What happened
The hot cryptocurrency of the moment, ApeCoin (APE -0.93%), got even hotter on Thursday. As of late afternoon, the token tightly linked to the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token ecosystem was up by nearly 20% over the previous 24 hours. That made it a 300-pound gorilla when contrasted with the modest gains of a great many fellow tokens, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Polkadot.
So what
Unlike nearly all of those coins, ApeCoin is on the brink of entering a new stage of evolution. This Saturday, BAYC is slated to launch Otherside, its metaverse project in which the anchor currency is that furry animal token. And it's not like there was a long ramp-up to the launch -- it was officially announced last Saturday.
Bored Ape Yacht Club's virtual headquarters. Image source: Yuga Labs.
While enthusiasm for cryptocurrencies has generally cooled lately, investors are still excited about the prospects of the metaverse. Compounding this, BAYC has provided few details about Otherside, helping to burnish that cyberworld's mystique and keep people interested.
A brief animated video posted on the recently established (and apparently official) OthersideMeta Twitter account, soundtracked with The Doors' Break on Through, presents an odd, colorful world with an aesthetic similar to BAYC's popular NFTs. The main characters in Otherverse seem to be (you guessed it) BAYC-styled apes, although it's anyone's guess whether Otherside participants actually get to play as those creatures.
Now what
Another big question is what exactly is going to be sold upon Otherside's launch (there is a "first mint" for NFTs connected to that metaverse), but in Apeworld fashion, precious few specifics have been provided.
So what we're dealing with in ApeCoin is not only a very proprietary token, but also one whose future is full of question marks. It might be loaded with potential, but then again it could represent a rickety-foundation trap for incautious investors. To me, this uncertainty makes it an asset to avoid for now.
