The floor price of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (NFT) hit a record high on Monday after its creator, Yuga Labs, said its upcoming metaverse will launch soon.
According to data from NFT price floor, the lowest possible price one can buy a BAYC token at hit a new high of 137.8 Ethereum (ETH), or $385,700. The surge was underpinned by a nearly 60% jump in BAYC trading volumes, while sales rose 50% in the past 24 hours.
Interest in the collection, along with its native token ApeCoin (APE) skyrocketed over the past week in anticipation of an update to Yuga Labs’ planned metaverse, Otherside.
Bore Ape metaverse to release this month
In a tweet, Yuga Labs said the metaverse will launch on April 30. The firm has released few details about the project, beyond a teaser trailer. The metaverse is expected to support NFTs from several popular collections beyond BAYC, including spinoff Mutant Apes, CryptoPunks, Meebits and World Of Women.
Given that Yuga Labs said NFTs will play a pivotal role in its upcoming metaverse, all the included NFT collections saw a surge in trading activity over the past week. But even among the lot, Bored Ape is the largest NFT collection by total market value, at 1.3 million ETH ($3.7 billion).
Rumors and leaks regarding the launch have suggested the project will open sales of digital land soon, and will be priced in APE.
ApeCoin breaks into top-30 cryptocurrencies
Growing hype over the upcoming Otherside launch saw APE sharply outperform the crypto market over the past week. The token rose 50% in the past seven days to $17.24, and is now the 29th-largest cryptocurrency by market capital, at $4.9 billion.
The token also hit a series of record highs, as investors positioned for a possible land sale. Launched in March, APE is the native token of the Bored Ape NFT collection.
But the token has also drawn some criticism over its planned governance proposals, as well as the distribution of holders. Recent data shows that over 50% of APE’s total supply is held by whales, including several Yuga founders.
