Apes if they are reported as stolen.

This action is considered controversial in some quarters, as a central entity intervening goes against one of the core pillars of crypto: decentralisation. On the other hand, it helps prevent perpetrators from selling the stolen Apes for crypto they can withdraw.

Who Owns Bored Apes?

Celebrities, influencers and regular folks own Bored Apes. Some BAYC owners use their Apes as their social media profile images.

Well-known celebrities love their Bored Apes; Madonna owns BAYC No. 4988, Justin Bieber has BAYC No. 3001 and Tom Brady owns BAYC No. 3667, to name just a few.

Bored Ape Prices

Bored Apes were first released in April 2021, with an original mint price of 0.08 ETH, equivalent to about $192 USD at the time.

Apes’ floor price, the price for the cheapest NFT within a collection, has fluctuated wildly.

It peaked in April 2022 at around $420,000 almost a year to the day when the collection was released. But the BAYC floor price has fallen amid the crypto downturn— now at 72 ETH, nearly $110,000. That’s a drop of more than 70% in five months.

For rarer Apes, the price has frequently been into the millions of dollars. For example, BAYC No. 5383 sold on Aug 18 for 777 ETH, roughly $1.4 million. The rare gold fur attribute primarily drives its high price.

The most expensive Ape ever sold also possesses gold fur, BAYC No. 8817, sold at Sotheby’s “Natively Digital 1.2: The Collectors” in October 2021 for $3.4 million.