At Yuga Labs’ Seoul Event, BAYC Holders Say Trust in the Community Endures

The launch of spot-Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in 2024 has accelerated institutional participation in the crypto market. Even so, some projects continue to embrace Web3’s original ethos and put community first. Yuga Labs is one of them.

Yuga Labs is the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, or BAYC, nonfungible token collection. It rode the global boom in monkey-themed NFTs in the early 2020s and grew into a unicorn with a valuation of several hundred million dollars. As the NFT market declined, the company came under pressure. Even so, it is still pushing ahead with animation, gaming and its NFT-based Otherside metaverse business.

On June 30, Yuga Labs held its Yuga Asia Tour community event at the Seoul headquarters of Hashed, a South Korean crypto venture firm, in the city’s Gangnam district. The event drew particular attention because Michael Figge, who recently became Yuga Labs’ chief executive officer, attended in person.

“We Survived the NFT Winter and Will Strengthen the Community”

At the event, Figge described community as Yuga Labs’ top priority. He said the company wants to strengthen relationships formed offline rather than online. To do that, Yuga Labs plans to keep holding community events and expand its network.

The company has hosted about 30 community meetups worldwide over the past 45 days. In Asia, it has held events in Taipei, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Seoul.

Figge also thanked the community for staying with the project through the NFT market downturn. BAYC’s floor price peaked at 153.7 Ether in 2022 and now stands at 8.83 Ether.

Many people look only at the BAYC price chart and assume the project is in a bear market, he said. Instead, he compared the cycle to Bitcoin’s 2013-2015 downturn. While prices have fallen, the number of unique BAYC holders has continued to rise. Over the past two years, 72% of NFT buyers were new users who had not lived through the previous cycle.

Prices do not rise on their own, he added. The next growth cycle will depend on strong ideas and the ability to execute them.

Figge also laid out BAYC’s strategy going forward. Yuga Labs plans to focus on expanding its offline community, strengthening the brand and further developing its metaverse ecosystem.

The offline push will center on the US. The company is building a clubhouse in Miami for the BAYC community and plans to continue ApeFest, an annual event that brings together BAYC holders from around the world.

Yuga Labs also plans to deepen its brand business, one of its core operations. Figge said he wants to turn BAYC into a lifestyle brand rather than leave it as a simple NFT collection. That includes expanding its apparel business, widening collaborations with global brands and building out a peer-to-peer marketplace where members can trade merchandise.

For future growth, he pointed to metaverse and animation businesses built on BAYC intellectual property. The company is developing an animation project based on the BAYC universe. The goal is to create content that appeals not only to NFT users but also to a broader audience and attracts new users. Work to advance the Otherside metaverse is also continuing. For now, the company is prioritizing product quality over user acquisition and plans to roll out various content in stages.

BAYC Holders at the Event Say Trust Remains Strong

Participants began gathering at the venue about 30 minutes before the presentation started. Many attendees wore BAYC-related merchandise. One family arrived together in hats bearing BAYC branding.

Despite being held in South Korea, the event drew attendees of several nationalities. All were BAYC holders living in Asia, and they said they had come to Seoul to meet Figge.

After listening to Figge’s presentation, attendees naturally broke into small groups to discuss BAYC’s future plans and the NFT market.

Figge reciprocated after the session ended. Accompanied by an interpreter, he took photos with holders and answered questions about the project directly.

Honey b, an influencer and BAYC holder at the event, said everyone who attended came because they genuinely like BAYC itself. It is rare for a project to maintain a community of this size even after enduring the NFT winter, Honey b said.

Another attendee, who asked not to be identified, said the value of their BAYC holdings had fallen sharply but that they still trusted the project’s potential. Seeing the new CEO visit South Korea in person and communicate with the community showed a clear determination to revive the project, the attendee added.