Author: Frank, PANews

In just a day and a half, APE surged by 135%, once again returning to the mainstream crypto spotlight, but this time relying on MEME.

At 4:27 AM on October 20, the official Twitter account of the Bored Ape Yacht Club announced that the Apechain mainnet was officially launched. Just over ten minutes later, the market began to respond to this new L3, and the governance token APE started to rise. Meanwhile, as the one-click token creation platform Ape Express launched the CURTIS token and began to rally, the price of APE also increased simultaneously. By October 21, the price of APE had risen from 0.748 to a peak of 1.758, marking a maximum increase of over 135%.

Many people exclaimed that the king of NFTs had returned in a new way, while others were skeptical, believing this was merely a brief blind stimulus from the market, and the fate of Apechain remained uncertain. Regardless of how things develop next, the events of the past two days have indeed showcased Apechain's excellent operational capabilities, presenting a classic Web3 marketing battle to the world.

A Combination Punch Tops the Traffic Charts

In the past two years, NFTs and the metaverse have had a low presence in the crypto world, and the glory of IP seems to have long been sealed in the album of history. As one of the most well-known IPs in the Web3 space, the fate of the Bored Apes resembles that of a retired superstar, watching as new players continuously emerge in the MEME arena, igniting new tokens across various communities and cultures. Meanwhile, the Bored Apes, once the best at creating IP and stirring up community engagement, have genuinely missed out on the rising market over the past year.

However, it is evident that the Apechain team has not been confined to their small circle. From the products and strategies launched this time, it appears that Apechain has employed nearly all of the most efficient strategies currently available in the market.

In summary, Apechain has launched a combination punch, divided into several segments: the launch of the Apechain mainnet, a token creation platform similar to Pump.fun, the new MEME king CURTIS, automatic earnings for APE holders, and price rallies. Any one of these elements alone might struggle to create the effect of APE returning to the top spot. But when combined and launched together, the power of the combination becomes apparent, even giving the impression that it is difficult to discern what is truly driving the action here.

Next, PANews will analyze this classic Web3 case.

ApeFest Fan Events Build Momentum, Casually Announcing FOMO

The evening of October 20 marked the last day of the fourth ApeFest, where countless enthusiasts and holders of Bored Apes celebrated in Lisbon, Portugal. On social media, many Bored Ape holders shared videos and content related to the event that day, laying a solid foundation for the topic's heat around APE. Even BMW's official account posted about the event multiple times that day.

The launch of Apechain was not a typical project announcement, coldly dropping a long official statement. The Bored Ape Yacht Club's approach was unconventional; prior to this announcement, the official account had released several tweets introducing the ApeFest activities. At the end of this series of tweets, they casually mentioned, "Oh, by the way, while we’ve been tweeting… ApeChain is live. Start visiting now to see real-time updates." This seemingly casual announcement not only created a light-hearted atmosphere but also seemed to carry an element of FOMO.

Simultaneously, there was likely an announcement made on-site during the event, as participants began tweeting to share the news. After this series of operations, at least on the news front, the heat around APE had already boiled over. On the other hand, the price of APE began to rise, further fueling this surge in interest.

Those monitoring market dynamics would check the reasons for the rise, carefully studying Apechain to make investment judgments. Meanwhile, those seeing the news on social media would look at market performance to assess the importance of the information. This created a two-way cycle.

The MEME Wealth Effect and Automatic Earnings Add Fuel

Of course, simply launching Apechain would quickly dampen the enthusiasm of external investors, as it appeared to be just another Layer 3 chain built on Arbitrum Orbit. Therefore, it was necessary to add more fuel to the fire, and two key elements were introduced to the market.

One element is a MEME token named CURTIS, which has seen its price rise continuously since its creation. Unlike previous leading MEME tokens that experienced a pullback before rising on chains like Solana, CURTIS has exhibited a rapid upward trend filled with FOMO sentiment.

The other element is the "automatic earnings model for ApeCoin holders," which seems to have alleviated some concerns about the rise of APE. In fact, PANews research indicates that this automatic earnings model may not be as automatic as it sounds; users need to select specific apeUSD through cross-chain transactions to realize these earnings, and the exact return rate is currently uncalculated. Therefore, the actual effectiveness of this automatic earnings feature remains uncertain, but from a performance perspective, it has indeed met expectations.

With the support of these two elements, more projects and tokens within the Apechain ecosystem began to attract attention. The most popular among them is a trading simulation competition called "Top Trader," developed by the Workshop team. This on-chain trading simulation game allows users to trade with 1000x leverage, with winners sharing a prize pool of $10,000. Although the prize money is not substantial, its greater purpose is to help the newly launched Apechain quickly accumulate on-chain trading volume and new users. By October 21, Apechain's cumulative trading volume had reached 1.3 million transactions (with 1.12 million transactions occurring on October 20).

Is There More to the Combination Punch?

If a good start is half the battle, Apechain has certainly secured that half perfectly. However, whether there will be new combination punches in the future remains to be seen.

From the data performance on October 21, the skepticism on social media regarding APE being just another "one-time wave" may not be unfounded. Firstly, regarding the MEME token, the leading token CURTIS saw its market cap drop from nearly $30 million at its peak to $6 million, indicating a significant pullback. Only three tokens have a market cap exceeding $10 million, while the remaining tokens are mostly below $1 million. The number of tokens with trading volumes exceeding $1 million is also fewer than five. From this perspective, the MEME heat on Apechain seems to have struggled to maintain its momentum.

Other data also experienced a steep decline, with active users reaching 83,000 on the 20th and dropping to 5,293 on the 21st. APE transfers were 93,000 on the 20th and fell to 15,000 on the 21st.

However, the price of the APE token has remained around $1.50, which is relatively positive. From the Apechain official website, the homepage banner features a racing game that has yet to be launched. Based on the current content displayed on the official platform, it seems that games may still be a primary foundation for Apechain, and the MEME token craze, in the face of severe competition among various public chains, will find it challenging to compete with the established MEME ecosystems of Solana, Ethereum, Base, and others.

Looking back to 2022, when Apechain was just announced, Yuga Labs completed the acquisition of CryptoPunks, and the floor price of Bored Ape NFTs once surpassed 100 ETH. Many believed that the Yuga Labs team could create a Web3 version of Disney. However, two years later, it is uncertain whether Yuga Labs still harbors the vision of building a Web3 Disney. The winds of NFTs and the metaverse seem to be blowing further away, and what Apechain can do now is merely to barely catch the last train of MEME. From this lively launch, it is clear that Yuga Labs' operational and promotional capabilities should not be underestimated, and it is worth anticipating what sparks may fly before the train arrives at its destination.

The Bored Ape Yacht Club's comeback operation also raises the question: when the dream of a Web3 Disney fades, is the only way forward for crypto to become a "casino"?

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