• Yuga Labs, the creator of the famed Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) collection, has announced the upcoming launch of its metaverse.
• The news has raised the floor price of the NFTs and that of the APE token to record highs.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) collection is once again the trending subject of the crypto community. Following the metaverse fever, Yuga Labs, the creator of the famed BAYC NFT collection, is launching its metaverse.

Dubbed Otherside, Yuga Labs said it expects to take the metaverse platform live on April 30, a Monday tweet confirmed. The platform will feature several other popular NFT collections, other than the BAYC set. Among them are CryptoPunks, Meebits, World of Women, and the Mutant Apes spinoff. 

Still, the announcement has been enough to hype the NFT collection and its associated token. According to the NFT price floor, the least one can purchase a BAYC NFT is 137.8 Ethereum (ETH), about $389,009. This value is the highest price floor the collection has ever hit. Fuelling the price surge is the near 60 percent hike in BAYC trading volumes in the past day. Also contributing is the 50 percent rise in sales in the last 24 hours. 

BAYC creator announces upcoming metaverse

Other than the BAYC set, the other aforementioned NFT collections also saw a surge in trading volumes in the past week. Bored Ape remains the lead collection, with a combined market value of 1.3 million ETH ($3.7 billion).

Meanwhile, the ApeCoin (APE) token saw a stellar surge in price starting last week, owing to speculations of the news. Launched in March, APE is the native token of the Bored Ape NFT collection. The token has gained nearly 50 percent in the past week, recording a series of all-time highs on the way. At reporting time, APE was trading at $17.46, having risen 6.9 percent in the past day.

Of note, Yuga Labs has revealed scant details of its upcoming metaverse. However, rumors suggest Otherside will support digital land sales soon, all of which will be priced in APE. This notion has sent the APE token to list in the top 30 cryptocurrencies. APE is now the 29th largest crypto asset, with a market cap of $4.9 billion.

Bored Ape highs and lows

Since its creation just last year, the BAYC NFT collection has been hitting headlines, mostly for its record sales. The collection has even attracted celebrities like professional footballer Neymar, NBA legend Steph Curry, the singer Justin Beiber, and rapper Snoop Dogg.

Read More: PSG superstar Neymar Jr. spends $1M on Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs for Twitter profile image

But even then, Bored Ape has also had some pretty gloomy days of theft and hacks. Additionally, recent data shows that over 50 percent of APE coins are held by whales, including several Yuga Labs founders. This fact has drawn huge criticism to its governance system. 

Nonetheless, investors remain interested in the project, including its upcoming metaverse. Led by the VC Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Yuga’s funding round last week rose its valuation to $4 billion.