During the past year, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) emerged as one of the best-known collections of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

In mid-March of 2022, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) associated with BAYC, ApeCoin DAO, was launched to manage a new Ethereum-run token, ApeCoin (APE).

Initially, on March 17, 2022, the newly minted APE tokens were airdropped to Bored Ape NFT holders; additionally, the digital asset also began trading on exchanges, according to Cointelegraph. This sequence created some not unpredictable out-of-the-gate volatility, with dramatic swings – not entirely uncommon for the crypto space.

ApeCoin DAO was initiated by the firm behind BYAC, Yuga Labs, but Yuga is keeping an arm’s length.

The ApeCoin DAO will be managed by council members. Additionally, the Ape Foundation was formed to buttress the DAO-run governance process. "The APE Foundation is the steward of ApeCoin," the ApeCoin website says. "It is not an overseer, but the base layer on which ApeCoin holders in the ApeCoin DAO can build."

The token is slotted for use in future gaming and entertainment applications.

"ApeCoin is a protocol layer for gaming and entertainment for the APE ecosystem and across the Web3 world," Yuga Labs said in an email statement to Vice. In that statement, Yuga said airdropping tokens to the community was to ensure that APE is controlled by its community.

The NFT market had massive growth last year and the BYAC series ranked among the most popular.

As of the end of 2021, NFTs attracted some $41 billion, according to NFT data provider Nonfungible.

BAYC launched in April of 2021. It quickly grew to become the most valuable NFT project. The least expensive of the 10,000 images –cartoon apes, commonly used by owners for their avatars – is about $240,000 in ETH.

ApeCoin will be used as in-game currency for some titles that Yuga Labs has in the works, including a previously unannounced title being developed with San Francisco-based game studio nWay, Yahoo Finance said.

Expanding its intellectual property, Yuga Labs recently acquired CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections from Larva Labs.

Because ApeCoin is governed by a DAO, Decrypt said, holders will have the ability to vote on community-led proposals that determine the future of the token.

The current price of APE

As of the early afternoon of March 18, 2022, APE was trading at about $13, according to CoinGecko.

One day earlier, on March 17, 2022, APE’s first day of trading, the token soared to nearly $40 and then quickly shed 80% of its value, fluctuating between $6 and $8 for the rest of the day. More volatility was anticipated as of this writing.

How the price of APE is determined

Total APE supply: 1 billion. Now in circulation: 280 million, per CoinMarketCap. Many of the total supply of tokens will vest gradually over the next few years, according to Decrypt. Some 22 percent of all tokens are earmarked at the outset for individual BAYC founders and early backers. Another 16 percent are for Yuga Labs (with a portion of those earmarked for charity); and 15 percent went to the NFT holders. The rest are earmarked for the DAO treasury and "resources."

 In a statement, a Yuga spokesperson addressed the wild swings of the first day, saying that “the market went through a very normal period of price discovery … when liquidity in pools and on exchange order-books is limited because the token had just launched.”

Down the line, the token will serve as a means of voting on governance proposals regarding changes and decisions pertaining to staking rewards, among other things. “That might sound dry and dull to some,” as Decrypt pointed out, “but it may impact future benefits for APE holders.”

What the bulls are saying about ApeCoin (APE)

Because the token is managed through ApeCoin DAO, “it won't be under fire from the SEC, Antoni Trenchev, co-founder of Nexo, said.

Yuga Labs hopes that the new game and token will inspire a mainstream crypto economy built around their IP, which further expanded last week to include the highly valued CryptoPunks and Meebits NFT collections, acquired the assets from Larva Labs, pointed out TechCrunch.

After the ApeCoin airdrop, one NFT holder told Cointelegraph that the momentum of BAYC, and their positioning in the NFT space as the number 1 collection, suggests the possibility for long-term viability.

What the bears are saying about ApeCoin (APE)

ApeCoin's wild ride is just beginning, but it's a bumpy start,” Vice said.

The allocation of ApeCoin, which arguably gives venture capital firms and BAYC NFT holders a sizable advantage over retail investors, with 15% of the token’s supply going to prior NFT holders, produces a dynamic that can make it exceptionally volatile in the near term, said the “Rug Doctor,” the pseudonymous founder and CEO of the startup crypto rating firm, RugDocIO, speaking to Yahoo Finance. Such a dynamic could “hurt retail investors.”

Dogecoin co-founder Billy Markus said in a tweet that he believes that the introduction of APE is harmful to the NFT space, because such tokens lead to the creation of “toxic” and “desperate” communities.