After much anticipation, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) dropped the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) NFTs yesterday, August 28. The drop broke crypto Twitter would be an understatement!
Soon after ape mutation went live on the platform, BAYC community members flooded Twitter with their freshly minted mutant apes. “Mutants are insane”, “I am beyond blessed”, and “These mutants are f**king awesome”, are some of the comments from Mutant Ape holders on Twitter.
“Apes – THANK YOU. What an insane night,” BAYC tweeted. “We feel incredibly blessed to be a part of this community.”
But, what is the Mutant Ape Yacht Club? And what are Mutant Apes?
The Bored Ape Yacht Club dropped Mutant Apes yesterday. Credits: ApeofPoland/Twitter via @ApeofPolandWhat is the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)?
The Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) is a collection of a maximum of 20,000 Mutant Apes. These are created either by introducing a Bored Ape to the Mutant Serum or minting a Mutant Ape during the public sale.
“The MAYC is a way to reward our ape holders with an entirely new NFT—a “mutant” version of their ape—while also allowing newcomers into the BAYC ecosystem at a lower tier of membership,” BAYC noted.
Mutants are the last tier of the membership and mark the end of BAYC’s Roadmap 1.0. Going forward, BAYC’s focus would be adding utility and “member’s-only benefits”, primarily to Bored Apes, and then Mutants.
The run-up to the insane drop was shrouded in mystery – although the community knew something big was coming, nobody knew exactly what. Early morning on Friday, BAYC tweeted, “MAYC Tomorrow 8/28/21”. In addition, it also announced the time for a snapshot and Mutant Serums airdrop. BAYC did not reveal much about MAYC or Mutant Serums, leaving the community clueless, yet much excited.
Tweet from Bored Ape Yacht Club via@BoredApeYC
The Mutant Serum airdrop
At 4:00 pm ET yesterday, BAYC took snapshots of all Bored Apes. An hour later, it randomly airdropped 10,000 Mutant Serums to Bored Ape holders. Holders could then create mutants by exposing their Bored Apes to the serum by just paying the gas fees.
The Mutant Serum vials come in three tiers: M1, M2, and Mega Mutant (M3). Mutants created using M1 or M3 serum will retain all the traits of the original ape. However, nobody knows what will happen when an ape is introduced to M3 serum.
Mutant Apes created using M1 and M2 serums. Credits: BAYCFurthermore, an ape can ingest a particular type of serum only once. When used, the serum will be burnt. This means an ape can give rise to three different mutants after ingesting M1, M2, or M3 vials. Additionally, the original Bored Ape will remain intact and will not be harmed in any way.
Meanwhile, BAYC holders were allowed to use their Serum only after the public sale was completed. Currently, there is no limit to applying serums.
Interestingly, soon after the airdrop, the Serums were traded for hefty prices on marketplaces. In fact, one holder was offered 269 ETH ($872,000) for the Serum. Just to reiterate, every ape holder got the Serum for free!
There are three different Mutant Serums. Credits: BAYCThe MAYC “stealth drop”
Before holding the public sale, BAYC developers were adamant about one thing: the sale should have a fair distribution. As the popularity of NFTs has skyrocketed in recent months, often, a major part of NFT drops end up with a fraction of collectors who use bots or pay exorbitant gas fees. In order to avoid this, BAYC decided to go with a Dutch auction.
During the public auction, 10,000 mutants were made available to be minted. In accordance with the format of a Dutch auction, the price to mint Mutants started at 3 ETH, gradually reducing to 0.01 ETH.
“This is to allow the community to set a fair starting price and, hopefully, avoid any gas war,” BAYC wrote. This way, they’d also ensure that the collection would go to “long-term club members”, instead of “flippers”.
Furthermore, to ensure a fair distribution, they made the public sale a “stealth drop”. They kept the details of the sale under wraps, ensuring that the larger crypto community, including bots, didn’t come armed during the sale. Additionally, BAYC did not reveal the Mutants till the sale closed to prevent anyone from knowing which NFT will be minted.
Despite no prior announcement, the MAYC collection sold out in less than an hour, amassing $90 million in sales. Currently, the Mutants are up for sale on OpenSea. At the time of writing, 13,200 items were listed for sale, with a floor price of 8 ETH (around $26,000).
Meanwhile, soon after minting went live, Mutant Ape #9209 was sold for a whopping 222 ETH ($704,628). Things sure are going crazing in the ape world!
Mutant Ape #9209 sold for $704,628. Credits: OpenSeaIntroducing the Mutant Arcade
If you thought Mutant apes and Mutant Serums were a lot to take in—wait for it—there’s more! BAYC has also launched the Mutant Ape Arcade game, which is playable only for three days.
The game is set in a BAYC-inspired sewer world and the protagonist is BAYC’s founder, Curtis. The game’s objective is to defeat The Mutant Ape and get out of MAYC. If you win, you will be asked to enter your wallet address. Three days later, BAYC will airdrop a POAP as a badge honouring your victory against the Mutant. You can play the game here.
The Mutant Ape Arcade game. Credits: BAYCBAYC continue to make headlines
In just a few months, the Bored Ape Yacht Club has become the hottest NFT collection to own. The avatar NFT collection consists of 10,000 unique NFTs built on the Ethereum blockchain. As per DappRadar data, BAYC is fifth among all-time top NFT collections (at the time of writing). It has amassed over $354 million in sales so far.
Clearly, BAYC is growing in leaps and bounds, attracting attention from far and wide. Just yesterday, NBA star Stephen Curry bought a Bored Ape for $180,000. The NFT project has some exciting weeks and months ahead, with a Christie’s and Sotheby’s auction lined up for next month. A Treasure Hunt, with prizes worth $220,000, and Roadmap 2.0 will follow suit!
