Auction house Sotheby’s auctioned 107 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of the 101 Bored Ape Yacht Club, by Yuga Labs. Sotheby’s estimated the auction to sell for a total of $12 to $18 million, but the final bid surpassed $24 million.
Yuga Labs’ project is conceptually similar to CryptoPunks. A limited number of 10,000 NFTs were semi-randomly generated using computer code with specific characteristics, each with a different level of scarcity. The project was launched in April of this year and went somewhat viral over the last couple of weeks, as can be seen by the $24 million sale.
A separate auction of the 101 Bored Ape Kennel Club, also by Yuga Labs, sold for $1.8 million.
CryptoPunks’ auction success earlier this year and now Bored Ape showcases a niche and expensive appetite for these digital and unique avatars. In the last week, five of the ten top slots on CryptoSlam for the most popular NFT collectibles are avatar projects.
Bored Yacht Club is particularly engaging because owners of these NFTs become members of an exclusive titular club that yields access to rewards such as bonus NFTs and use of online graffiti boards. As of now, this club has 5425 members.
The pricing is complicated to calculate because each NFT has multiple characteristics, some more scarce than others. Therefore the pricing calculation is semi-scientific.
Despite the uniqueness of Bored Ape Yachts, $24 million is still a jaw-dropping figure for a set of digital assets. It highlights the bubble in NFTs that has been see-sawing up and down since the beginning of the year.
Meanwhile, Sotheby’s is very much leaning into the NFT frenzy. It’s working on producing digital twins of physical art through NFT technology. The auction house also sold a digital art piece by PAK following the success of Beeple’s NFT sale at Christie’s.
