Hype Of The Ape: Is ApeCoin The New Dogecoin?

ApeCoin has been making waves since it was first announced by Yuga Labs, although like another digital asset, it, too, has had its ups and downs. It has recently made it back into the frontlines after its parent NFT collection, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) gained the attention of billionaire Elon Musk. Musk who has been known to pump various digital assets had caused ApeCoin to surge after making one small change to his Twitter profile.

Elon Musk Pushes ApeCoin

The price of ApeCoin had recorded a significant uptick after Elon Musk had made his Twitter profile picture a collection of BAYC avatars. It had quickly garnered the attention of investors in the space as they had FOMO’d into the digital asset. The resultant growth was a 20% spike that occurred in minutes following this move that had seen  ApeCoin grow as high as $17.25.

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This would prove to not last though after a follow-up tweet from the billionaire had gone live. Musk who had singlehandedly caused the surge in price would end up being responsible for the dip that would follow this recovery. The second tweet was a simple one but one that was obviously referring to the fungibility of NFTs, implying that they were indeed fungible as opposed to what investors believe. 

I dunno … seems kinda fungible

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2022

APE had receded but not before the damage had already been done. With this move, Musk has proven that any asset in the space can be subject to an increase just purely hype alone. By the time the tweet went live, ApeCoin had declined back to the $15 territory.

Is APE The New Dogecoin?

Although Musk’s move to change his profile picture to BAYC avatars seemed like a move to prove the fungibility of these jpegs, it has raised the question of where the future of ApeCoin lies in terms of future profitability. As with Dogecoin, those in the space have now begun to question whether the billionaire plans on constantly pushing the NFT-adjacent cryptocurrency to his community or if this was a one-off event.

“He has earned a huge reputation as a Bitcoin, Dogecoin, and Shiba Inu proponent and he just added a Bored Ape collage to his Twitter profile,” said Fuad Fatullaev, Founder and CEO of NFT marketplace, WeWay.

APE declines to $15 | Source: APEUSD on TradingView.com

Musk has not really been a part of the NFT community nor has he aligned himself with it so far but perhaps this could be the start of something new for the billionaire. If this is so, starting with such as large project as a BAYC would not be exactly out of the ordinary. With Musk’s endorsement of a coin like APE, it could easily go on to be one of the largest cryptocurrencies by market cap in the space.

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“Moreover, ApeCoin is currently ranked amongst the top 40 largest cryptocurrencies worldwide,” added Fatullaev. “Just as we have seen with his previous publicity, a continuous shilling of Bored Apes can contribute to the growth of APE token price which can touch $25 in the next couple of weeks.”

APE is trading at $16 at the time of this writing. The digital asset is down from its high from Musk’s shilling but continues to hold up steady even as the hype wears off.

Featured image from Boardroom, chart from TradingView.com