Some may mistake these monkeys for the same, but there is more than meets the eye with Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). Being the second most recognizable collection in the space, Mutant Apes are held in high regard as a blue-chip project. When Yuga Labs, the creators of the original trendy collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), planned to release a second collection, it was met with much skepticism. The issue with releasing another collection is in the eyes of holders, it dilutes and extracts value from the original collection. But in the grander scheme of things, Mutant Ape Yacht Club became a stepping stone in building the Yuga Labs Metaverse.

What is Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC)?

Mutant Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 20,000 Ape NFTs with a combination of mutated apes from the original collection of Bored Ape Yacht Club and brand-new ones. Otherwise known as MAYC, the NFT collection is the 2nd official collection within the Yuga Labs ecosystem on the Ethereum Blockchain. Released on August 28, 2021, the idea of the collection is to onboard more users to fund the expansion of the Yuga Labs universe.

MAYC is the third collection under the umbrella of Yuga Labs. With Bored Ape Kennel Club being an airdrop-only companion to the Apes. The Bored Ape Kennel Club never had a public release to non-holders, only available via the secondary market.

Who created MAYC?

Friends even before plunging into the crypto scene, Gargamel and Gordon Goner were the first two members of Yuga Labs. Better known as Gargamel, Greg Solano is a writer by trade. On the other hand, Gonor’s real name is Wylie Aronow. The friends came together by their similar passion for writing as both studied BFA Creative Writing in college. Gargamel reached out to Gonor to create something like a collection which eventually led to forming of their company. Engineers Zeshan and Kerem completed the original foursome. Both came into the picture to work on the technical aspect of the project. And thus, Yuga Labs officially formed their identities and remained anonymous until earlier Feb 2022 when Buzzfeed reported on the identities of Gargamel and Gordon Goner. Before the article came out, even Zeshan and Kerem used aliases for Sass and Emperor Tomato Ketchup, respectively. Epically, all the founders revealed themselves to the public via Twitter by participating in the popular trend showcasing “Web 2 vs. Web 3 me’’.

Since then, the team has grown, which includes current acting CEO Nicole Muniz. She also confirmed the Buzzfeed reporting; however, she slammed it for posing a danger to both founders. Muniz agrees that while the public deserves to know their identities, she just wanted to ensure that all parties would be safe from untoward incidents in the space. Despite the doxing, the founders still go by their aliases on Twitter.

Transforming with Mutant Serums

With Mutant Ape Yacht Club supply being at 20,000 NFTs, holders of the original Bored Ape Yacht Club were randomly airdropped Mutant Serums. The serums allotted to those holding the original collection amounted to 10,000 NFTs, which was half the total amount. With the remaining 10,000 of the supply being reserved for the public.

The Mutant Serums given for free to BAYC holders are broken down as follows: 7,500 of the M1 Mutant Serum, 2,492 of the M2 Mutant Serum, and lastly, 8 of the Mega Mutant Serum. With the serums, the Bored Ape holders were given the choice of whether to mutate their apes or sell their serums. It is important to note that transforming their apes did not mean that they were burning only the serum and not the original asset; they were getting another asset. Base level or M1 Mutant Apes are the most common, followed by M2 Apes.Lastly, the most special is that of the Mega Mutant variant. With only 13 in existence, the additional five coming from the public mint, the Mega Mutant Serum or M3 is exceptionally scarce and has produced some eye-popping sales for the collection. There have been 12 reveals for the Mega Mutants Apes, with only one Mega Serum left available.

Historic Sales for Mutant Serums

Most of the staggering sales for the serum were made by high-profile individuals. Ethereum Foundation co-founder Taylor Gerring made a ruckus across Crypto Twitter by spending 888 ETH valued at $3.6 million at the time of the acquisition. However, Gerring did not stop there as he went on to stream the reveal of his new Mega Mutant Ape on Twitch. 

Not to be outdone, the CEO of Chain Protocol, Deepak Thapliyal, also goes by Deepak. eth made an even higher purchase of the same M3 Serum at 1542 ETH ($5.7 MILLION). To this day, the record has not been broken, with the only one remaining Mega Mutant Serum.

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How much is MAYC NFT?

The general fanfare around the original collection made interest in the MAYC collection sky-high. The team determined that the public release of these Mutant Apes would be through a Dutch auction as it was the best and the fairest way for those wanting to get into the Yuga Labs ecosystem.

The Duction auction commenced with a starting price of 3ETH, decreasing over 9 hours; the bottom price would then gradually fall to 0.01 ETH. However, within an hour of the auction, the public sale had already concluded despite being dropped unannounced to prevent botting and traffic. By the following day, the floor of the Mutant Apes was already twice that, selling for around 7eth a piece. The team was able to raise $96 million.

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As of the writing, the floor Mutant Ape is priced is climbing and peaking at 40 ETH at one point. The highest sale ever for the collection is 350 ETH for the Mutant Ape NFT #4849. The collection has done over 449,000 ETH worth of sales in the secondary market, which is approximately $783 million at today’s ETH price. The group is available on Opensea, Looksrare, and other major secondary market platforms.

Why buy a MAYC?

The most important utility of the MAYC brand is the accessibility it provides. Despite not receiving the full privileges as a BAYC NFT, a MAYC NFT delivers a lot of similar utilities. Both receive airdrops, allowlists, and even access to private channels in the Bored Ape Yacht Club Discord server.

Much of the utility of a Mutant ape is deeply connected with that of a Bored Ape NFT. Even with the recent release of APE coins, the native currency in the Yuga Labs metaverse, the Mutant Apes were able to claim 2,042 APE tokens though it pales in comparison to the 10,094 tokens claimable for Bored Apes. In addition, MAYC collectors were given a guaranteed mint for the Otherdeed land sale, which was a whole ordeal.

MAYC vs. BAYC

Some may see MAYC and think that it’s a battle between BAYC. However, that is not the case; instead, MAYC is a supplement to the broader arc of the BAYC ecosystem. There is no denying that the MAYC is very popular with most people in the NFT space. It sits only a spot behind the original collection. With the lower barrier of entry for the average consumer, Mutant Ape Yacht Club has significantly onboarded a lot more people into the space than their predecessors. However, the success that MAYC has experienced is primarily attributed to how well the Yuga Labs team connected BAYC and MAYC.Without each other, both collections wouldn’t be as popular as they are now. With a more extensive base of supporters through the public release of the Mutant Apes, the original Bored Apes were able to skyrocket in terms of price and grew in mainstream popularity.

Despite the initial fear of watering down the Bored Ape from holders, Mutant Ape has conveniently served its purpose of trying to get more eyes on the ecosystem. Without a doubt, Yuga Labs was able to dispel those concerns. Since then, Yuga Labs has made significant moves, even purchasing the Cryptopunk collection from Larva Labs. It reminds to be seen what the future holds for the MAYC brand, but one thing is for sure, it will prosper with BAYC and Yuga Labs.

This article is written by Jan Jeric Santos. This article is not financial advice.