By Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON (Reuters) – The company behind the Bored Ape series of NFTs has raised an estimated $285 million worth of cryptocurrencies by selling tokens representing land in a virtual game in development.
Last year, US startup Yuga Labs created the Bored Ape Yacht Club series of NFTs, blockchain-based tokens representing a set of 10,000 computer-generated monkey cartoons.
As non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – cryptographic assets that represent digital files such as images, videos or items in an online game – have exploded in popularity, prices for Bored Ape series NFTs have soared to around hundreds of thousands of dollars. each.
They have become one of the most prominent brands on NFT, with digital monkeys being sold at major auction houses and being acquired by celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Madonna.
Now, Yuga Labs – which raised $450 million in March in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz – has its sights set on the so-called “metaverse”.
Going online on April 30th, Yuga Labs sold NFTs called “Otherdeeds”, which can be traded as virtual lands in a Bored Ape-themed online environment called “Otherside”.
“Otherdeeds” can only be purchased using the project’s associated cryptocurrency, ApeCoin, launched in March.
