With Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, two leading NFT collections have reclaimed a market value of more than $1 billion each. This milestone was driven by increased floor prices, while the trading volume dropped slightly for both NFT collections.
Amidst tumbling crypto prices, the valuation of the most recognizable Web3 brands has lost some value over the past 10 months. But now both Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and CryptoPunks have regained a $1 billion valuation.
Over the past 30 days the cheapest Bored Apes have gained 17% in value and now cost $110,740 (70.74 ETH). However, the market cap increased only 1.43% to $1.11 billion.
During the same time, CryptoPunks boosted their floor price value by 33% to $105,800 (67.59 ETH). These numbers come with a 27% increase in market cap to $1.06 billion.
It’s been a few months since two of the true blue-chip NFT projects had a market cap north of $1 billion. Amid a turbulent period in the crypto industry that saw NFT volumes collapse, the market for NFTs continues to evolve and mature. BAYC and Punks represent the NFT gold standard in terms of culture and have remained among the most traded collections during the current crypto winter. While this milestone has more to do with the sudden increase in the price of ETH, it is just fitting to see them recover this level.
Pedro Herrera, Head of Research at DappRadar
Where does this valuation come from?
NFT valuation is not the same as seen in traditional businesses but one driven by market capitalization. This metric comes from financial markets and describes the total value of all assets within a total product group. For example, when a stock costs $100 and there are 1 million stocks, then the market cap is $100 million.
Now when it comes to Web3 projects like CryptoPunks and BAYC, things work slightly differently. These digital assets are non-fungible tokens, and therefore the individual value of these assets can differ depending on metadata. DappRadar tracks all past sales in the market and applies machine learning to determine an estimated value of a digital asset depending on its metadata. This guarantees that DappRadar’s estimated values are never speculative and rely on real market sales data.
Yuga Labs and community
Bored Apes have gained their popularity through branding, while CryptoPunks are considered a pioneering NFT collection. Interestingly, both brands are owned by Yuga Labs, a leading Web3 company.
But more importantly, for both Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks the commercial license and digital ownership are in the hands of the person who owns the NFT. That means that every owner of a CryptoPunks of Bored Ape NFT gets to use the image for their own commercial purposes.
For example, rappers Eminem and Snoop Dogg used their BAYC NFTs in a collaborative music video. Tiffany’s made jewelry for CryptoPunks owners, while Andy Nguyen used his Bored Ape to create the Bored & Hungry fast food restaurant.
How’s the competition doing?
Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks are miles ahead of the competition in terms of valuation. For example, Nike owns Web3 creative studio RTFKT and owns the CloneX brand. Despite the involvement of Nike, this NFT collection has a significantly smaller market capitalization of $253 million.
- Bored Ape Yacht Club – $1.11 billion
- CryptoPunks – $1.06 billion
- Mutant Ape Yacht Club – $398.6 million
- Autoglyphs – $264.6 million
- – $253.4 million
