A selected batch of Bored Monkey Yacht Club-centric Ethereum Yuga Labs NFTs will be auctioned at Sotheby’s on June 18, providing a rigorous test of the staying power of monkey-themed assets in the fine art community.
The lot of collectibles includes a NFT Profile picture (PFP) from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, adorned with a leather vest and “sushi chef sash.” Known as Monkey #8552One of the NFT’s main selling points is its former owner, now bankrupt – apart from the Monkey’s solid gold skin, of course.
Once an asset held by Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a crypto hedge fund wiped out amid the widespread market tumult of 2021, the NFT is joined by other pieces of digital art. These include two NFTs with gold fur from Yuga’s Mutant Ape Yacht Club collection and a representation of a dog from Yuga’s Bored Ape Kennel Club line.
Profile photo collection NFTs typically include several random characteristics. In addition to the provenance of a collectible, they can have a huge influence on the value of an NFT.
The cheapest jack listed for sale on the secondary market, for example, would cost about $48,000 today, according to NFT minimum price. But only 46 of the 10,000 monkeys were minted with gold skin, and the last one sold for $933,000 or 247 ETH in March.
From online sales monitored by the NFT market Open sea, nine of Bored Ape’s 12 biggest sales involved monkeys with golden skin. And the feature has benefited Sotheby’s before. In 2021, the art house facilitated a record Sale of US$3.4 million of a Bored Ape with golden fur.
Referencing the year Yuga Labs launched its Bored Ape line, Sotheby’s head of digital art and NFTs Michael Bouhanna described Bored Ape as a “relic of 2021” on Twitter (aka X).
Meanwhile, the NFT researcher who posts as Punk9059 on Twitter highlighted the prices that 3AC initially paid for the assets. Collecting Ape and Kennel Club NFTs in July 2021, the account claimed that 3AC shelled out 106 ETH, about $401,000 at today’s prices.
As a spinoff collection released in August 2021, Mutant Apes could be created using a “mutant serum” token awarded to existing holders of the Bored Ape collection. Bored Ape holders had to “transform” their existing ape or purchase one from the batch of 10,000 additional mutant apes released by Yuga in a public sale.
While ultra-rare Bored Apes can still fetch high prices, prices for the more common ones have fallen drastically since the creation of the Apes. maximum minimum price from nearly $430,000 in April 2022. Last year, that number, known as the floor price, fell from $84,250 (46 ETH) to $47,500 (12.6 ETH) amid Ethereum’s own upward climb.
Works of art owned by the aforementioned 3AC, which were sold by liquidators to cover outstanding debts, have created a sensation at Sotheby’s before. A year ago, Ringers #879, a generative artwork known as “The Goose,” drew a Sale of US$6.2 millionincluding auction house fees.
Decrypt reached out to Bouhanna and other Sotheby’s representatives for more details about the planned Bored Ape auction, but did not receive an immediate response.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
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