From its modest 0.08 Ether (Ethereum), Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has risen to the star of non-fungible tokens (NFT), competing with one of the earliest examples of Larva Labs CryptoPunk NFT.

Given its steady but amplified growth, many locals in BAYC speculate that their collection will eventually “flip” CryptoPunks, and there are several reasons to support it.

Regarding which series is the top competitor of NFT, the competition between these two series is driven by several factors. Due to the gap between mainstream media adoption and the intellectual property rights granted to its owners, the BAYC and CryptoPunks collections also have different numbers of unique holders. This is important because the number of unique holders usually indicates a wider distribution of owners, which means that it is not dictated by a single sale that determines the overall or reserve price of the project.

Let’s take a look at some of the factors that NFT advocates and traders are talking about about the BAYC project flipping the base price of CryptoPunks.

Two different laboratories and vision

Compared with the dynamic marketing nature of BAYC, the stagnation of CryptoPunks makes many people speculate that “flipping” is inevitable. Add fuel to the fire. Although creators have a lot of copyright options, the “No Rights Reserved” option is not provided by LarvaLabs.

Therefore, many people posted comments on Twitter to support this speculation. A special current former CryptoPunk #4156 was sold at a price of 2,500 Ether, which involves the principles and arguments of Larva Labs on the position of Creative Commons 0 (CC0)-also known as “no rights reserved”.

This is not rights, but activism. It has always happened on the open market. Large stakeholders believe that they can unlock additional value and try to defend their case.If it doesn’t work (as is the case here), they will sell and move on https://t.co/dZBERq07A4

— 4156 (@punk4156) December 5, 2021

In addition to the issue of intellectual property (IP) rights, there seems to be a group of people uniting around “flipping,” because BAYC seems to have mastered its overall marketing and strategic partnerships.

Launched on April 20, 2021, the interesting but boring Apes was minted with 0.08 ETH, which was worth $300 at the time. Soon after celebrities like NBA star Stephen Curry began to convert their Twitter profile pictures to Apes, the market began to surge, cementing the series’ status as a clear “blue chip.”

With the attention and adoption of mainstream media and celebrities, BAYC seems to have a different development trajectory from CryptoPunks. In addition to individuals, BAYC also has strategic cooperation with other brands such as Adidas, and recently announced a partnership with Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based software company that focuses on blockchain games for future P2E games.

When confirming the partnership with Adidas, BAYC hinted at its potential interoperability-the ability to exchange data in different systems, in this case Metaverse.

Today we jump into the metaworld @BoredApeYC, @gmoneyNFT & @Punk comics.

It’s time to enter a world full of infinite possibilities.https://t.co/LmgtrRn20c pic.twitter.com/40kU8tayrS

-adidas Originals (@adidasoriginals) December 2, 2021

CryptoPunks was first generated for free on June 23, 2017 and is suitable for anyone with an Ethereum wallet. The only expense is the price of gasoline at the Mint. Although many people believed that CryptoPunks was the first “NFT” at the time, the token itself was not an ERC-721 token. Although built on the Ethereum blockchain, it turns out that CryptoPunk is earlier than the ERC-721 standard and is closer to becoming an ERC-20 token.

According to Larva Labs, it no longer has any control over the code use Buy, sell and trade CryptoPunk through the blockchain. By giving up control of it, it gives the code more credibility through transparency, assuming it will provide everything it promises.

Whether this is what the community expected is another matter.

Creators control IP or go bankrupt

Regarding the place of value in the NFT collection, there seems to be climate change. The ongoing debate in the NFT field is who owns the rights: the creator or the owner?

Many people question items that grant owners limited rights. However, few NFT projects are consistent with the CC0 mentality of “no rights reserved”. The few NFT projects that run in this way are CrypToadz and NounsDAO-these are projects that @punk4156 cherishes.

This has nothing to do with copyright and non-copyright, but about making pixels as resistant to censorship as the tokens they are attached to. If you don’t assign the same rights to tokens and images, what is the point of binding them forever on the blockchain?

— 4156 (@punk4156) December 5, 2021

Dissatisfaction or dissatisfaction with the limited rights granted to CryptoPunks owners caused the famous CryptoPunks Ape Punk #4156 to change their tone. Although it has a fairly deep-rooted relationship with CryptoPunks-especially the one behind their “brand” Punks #4156, it is still one of the rarest types in the series. Their Ape Punk was listed for sale at 2,500 ETH, valued at 10.26 million US dollars. As the third most valuable CryptoPunks for sale, many people have commented on this historic sale on Twitter.

The copyright issue was the reason for the deportation of a major community member. Given its reputation, many people turned their attention to the left-facing CryptoPhunks. Supporters of Phunks claimed to be on the “right side of history” because they allegedly provided the intellectual property rights by their owners.

Despite the claims and rights granted, there is still something to be said about the numbers-it is undeniable that the BAYC series has already pulled out the numbers.

The power of numbers

According to OpenSea data, in the past 30 days, the transaction volume of the BAYC collection has accumulated nearly 44 Ether. What is impressive is that in November alone, BAYC’s reserve price soared by more than 50%, with an average price of about 56.5 Ether, indicating that its reserve price is easily close to Punk’s reserve price.

In contrast, the Crypto Punks series has locked up 32,005 Ether in the past 4 weeks. According to data from Dune Analytics, since Punk #4156 was sold, its reserve price has been steadily falling, down 7% from the previous month.

Because of this emphasis on reserve prices, the number of unique holders in NFT collections is often overlooked. Focusing on the amount of liquidity exchanged, people will ignore the number of individuals holding tokens.

One might argue that the greater the number of sole holders, the more successful the collection will be. This is because it is widely adopted and is not dominated by a small group of people who can easily ignite natural gas through a sale.

When comparing the two series, BAYC has nearly 6,000 independent holders, while CryptoPunks has 3,273 independent holders, less than half. According to Larva Labs, the top 10 CryptoPunk owners have more than 100 CryptoPunks in their wallets, and the highest wallet holds 410.

According to Dune Analytics, the highest proportion of apes have It is 1.05%, which means that no wallet has more than 105 Apes. Since fewer wallets in the BAYC collection occupy most of the ownership, this means that more people in the community not only win most of the collection, but also share a sense of collective value. The Bored Ape Yacht Club community members will protect the value that the brand seems to obtain through its partnership and are “diamond hands.”

Potential “flipping”-but does it matter?

The focus is on “When/when will BAYC flip CryptoPunks?” Perhaps the bigger question is, does this matter?

Regardless of whether Apes defeated Punks, many people believe that Apes will never surpass advanced punks like Aliens or CryptoPunk versions of Apes. Some people say that the BAYC series lack a series of visual “status stratification”, making them more difficult to evaluate.

Only time will tell if apes will flip punk. However, regardless of copyright restrictions, the narrative may shift and pay less attention to the market value and reserve price of the two collections, and more attention to the value acquired over time by the two collections.

After all, there will always be another potential “blue chip” on the horizon.

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