The media company <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/the-story-behind-yuga-labs-and-apecoin">Yuga Labs</a> wants to turn the internet inside out with the million-dollar monkey pictures from the "Bored Apes Yacht Club". The idea is very simple: 10,000 digital images of bored-looking monkeys, automatically generated by the computer. The Bored Ape Yacht Club looks like a type of digital art collection where each artwork is for sale. Bored Apes images act like Pokémon cards: they can be collected, sold, and traded.

<img class="aligncenter" src="https://news.coincu.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/image_2021-12-31_142623-1024x539.png" alt="Bored Ape NFTs " width="659" height="347" />
<h2>The Boom Turns Into A Club</h2>
The Bored Apes first gained much attention in 2021. This was when a global hype arose around NFTs, and digital artworks were sold as NFTs for record prices. The Bored Apes also benefited from the boom. The most expensive monkey to date was sold in 2021 for around two million euros.

The money for the sales goes to the individual dealers — many of them anonymously. But the company Yuga Labs, which manages the Bored Apes collection, also makes money from it. The monkey pictures are sold on the market, making a commission payment on every resale.

According to their statements, some celebrities have also bought a Bored Ape. They include Eminem, Jimmy Fallon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/cardano-based-nft-project-clay-mates-goes-live-with-snoop-dogg">Snoop Dogg</a>. However, some observers are critical of the fact that they publicly display their NFT purchases. The suspicion arises that prominent names are driving up the value of the virtual monkey pictures and thus promising the owners of the pictures higher winners.

There are already plans to monetize the monkeys beyond their pictures. <a href="https://www.cryptoknowmics.com/news/universal-music-group-partners-with-curio-on-nft-fan-collection">Universal Music Group</a>, which is also connected with the Bored Apes NFTs, announced last year that it would be merging four of its apes into a virtual band.

Yuga Labs and several other major NFT projects recently announced they had received over €400 million in investments. They want to use it to build a virtual metaverse. Currently, Yuga Labs is valued at around four billion dollars.
<h2>Are The Monkeys Worth It?</h2>
Most people who first learn about the Bored Apes phenomenon are initially confused. They ask, "why should monkey arts be worth so much money?" Fans of the collections point out that the value of art can never be objectively measured. They also opine that artworks are simply sold for what a buyer is willing to pay. For many buyers, the high price of the movements has probably come to an end.

However, critics see the risk of a pyramid scheme in the excessively high prices. If no more new buyers come along and pay the same high prices as their predecessors, this could collapse. In that case, only the early buyers of the monkeys would have made a profit. All stragglers would have to accept heavy losses.

There are already first indications that interest in the Bored Apes is waning. According to a Google trend analysis, the collection is already receiving significantly less attention than it did at the beginning of the year.
<h2>Is This The Future?</h2>
Bored Ape Yacht Club has already made its creators rich — but does that mean the hype will continue? Currently, the project is trying to reassemble cultural and technological building blocks using blockchain technology. <a href="https://www.ibm.com/topics/what-is-blockchain">Blockchain technology</a> may be an important building block for the Internet of the future. However, even on this question, opinions are still divided. Therefore, it is particularly uncertain whether ten thousand monkey pictures on this Internet will still be worth anything.
<h2>Bored Ape NFT Surge On Ethereum Fees</h2>
Yuga Labs, which owns the Bored Ape Yacht Club, started selling its new digital products on April 30th of this year. It was one of the most expensive collections of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) globally. For many people, the fees were too high. Yuga Labs' goal was to create "Otherside," a metaverse game that is crypto-based and features Bored Ape characters. 

Decentraland and Upland (two games that use cryptography) will split their land into parcels called "<a href="https://opensea.io/collection/otherdeed">Otherdeeds</a>." These parcels will be sold to players in exchange for NFTs. Additionally, Otherside will do the same thing with its land.

As a result of the influx of buyers, the Ethereum blockchain has been swamped with transactions. The influx has driven up the cost of the so-called "gas fees." Gas expenses for NFTs may cost hundreds of dollars, even for those who spend less than $10 on the product. 

For instance, the transaction fees for a $5,800 NFT purchased by an unknown bidder are worth $45,000. This NFT is equivalent to 305 ApeCoin (i.e., Yuga Labs-backed currency). Presently, this currency is now worth $4,600 per package (the price per shipment). Cryptocurrency-based marketplaces, plagued by exorbitant fees, currently favor the richest investors who can engage in the new digital markets.
<h2>Effect On Ethereum's Gas Fees</h2>
There are fees connected with every transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. The "gas fees" that miners charge for confirming blockchain transactions are paid by anybody purchasing an NFT on the blockchain. 

While the price of gas fluctuates, surcharges have grown significantly. The average growth has been between the rate of $7 and $43, which was the average fees of  Ethereum transactions in April. It rose to $453 on May 1st throughout the network. It was very ubiquitous to the extent that "Etherscan," the website that monitors Ethereum activity, could not handle it. 

On April 30, Yuga Labs tweeted, "We're sorry for shutting out the lights on Ethereum at this time," apologizing for the inconvenience. In addition, for transactions that didn't go through, the firm apologized and pledged to reimburse the fees of such transactions. 
<h2>Why The Increase In Gas Fees?</h2>
Recent weeks have seen an uptick in NFTs. For example, in April, there were 42 percent more transactions involving Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) than in March. Network fees come in when the most popular chain for hosting NFTs sees a spike in demand. 

Instead of waiting for network demand and costs to decrease before completing time-sensitive transactions, users might pay a higher price to execute them. Otherdeed purchasers believe that large transaction fees are justifiable to access assets that are expected to appreciate during their ownership.

The Effect of The Bored Ape NFT Surge on ETH Gas Fees

Yuga Labs owns the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The influx of Bored Apes NFTs has driven up the cost of the so-called "gas fees."

Oluwademilade Afolabi is a freelance writer and editor passionate about blockchain technology and the health industry. He is a 6th year medical student, and has worked with various companies and blogs since the blockchain revolution began.

The Effect of The Bored Ape NFT Surge on ETH Gas Fees

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