On August 1st, Apecoin (APE) experienced a staggering fall, reaching a new low of $1.77. This marked a 92% decrease from its all-time high. The decline in APE's value coincided with a drop in Yuga Labs' NFT collections, despite the introduction of new elements in the Otherside metaverse game.
The drop in Apecoin's value can also be attributed to pressures from the SEC and ongoing copyright disputes. Specifically, Apecoin's price plummeted to $1.77 on the night of August 1st, a decline of over 92% from its peak a year ago. The token now ranks 65th by market cap, with a total value of $675 million. As of the time of reporting, APE has slightly recovered to $1.84, following Bitcoin's rally, but remains down 10% on a weekly basis.
Apecoin was introduced to the market in March 2022 at $8.54 and reached as high as $26.70 the next month. Bored Apes NFT also peaked at a minimum price of 152 ETH or $429,000 in April 2022, as Yuga's Otherside game was preparing to launch NFT-based plots.
Although APE is often linked to the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token collection, it is not BAYC's official cryptocurrency. The significant decline followed BAYC creator Yuga Labs' landmark NFT sale for the upcoming metaverse game "Otherside." The Bored Ape NFT's price fell to a multi-year low in early July, down 88% from its peak.
Apecoin also faced challenges when the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused it of offering unregistered services and violating investor protection rules last year. The SEC views some NFTs, such as BAYC and even Apecoin, as securities. Concurrently, Yuga Labs is pursuing a lawsuit against content creator Ryder Ripps for alleged intellectual property rights infringement.
