Bitcoin BTC and ethereum, by far the biggest cryptocurrencies by value, have moved sharply lower this month, as fears of a financial “doom loop” grip markets and “bitcoin Jesus” reveals his surprise “contenders” for the title of the world’s dominant cryptocurrency.
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The bitcoin price has struggled to break above $40,000 per bitcoin this year while the ethereum price has failed to hold above $3,000 per ether. Both bitcoin and ethereum are down around 20% through April. Meanwhile, the continuing popularity of blockchain-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has helped new cryptocurrency apecoin, linked to the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, become a $7 billion coin.
Now, a survey of cryptocurrency experts has returned a bullish price prediction for apecoin—with the apecoin price rocketing 50% over the last week as the coin’s developer gears up for a fresh NFT sale.
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The soaring popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has helped the crypto market find new … [+]
Apecoin, launched just last month and up hundreds of percent since it began trading, has an average price prediction of $27 by the end of 2022, according to a panel of crypto specialists put together by price comparison website Finder, up from around $24 per apecoin currently. The panel of nine experts predict the apecoin price will hit $35 by the end of 2030.
Apecoin was launched by Yuga Labs, the Andreessen Horowitz venture capital-backed creators of the hugely popular Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, and is soaring ahead of a new Yuga Labs NFT launch this weekend. NFT “land deeds” for up to 55,000 plots of virtual land in the Otherside metaverse game are due to be minted on Saturday and are expected to generate as much as $300 million, according to Financial Times calculations.
Otherside, a type of three-dimensional virtual world that’s become known as a metaverse, will bring together various NFT projects including the Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, Meebits, Cool Cats, and other collections developed by Yuga Labs. The official Otherside Twitter account revealed this week that those wanting to buy the new NFTs will need to pay using apecoin.
“The mint will be exclusively in apecoin, though you’ll need some ethereum for gas,” the Otherside account posted.
As well as the apecoin price surging higher, Yuga Labs’ NFTs are also trading at record prices, with the floor price for Bored Ape NFTs climbing more than 30% through April to over 140 ethereum.
“Apecoin could be absolutely humongous,” said panel member and Thomson Reuters technologist and futurist Joseph Raczynski in a statement.
“Yuga Labs are the blue-chip of NFTs, now that they purchased CryptoPunks. Their ecosystem, using apecoin has the potential to be a game-changer for the metaverse. They are all about community and this one is doing all the right things at the moment.”
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The Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection-linked apecoin price has surged higher this last week, … [+]
Other panel members are even more bullish on the apecoin price, with one predicting it could almost double $45 per apecoin by the end of 2022—but warning it will fall in coming years as NFT hype subsides.
“The current hype of NFTs is impacting the price of apecoin,” said Dimitrios Salampasis, a financial technology lecturer at Swinburne University of Technology. “I am of the opinion that all these overhyped crypto assets will gradually disappear and lose their value because their utility potentialities are trivial.”
However, NFT and crypto skeptics on the panel have warned against people buying either apecoin or NFTs in the hope their prices will appreciate.
“This is an even clearer case of a speculative bubble than bitcoin and ethereum,” said John Hawkins, a senior lecturer at the University of Canberra. “It does not even pretend to have any use.”
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