After taking NFTs where they haven't gone before - including space -- the founders behind BAPESTM (Business Apes), an innovative global NFT (Non-Fungible Token) project, remain more confident than ever in their mission to transform investing through its unique NFT technology.
Enthusiasm for the NFT market may have waned recently with economic turmoil roiling the financial markets, but BAPES' founding partners and its rapidly growing community, the BAPESCLANTM, remained unfazed.
They know downturns come and go, and actually, view it as an opportunity for the BAPES community to build on its ever-expanding influence.
For the BAPESCLAN, the premature death of the cryptocurrency and NFT markets has been greatly exaggerated.
"We are creating and generating wealth and opportunities among our community even in the toughest of times, and our focus is to continue to innovate and create new products that give immense value to each of our esteemed BAPESCLAN holders," said Moe Zahria, one of BAPES founders. "The recent downturn of the market is definitely a chance for all people to come into the space, and invest at a highly discounted price and gain assets that generate exclusive opportunities. This is why what we are bringing to the NFT space is truly unique. Before we came into the space, the overwhelming majority of the NFT community had been jumping from project to project, flipping for some money, and gaining their monthly salary. This method is completely unreliable, and because of the latest market downturn, we are seeing a paradigm shift."
What is BAPES?
Founded by successful businessmen and women with diverse backgrounds working in a myriad of divergent industries, BAPES is a unique Metavestor club that exclusively empowers crypto-native companies, forged in the Metaverse.
Every BAPES NFT holder is considered a Metavestor, earning continuous Metawards and Metavends from all of the Metaprojects that the BAPESCLAN, as a collective, votes to Metavest in from the BAPES Metafund. This is a utility within the NFT space that is truly an innovative step forward for investors.
"In terms of the investment community, we are completely revolutionizing the idea of investing by transforming the traditional model of VCs and angel investors with startup companies. Instead of raising money in weeks or months, with NFT technology and a powerful community, we can raise money in seconds. The depth of a powerful community of nearly 2,000 people cannot be underestimated. We have the power to truly engage with our clients and help boost other communities through our experience, not only in the NFT space but also in traditional Web 2.0 businesses," Zahria said.
He added, "People think that NFTs are just a picture. This is far from the case. We are breaking down barriers with the power of the blockchain and enabling seamless ownership without limitations."
The BAPESCLAN has come a long way in a short time since its launch only a mere seven months ago in early January 2022 by Zahria, and his fellow founding partners, Erik "ELO" Lydecker, Douglas "DouglasDM" Brue, Brian J. Esposito, and New Orleans Saints NFL veteran Cam Jordan, who have leveraged their extensive experience in gaming and tech to impact the NFT space. The founders' vision for BAPES has focused on providing a true NFT market utility, intriguing artwork, shared ownership in IP such as music, and support and access from business ambassadors made up of varied influential industry leaders.
"BAPES has become one of the fastest-growing and largest organic NFT projects in the world. We could not have accomplished this in such a short while, if it wasn't for this brilliant core team and the amazing BAPES community," Zahria explained.
Zahria said even during recent tough market conditions BAPES' market cap hit a new peak of nearly $100,000,000 in June 2022, amounting to a massive jump in floor price and an increase of 33 times - 3300% since launching.
Zahria explained, "The reason this is happening is that we are bringing real tangible utility and value through our staking airdrop program. Our holders from our program have already earned over 700ETH in trade volume, which amounts to today's current market valued at over $1.1 million! and through selling some of their exclusive virtual keys and certificates that were given to them for free by the BAPESCLAN."
He added the market is currently watching BAPESCLAN closely anticipating what's in store with the next official BAPESCLAN drop named FUTURE BAPES (BAPES: GENESIS II).
It's already off to a fast start. In a matter of seconds, the BAPES FUTURE Collection sold out completely, raising a new Metafund proving anything is possible with a strong community of BAPESCLAN believers.
Recent BAPES milestones include:
- Nominated at NFT.NYC for best business model in the NFT industry alongside BAYC, NIKE RTFK, GARYVEE'S VEEFRIENDS, and Alethea AI.
- First NFT project to announce their mint from the International Space Station with the upcoming SPACEBAPES collection. This will be a 10K collection that is looking to raise the world's first Space Metafund that will invest in the top 10 space technology startups assessed by the BAPES community's space industry leaders and legends.
