Yuga Labs wants ApeCoin on its own blockchain. ApeCoin owners think otherwise

Quick Take

  • Yuga Labs said the ApeCoin DAO should consider moving ApeCoin its own blockchain.
  • The DAO has voted that it wants the token to stay within the Ethereum ecosystem.

The Bored Ape community has voted to keep building within the Ethereum ecosystem, rather than move the ApeCoin token its own blockchain as creator Yuga Labs had suggested.

According to a snapshot vote that ended today, the ApeCoin governance mechanism — known as the ApeCoin DAO — voted 53.6% in favor of staying within the Ethereum ecosystem. The vote was close, with 3.8 million APE voting for the proposal and 3.3 million APE voting against it.

“Migrating to a different chain is a costly, risky, and complex endeavor with many moving parts that may, if not thoughtfully considered, result in catastrophic loss, or at worst, abandonment by Yuga Labs,” said the proposal.

Some large token holders that voted had a big impact. One investor who came out against the proposal did so with 1.2 million APE, representing 17% of the total vote. The top 13 voting holders controlled 56% of tokens in the poll.

Why is the DAO voting on this?

The vote came about after Yuga Labs — creator of the popular Bored Ape Yacht Club collection of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) — kicked off discussion over the future of its native token ApeCoin, which is currently running on the Ethereum blockchain. After it sold parcels of land in its yet-to-be-built Otherside metaverse for $317 million in April, it blamed the Ethereum network for not being able to cope with demand. 

THE SCOOP

Keep up with the latest news, trends, charts and views on crypto and DeFi with a new biweekly newsletter from The Block's Frank Chaparro

By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
By signing-up you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

“It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We'd like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction,” Yuga Labs said on Twitter at the time.

This led to a flurry of proposals from other blockchain projects that ApeCoin — and even the entire Otherside metaverse — should migrate to their ecosystems. 

The first proposal was by Ava Labs, the team behind Avalanche. It said Otherside and ApeCoin should be launched on an Avalanche subnet, a type of blockchain running on the Avalanche network. This would let it use its own token for transaction fees as well as control its level of decentralization and security.

The second proposal was by Immutable X, an Ethereum-based platform that’s designed for creating and trading NFTs. It suggested that using its platform would provide for a faster and smoother experience, while remaining in the Ethereum ecosystem.

Neither of these proposals have gone to a vote as of yet. It’s also worth noting that ApeCoin DAO only has direct control over ApeCoin itself, while Yuga Labs remains in control of its other projects like Otherside — alongside partners like Animoca Brands. While the DAO may be able to influence Yuga Labs’ decision-making process, it isn’t able to force its hand.


© 2023 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.

About Author

Tim is the Editor-In-Chief of The Block. Prior to joining The Block, Tim was a news editor at Decrypt. He has earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy from the University of York and studied news journalism at Press Association Training. Follow him on X @Timccopeland.