Elon Musk’s Twitter profile change sends tokens of the Bored Ape Nft Project skyrocketing.
Since its release in April 2021, the Bored Ape NFT collection has developed a cult following.
Elon Musk changed his Twitter profile picture to a picture of various avatars from the Bored Ape non-fungible token collection on Wednesday, sending the project’s digital token’s value soaring.
According to Coinbase data, ApeCoin, the token launched by Bored Ape creators Yuga Labs, surged 19 percent in an hour at around 8 a.m. ET to a day-to-day high of $17.64 following Musk’s profile image change. It’s since lost some of its good points and is now trading at around $15.50.
Also read Second Greatest Crypto Hack: NFT Gaming Blockchain Loses $600 Million in Ethereum
It’s unclear whether Musk actually bought a Bored Ape NFT. Michael Bouhanna, a government official at public auction house Sotheby’s, tweeted that the image was “created for our Sotheby’s sale,” which the billionaire appreciated.
Bouhanna wrote in the tweet, “Happy to send you the original file minted with the buyer’s approval.”
Musk could have made his profile picture by simply right-clicking and saving the image. Although Twitter has a dedicated feature that allows users to set their NFT as a hexagonal show image, Musk’s avatar is just a regular profile picture.
On the blockchain, NFTs are supposed to authenticate ownership of everything from digital artwork to sports memorabilia. Skeptics have mocked them because it is simple to replicate and distribute related content material online without purchasing a token.
Musk, who recently agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion, appeared to mock NFTs in a follow-up tweet.
“I’m not sure… “Seems kinda fungible,” Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter.
NFTs aren’t intended to be fungible, which means they can’t be swapped out for one another.
This isn’t the first time Musk’s tweets have caused wild swings in asset prices. The value of bitcoin and dogecoin — a “meme” cryptocurrency favored by Musk — has risen and fallen dramatically as a result of Musk’s numerous tweets.
Since its inception a year ago, the Bored Ape NFT collection has cultivated a cult-like following, with everyone from diehard crypto investors to celebrities like Jimmy Fallon buying up the buzzy ape icons.
Yuga Labs minted a set of deeds to digital land in an upcoming “metaverse” sport known as “Otherside” this weekend. The demand for the NFTs, also known as Otherdeeds, was so high that the Ethereum blockchain, which underpins the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency, became clogged.
Also read Jeff Bezos Sneers At Musk’s Twitter Takeover, Claiming It May Empower China.
As a result, Ethereum‘s “gas fees” — the costs of approving transactions — skyrocketed. Some customers said they had to pay an extra $4,000 in fees. Yuga Labs later apologized for the incident and stated that any failed transactions would be refunded to customers.
“We apologise for temporarily turning off the lights on Ethereum,” the company tweeted on Saturday. “It appears clear that in order to scale properly, ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain.”
Yuga Labs said it was “still working on refunding all Otherdeed miners with failed transactions for their gas” in an additional tweet on Sunday.
Despite the temporary boost on Wednesday, the ApeCoin token has dropped roughly 17% in the previous week. It is one of the top 40 digital currencies on CoinGecko, with a market cap of $4.4 billion.
