Amid an NFT market rout, a gold Bored Ape sells for $1.5 million

A Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) superfan dropped a staggering 777 ETH ($1.5 million) on a Bored Ape non-fungible token (NFT) on Tuesday night.

Vis.eth, who describes himself as an investor in his Twitter bio, added Bored Ape #5383 to his already vast collection of Yuga Labs wares spread across two wallets.

The seller made off with a tidy profit of around 682 ETH ($1.2 million), having purchased the Ape on August 1 last year for $242,000.

The sale comes in spite of market conditions, as trading volume for NFTs has fallen significantly across all major marketplaces in recent months.

Vis.eth told the Bored Ape Gazette — which has also covered some of his previous large purchases — that he bought the NFT because he wanted to “collect a golden monkey,” referring to the color of the Ape’s fur. Solid gold fur is considered a rare trait among NFTs in the collection, and according to data provider CryptoSlam, #5383 is the 285th rarest NFT in the 10,000-strong collection.

“777 ETH is a suitable price. Yuga will be the first successful social verse,” Vis.eth said.

Over the last few months Vis.eth has spent millions on Otherdeeds, too. His two wallets currently hold more than 60 of the land NFTs that form part of Yuga Labs’ upcoming metaverse project, Otherside, including more than a dozen that are home to Kodas, the mysterious Otherside avatars about which little is known.

Despite being an outlier in the current market, spending $1.5 million on a Bored Ape NFT isn't record breaking. Among the most costly sales, Sotheby’s auctioned off Ape #8817 for $3.4 million on its metaverse marketplace in October last year. The same month, another rare Ape, #8585, sold for $2.7 million, at the time equivalent to 696.969 ETH.

Generally, NFTs in the BAYC collection sell for significantly less. CryptoSlam gives a current average sale price of $115k for BAYC NFTs over the last seven days, with a floor price of 78.5 ETH.