Yuga Labs CEO defends Bored Ape price comeback

Bored Ape floor prices have doubled in a month as Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge says blue-chip NFTs were oversold.

Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices have doubled over the past month, climbing from around 5 $ETH to over 10 $ETH as traders rotate back into speculative assets. ApeCoin, the ecosystem’s governance token, has also rallied from below $0.10 to roughly $0.16 alongside a sharp increase in trading volumes.

Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge told analysts the rally reflects genuine market correction. “It’s clear from the numbers that for some time, as far as blue-chip digital collectibles go, it was oversold,” Figge said.

What is driving the Bored Ape comeback

The rebound comes as memecoins and other higher-risk assets outperform more defensive sectors such as DeFi, suggesting retail traders are returning after months of subdued activity.

Pudgy Penguins has also rallied sharply in recent weeks, and traders are speculating about a long-rumoured OpenSea token launch reigniting broader marketplace activity.

Figge acknowledged that speculation remains central. “It would be naive to say financial speculation isn’t a huge driver,” he said. “Whatever happens in this cycle will rhyme with the last one, but it’s never going to be exactly the same.”

Yuga Labs has meanwhile shifted its focus toward community building, hosting more than 30 in-person meetups worldwide over the past month. “A lot of what made Bored Ape work in the first place, the social layer, hasn’t really been serviced in recent years,” Figge said.

Market data and holder context

Figge pushed back on critics noting that unique holder counts have not doubled alongside prices. “A cynic will say prices doubled and the unique holder count didn’t double,” he said. “But that’s really just recovery from a period where things fell disproportionately.”

BAYC’s market capitalisation stood at $251 million as of May 10, with the collection recording $13.42 million in sales over the prior 30 days, per CoinGecko data.

The rebound also coincides with a broader reassessment of digital art: pseudonymous $NFT analyst “Van” argued in a recent essay that while speculative mania collapsed after 2021, institutional interest in blockchain-based art has continued quietly at institutions including MoMA and Centre Pompidou.