Yuga Labs’ blue-chip NFTs reported strong growth in the majority of its key performance indicators during the previous week.
According to OpenSea data, the trade volume and sales of the well-known collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) grew by 150% in the preceding seven days.
Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC), on the other hand, saw a huge increase in both its floor price and trading volume over the previous week, virtually tripling both. MAYC’s sustained significance among NFT traders and collectors was indicated by the increase in the floor price.
Yuga Labs alleged IP theft
Surprisingly, Yuga Labs’ apparent use of an unlicensed design for the logo of their Bored Ape Kennel Club (BAKC) NFT collection ignited a heated debate, coinciding with the growth in the aforementioned areas.
In reaction to the allegations, Yuga Labs’ co-founder stated that the BAKC logo would be changed. The disputed wolf skull had been removed from OpenSea’s portal’s logo as of the time of writing.
Saw the claims today about the BAKC logo. This was news to us and we're still investigating the situation. Have reached out to the freelancer we hired for that design and Easy Drawing Guides. We’ll be changing the logo and updating it on our site / ask marketplaces to change as… https://t.co/OwtflDXehz
— Garga.eth (Greg Solano) (@CryptoGarga) February 18, 2023
According to WhaleStats, the ecosystem’s NFT token ApeCoin [APE] was also able to overcome the unfavorable impacts of this episode and became one of the most popular smart contracts among top Ethereum [ETH] whales.
JUST IN: $APE @apecoin one of the MOST USED smart contracts among top 500 #ETH whales in the last 24hrs
— WhaleStats (tracking crypto whales) (@WhaleStats) February 19, 2023
We've also got $NMR, $UNI, $SHIB, $MATIC & $LDO on the list
Whale leaderboard: https://t.co/tgYTpOm5ws#APE #whalestats #babywhale #BBW pic.twitter.com/U3QhL8SJQD
Token unlock could affect Apecoin
Despite the whales’ interest, APE supply on exchanges grew, according to Santiment statistics. This indicator rose, indicating a bearish trend for the token’s price.
Many others were also uninterested in the on-chain data. The number of daily active addresses had dropped significantly during the past ten days. The falling network growth graph also indicates that the coin was unable to attract new users.
Apecoin recently released some currencies into the market as part of their token unlock strategy.
Because of the increase in available supply, the price fell by up to 8%.
Investors were concerned about a further drop in the coin’s value because another unlock was due in a month.
According to CoinMarketCap, APE was trading at $5.71 at the time of writing, up 1.71% from the day before.
