Identities of Bored Ape Yacht Club Founders’ Revealed
The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection was presented to the public in April of 2021, resulting in the significant growth of demand for this collection and NFTs in general. The project was launched by Yuga Labs, while the identities of its founders remained unknown for almost one year. The independent blockchain analysis, later confirmed by official representatives of Yuga Labs, indicated that Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow were the founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, the most successful NFT project to date.
Both Solano and Aronow were highly active in social media, being highly involved in the latest discussions related to the analysis of NFTs and other crypto trends. However, they used pseudonyms to conceal their true identity and prevent the general public from identifying their connection to the Bored Ape Yacht Club and other Yuga Labs’ innovative projects.
When Solano’s and Aronow’s identities are finally revealed, they posted their original photos along with their avatars to establish their original contribution to the creation and further development of the most innovative NFT project of 2021. Although their original motivation for using pseudonyms and attempting to conceal their identity remains unknown, such behavior is comparatively widespread among both crypto users and developers.
With the community being highly sensitive to preserving their anonymity as a basis of ensuring free exchange of ideas, even the founders of the most successful crypto projects may still prefer to avoid public attention. The recent revelations and potential interviews of the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s founders to the media may contribute to the further increase in the demand for NFT tokens and avatars.
Some Secrets Remain
The most interesting aspect of the current investigation of people involved in the most successful NFT project refers to the presence of other mysteries that are still unresolved.
In particular, it is known that the actual number of Yuga Labs’ founders is four rather than two, and the names of those remaining leaders remain unknown. Despite the current excessive media coverage of this process, the other two co-founders prefer using their pseudonyms: Emperor Tomato Ketchup and No Sass respectively. Although the identities of Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow, blockchain and social media analysts still lack sufficient evidence on determining those remaining individuals.
As Solano and Aronow have made comments only regarding their true identities, it is plausible that they are not open to revealing all other mysteries in regards to Yuga Labs and the Bored Ape Yacht Club. In addition, the artist who developed all avatars from this collection is also publicly known as Seneca, implying that her true identity is also concealed. There is a possibility of such mysteries being deliberately created to stimulate even higher interest in NFT users.
Moreover, partial revelations after specific periods of time may assist in maintaining the demand for the Bored Ape Yacht Club’s items at the highest level for the maximum period. At the same time, it is also possible that founders and artists value their personal freedom above any public recognition.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club’s Impact on the NFT Segment
All individuals, at least partially familiar with the NFT market, are aware of the most famous and valuable NFT collection that largely predetermined the further evolution of the NFT market in the following months.
At the present moment, the cheapest Bored Ape is priced at $231,393 (it is the floor price, and the actual realized market price may be much higher). The most expensive item from this collection was sold at the price of $2.7 million on the OpenSea NFT marketplace.
In terms of its total market values and capitalization, the Bored Ape Yacht Club continues to be the major NFT collection in the market.
Moreover, new celebrities continue regularly entering the Bored Ape Yacht Club membership by purchasing its items. The most recent example is Justin Bieber who spent $470,000 on his Bored Ape avatar.
For most celebrities, such purchases serve as both the confirmation of their high socioeconomic status and as a potentially profitable investment because the prices of items from this collection continue to increase. Their fixed supply of Bored Apes (10,000) contributes to their scarcity and ensures that no additional items may be developed regardless of the growth in users’ demand.
Thus, any demand increase will continue having a proportional impact on Bored Apes’ prices, and such a value generation model is actively adopted by new NFT projects.
