Cypherpunk was born in 2017. In the years since its birth, in the NFT field, many projects have imitated cypherpunk: that is, a certain amount of NFT tokens are issued, and each token has a different picture. However, most of these projects have not been as popular as cypherpunk.
This phenomenon did not completely change until the appearance of BAYC this year.
BAYC（
http://www.boredapeyachtclub.com/) is an NFT project launched in May this year. It is the general name of an NFT token with a circulation of 10,000 pieces, and its full name is bored ape yacht club: bored ape yacht club. Each of the 10,000 NFT tokens is the head of an ape.
However, unlike cypherpunk, the BAYC project party also endows token holders with special rights: mainly including participation in various activities organized by the project party, and the right to share various services and products provided by the project party.
When the project was first released, its sales were mediocre. For most players, since the benefits promised by the project party could not be seen at that time, there seems to be no essential difference between the project and cypherpunk in terms of mode: it is still just a bunch of pictures.
This bleak situation did not change fundamentally until Pranksy, a major overseas NFT player, bought in batches. After Pranksy bought BAYC in batches, he publicized his actions on Twitter, triggering fans to follow up frantically, and wiped out the remaining BAYC in a very short period of time.
This also triggered the first significant price increase of BAYC on the secondary market.
On June 17 this year, BAYC cooperated with the well-known scene project Decentraland to airdrop 3D coats that can be used in Decentraland to each BAYC holder.
On June 19 this year, the BAYC project team even airdropped puppies to each token holder. The puppies’ tokens are collectively called BAKC (Bored Ape Kennel Club)
After the airdrop happened, the attention of the project rose again in an instant, and the price of these free airdropped puppies rose as soon as they went online. As of writing, the lowest price of puppies has risen to 2.17 ETH.
This series of actions of the project party made the holders and followers realize that the "welfare" described by the project party in the road map is being fulfilled step by step, and the holders of the tokens have actually received the benefits of the project party and benefits. This project is not just a picture, but a real membership card.
In the follow-up road map planned by the project party, there will be more benefits and rights for members. Everyone can see that the project party is fulfilling the existing commitments, and they are becoming more and more confident in the benefits and rights of the follow-up commitments. This makes overseas NFT groups start to buy BAYC in large quantities, and continues to increase the popularity and attention of the project.
After buying BAYC, many holders began to replace their Twitter avatars with their own BAYC, and began to follow and like each other on Twitter. The further development of this kind of attention and praise has also formed an offline holder gathering. The picture below is a picture of an offline party held by BAYC holders in Los Angeles.
There are also holders who have printed their ape portraits on their clothes:
Like cypherpunk, the trend of BAYC has also begun to go outside the circle, and street artists have also painted the image of BAYC on street graffiti.
The club membership model pioneered by BAYC set off a wave of "animal portrait" NFT issuance, resulting in the subsequent birth of a large number of such animal-themed NFT tokens. These tokens also adopt a membership model, which attracts everyone to buy tokens and join the "club" by distributing benefits to members and providing services.
It has a symbolic significance in the history of NFT development. Therefore, many players regard BAYC as the Ethereum in the NFT field.
