APE Surges, Sinks as Elon Musk Teases With Bored Ape Collage as Profile Picture

ApeCoin (APE), the native token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, surged and then sank during the European trading session as Tesla founder Elon Musk put up a collage of Bored Apes as his Twitter profile picture on Wednesday.

• APE, used to vote on community decisions and other services within the popular BAYC ecosystem, rose to as high as $17.60 from this morning’s $14.40 level, data shows after the change.
• The token slumped back to $15.90 after a tweet at 11:13 UTC, in which Musk said "seems kinda fungible" while making no reference to the new display picture.
• No direct correlation between the events was established at the time of writing.
• The collage was created by auction house Sotheby's for its auction last year of 101 Bored Apes. Sotheby's vice president for digital art Michael Bouhanna confirmed this in a tweet earlier today.
• Musk is a proponent of dogecoin (DOGE) and has previously lent support to the memecoin’s development and adoption. He had previously stated that profile pictures on Twitter showcasing one’s non-fungible tokens (NFT) were “annoying.”
• Musk, who recently agreed to buy the entirety of Twitter, said in a tweet on Tuesday that usage of the social media site for commercial and government users could attract a cost.
• Several celebrities have put up, or had put up, Bored Ape pictures as their Twitter profile pictures, which has contributed to the wide popularity of the NFT collection. The list includes basketball star Stephen Curry and musician Steve Aoki.
• CoinDesk reached out to BAYC creator Yuga Labs for comment at the time of writing.

UPDATE (May 4, 11:32UTC): Rewrites headline, first paragraph to capture volatile trading. Adds Musk tweet in second bullet point.

UPDATE (May 4, 13:04UTC): Changes subheadline, fourth bullet point to show the picture was made for a Sotheby's auction.