BAYC Creator Yuga Labs Debuts Layer-3 Network ApeChain: All You Need to Know

Yuga Labs, the creator of the popular Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT ecosystem, has announced a significant development for its community. This week, the platform launched ApeChain, a Layer-3 blockchain built on the Arbitrum One blockchain. This means that Ethereum serves as ApeChain’s motherchain, providing the foundational network for Arbitrum One. ApeChain is designed to facilitate transactions and support the overall ecosystem of ApeCoin, the native digital currency for the entire APE ecosystem, including BAYC NFTs.

Explaining ApeChain, the official website noted, “ApeChain utilises $APE as its native gas token. This integration significantly enhances $APE’s utility, fostering a robust and dynamic economy driven by $APE, and positioning ApeChain as a premier platform.”

At the time of writing, ApeCoin was trading at $1.48 (roughly Rs. 125) on foreign exchanges, showed CoinMarketCap. With a pre-decided total supply of one billion APE tokens, its current market cap stands at $1.12 billion (roughly Rs. 9,417 crore).

The ApeChain will lay special focus on three key areas for improved user experience — content, tools, and distribution. Yuga Labs, alongside ApeChain, also announced the launch of the ApeExpress, which is a platform designed to enable users to create and deploy memecoins.

“This new service allows anyone to launch tokens with ease, enhancing accessibility within the Yuga Labs ecosystem,” a press release detailing the development said.

Crypto token named $Bored is among the first cryptocurrency to have been launched on the ApeChain. As per CoinMarketCap, Bored tokens can be used to mine for Apecoins while churning financial rewards for the participants. At the time of writing, the Bored token was trading at $0.000912 (roughly Rs. 0.077) on CoinGecko.

This development from Yuga Labs comes at a time when the NFT sector is trying to revive after a major slump that has continued for over a year. As per its 2024 NFT report, NFTEvening said that 96 percent of NFTs currently have zero trading volume, low sales, and no activity on social media.

With these initiatives, Yuga Labs is seemingly trying to bring back the craze over its NFT collection. In April this year, reports claimed that prices of expensive BAYC NFTs had dropped by 90 percent.