The maker of the million-dollar monkey-themed NFTs Bored Apes Yacht Club startup Yuga Labs raised a seed round of funding. Yuga Labs raised a staggering $450 million from Andreessen Horowitz and the firm’s valuation now stands at a whopping $4 billion valuation. The top NFT firm aims to use the funding to build its own Metaverse called ‘Otherside’. Reports state that ‘Otherside’ will integrate avatars from various other NFT projects.
This is the first time that Bored Apes Yacht Club raised funding and venture capitalists are eager to back the project. Other investors apart from Andreessen Horowitz are Animoca Brands, LionTree, Sound Ventures, Thrive Capital, FTX, and MoonPay. The move could make Bored Ape the first NFT to hit the mainstream and generate curiosity from the larger audience.
Bored Apes Yacht Club is the most talked-about NFT project in the world and amasses a sea of fan following. Investors are ready to splurge on millions to get a hold of their collection. They are also hailed as the innovators of the NFT space and are among the best assets to invest in.
The NFT firm is growing in fame and wealth and is acquiring competitors’ assets in a move to dominate the market. It announced previously that it acquired assets of popular NFT projects CryptoPunks and Meebits from Larva Labs. Yuga Labs had acquired 423 CryptoPunks and 1,711 Meebits. However, the deal was sealed for an undisclosed amount and is not made public yet.
“By handing over these rights, we’re further aligning CryptoPunks and Meebits with the web3 ethos. We expect a wide range of third-party developers and community creators to incorporate CryptoPunks and Meebits into their web3 projects,” they said in a statement.
Bored Apes Launched ApeCoin
Just a few days ago, Bored Apes launched their token ApeCoin. The token gained a market cap of $1 billion in just 24-hours and attracted heavy buying pressure. It reached an all-time high of $17.17 last week and is now down -29.9% from its ATH. It is reported that the founders and executives have a substantial stake in the token.
ApeCoin is trading at $11.89 and is up +11.6% in the 24-hours day trade. It currently boasts a market cap of $1.98 billion and entered the list of top 100 cryptocurrencies.