The owner of Bored Ape #1726 revealed his reasons for turning down a seven-figure offer for his ape.
Bored Ape owner sticking to his golden ape
The NFT space is not short of rags-to-riches stories, but you rarely hear of someone forgoing a fortune to stick to their NFT.
But that’s precisely what Twitter user @ElectionDayMad1 did by turning down a stunning 420 Ether offer for his Bored Ape #1726. At the time of writing, he could have pocketed more than $1.6 million AUD. Even more impressively, the person paid only 4 Ether for the ape on May 1st, a stunning 105X return in less than a year.
CryptoPotato, a crypto news outlet, reached out to the owner to find out why someone would rather have a jpeg of an ape over more than a million dollars. He said:
“I rejected it [read: the offer] because gold fur apes are the rarest fur of BAYC. Also, it’s my personal brand, and I think with this brand, and owning the ape, I can continue to make residual income.
There is only 1 out of 46 gold fur apes listed for sale below 1000 ETH, and I would like to still be a part of that group.”
Only one ape with gold fur is listed for less than 1,000 Ether at the time of writing, indicating that the real value of golden apes is probably higher than the rejected offer. Although rare NFTs – just like real-world art – are notoriously hard to value, turning down a seven-figure offer still requires a lot of conviction. It probably helps that the user owns another 36 apes, indicating that this is not someone who needs the money urgently.
NFTs in an uptrend
The Bored Ape Yacht Club project has been at the forefront of a resurgence in the NFT market. Boosted by its exclusive member’s club appeal that has seen several A-list celebrities and sports stars in the US buy Bored Apes, BAYC briefly even flipped the OG NFT project Crypto Punks for its price floor (the lowest listed price of a non-fungible token). But it’s not only been the BAYC that has been on the rise.
The entire market has been growing strongly, in part thanks to wider recognition among mainstream users, companies moving into NFTs, and people becoming more curious about them. Some of the biggest brands across tech, fashion, and other sectors are discovering NFTs and starting to play around with the technology. As more and more use cases become apparent, you can expect the demand for NFTs only to rise in the future.
However, the road to “hyper-NFTization” will be long and bumpy, and NFTs are likely to go through several bull market and bear market phases in this year alone. Investors should have deep pockets and high conviction, as only the most exclusive projects seem a good investment for now – and even those are highly volatile. Getting your hands on a gold fur ape won’t become any easier in the future.