ApeCoin Is Up 62% Since Launching Last Month and Hit an All-Time High Today. Should You Buy?

ApeCoin is the cryptocurrency launched by developers of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection and it seems to be surging on buzzy news.

ApeCoin (APE) token surged as much as 30.17% today to an all-time high of $17.17. Over the past week the price of the token is up more than 32% and 62% since its launch 30 days ago, according to CoinMarketCap. ApeCoin was inspired by the creators -- Yuga Labs -- of the incredibly successful non-fungible token (NFT) series known as Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).

NFT investors and celebrities including Jimmy Fallon, Eminem, and Paris Hilton have paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for one of these NFTs. Yesterday, Gemini announced it would allow holders of APE to earn interest on the Gemini cryptocurrency exchange. ApeCoin is also available on Binance, Coinbase, and Kucoin, as well as a handful of smaller platforms.

What is ApeCoin and why is it surging?

ApeCoin is a token that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. It was developed to capitalize off the BAYC popularity and be used within the rapidly expanding APE ecosystem. While it's supported by the APE Foundation, it is a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) -- which means the project is governed by a community of voters who rely on smart contract programming and the APE Foundation to execute community decisions in an open and transparent manner.

While the Foundation is responsible for the day-to-day operations such as project management and paying bills, the DAO community is ultimately in charge and it decides and directs who works at the Foundation in a stewardship capacity. The official ApeCoin website states that the ApeCoin project will be a tool to advance and implement gaming, entertainment, working, events and more within the metaverse.

"APE is a token made to support what's next, controlled and built on by the community. It will serve as a decentralized protocol layer for community-led initiatives that drive culture forward into the metaverse," the website reads.

In addition to the Gemini staking announcement yesterday for APE, there has been a lot of buzz around its complementary BAYC project, such as Yuga Labs' pending metaverse launch that will be accessible by other exclusive, high-priced NFT projects including CryptoPunks and World of Women. Coinbase also recently announced its plans to produce and launch a BAYC film trilogy to drive further awareness and adoption. The combination of this news is the most likely catalyst for APE's positive pricing momentum.

Should you buy ApeCoin?

As of this writing, APE is trading at $16.39 -- retracing a bit from its all-time high set earlier today -- with a current market valuation of $4.65 billion according to CoinMarketCap, making it larger than stalwart metaverse projects, Decentraland and The Sandbox, respectively.

Each investor should always do their own research and invest only what they can comfortably afford to lose. This article is only intended as an informational resource, and it is not financial advice. However, the celebrity buzz around the BAYC and APE projects, coupled with growing adoption and improving fundamentals, make APE worth considering -- and that's no monkey business.