- In less than 90 days, BAPES transitioned from an NFT project to a real company based in the world's crypto capital, and one of the largest global financial institutions, the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC).
- BAPES is the world's first DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) in any financial center globally.
- In less than 14 days after the release of the BAPES GENESIS KEY Free Airdrop to all exclusive BAPESCLAN holders who staked their NFT, secondary markets for the BAPES-VIP All Access Invite Token increased 500 times (0.001ETH to 0.5ETH) and $150,000 of 72h. The trading volume is 370ETH which is estimated to be over $500,000 for BAPES holders in today's current market value.
- All together with the free airdrops, BAPES gifted its holders the trade volume of 761ETH, which brought an estimated $1,000,000 for BAPES holders.
- The creation of BAPES' three new main products: ChainLaunchTM, ChainRescueTM, and ChainVestTM.
- ChainLaunchTM: A powerful leading launchpad for highly professional NFT projects and companies with a major focus on Metaverse play-to-earn gaming. BAPES ensures initial success and will stabilize the value long term. This is where BAPES holders will receive free NFTs and royalties from every single NFT project that is launched on its launchpad. The first project BAPES is debuting on the launchpad is aimed for Summer 2022, titled Bloodlines, which will be the first decentralized animated series, created and owned by its holders, that bridges the gap between Hollywood and Web3.
- ChainRescueTM: An NFT consultancy service that assists and embraces NFT projects and their communities that show promising potential. BAPES will increase the market cap for projects its embraces by an average of 500%. This has been exemplified in a project BAPES has partnered with called Apiens, a fashion-based Web3 integrated brand. Their floor price has increased from.04ETH and reached a 1.29ETH peak with an estimated over 1300ETH generated in volume, which is valued at an estimated $1.9 million.
- ChainVestTM: A groundbreaking marketplace for Reward Bearing Tokens (RBTs) that enables startups and SMEs to raise capital like never before. RBTs provide GENESIS II holders with access points in the Metaverse to earn rewards.
- Introducing a new technology that will help forge a bridge to the mainstream market with ease of minting and purchasing the BAPES NFT through social media and credit/debit cards. This new system will give new users a seamless and smooth experience for minting the BAPES GENESIS II collection.
- BAPES' leadership was featured as keynote speakers on the main stage at Dubai Metacon, the region's largest NFT and Web3.0 event. In addition, the central cafeteria of the entire convention was rebranded as the BAPES LOUNGE.
- BAPES has trended multiple times in the past four months on the #1 marketplace for NFTs in terms of popularity on OpenSea.
"We believe reaching a 10ETH floor this past June on our Genesis I collection has really set the precedent of success for our upcoming Genesis II collection that will connect our staking program with rewards from our ChainVest Marketplace," Zahria said. "We believe this will be the new way to invest in companies and startups, and SMEs, directly using blockchain and Web3 technology, powered by a community of thousands of holders who are 99% holding on to their BAPESCLAN NFTs, with the benefit of experience in every industry on the planet."
BAPES' launch was initially met with skepticism by some in the investment and cryptocurrency industries. The vast and varied business and tech industry experience from its 25 ambassadors and overall BAPESCLAN community has played a key factor in BAPES' rapid growth and has gone a long way toward answering its critics.
"One of the main objections at the start of BAPESCLAN was that everything we are planning to accomplish just sounds too good to be true, or sounds like there is so much going on. They wondered how can we accomplish all of this?" Zahria recalled. "Our team is one of the most versatile and prolific teams in the entire NFT space with decades of business experience. We take pride in our NFT working for its holders, not our holders working for the NFT. The value is embedded and brought to life by a community of like-minded passionate and talented people, alongside global leading business ambassadors enabling our Metavestor group to continuously flourish."
So where does BAPES go from here?
Zahria sees no limits, only opportunities as he envisions BAPES becoming a leading company in Blockchain technology by making payments easier, safer, and faster, and developing a new traditional way to invest in companies and businesses around the world.
"Decentralization and empowering of the 99% of people globally through this new blockchain technology is our overall goal," Zahria said. "We believe we will be at the center of the future within five years. We are already pioneering the industry through our community and technology, putting us in a great strategic position moving forward, especially through our constant continuous innovation."
