13/08/2021 NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club has donated $850,000 to an orangutan charity

August 10, 2021

Quick Take

  • Bored Ape Yacht Club is a NFT project that has been rapidly growing in popularity.
  • It has now donated $850,000 in cryptocurrency to Orangutan Outreach.

An ape-themed NFT project called Bored Ape Yacht Club has donated66.45 ETH ($208,000) to an orangutan charity called Orangutan Outreach today. This puts their total donations to the charity at $850,000 at current prices.

The donation was made with an Ethereum transaction, organized through crypto donation platform The Giving Block. This platform enables anyone to make a direct cryptocurrency payment to a range of supported charities.

Founded in 2007, Orangutan Outreach is a New York-based non-profit focused on protecting orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra.

Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of NFTs featuring a range of — you guessed it — bored apes. But NFT owners get some other privileges including the ability to draw pixels on a shared digital canvas. (They do this by signing in with their Ethereum wallets, proving that they own the NFT in question — a decentralized replacement to signing in with Facebook or Google.)

The NFT collection was launched on April 23 but it took until May 1 to sell out. The cost of minting each ape was 0.08 ETH, worth around $220 each at the time. With 10,000 NFTs that means the project netted around $2.2 million.

Bored Ape Yacht Club swiftly took hold, with many crypto members changing their Twitter profile pictures to show off their own bored apes. With this interest, prices for these NFTs rocketed up with the current floor price (meaning the lowest prices the NFTs are currently being sold for) now above 15 ETH ($47,000).

The group previously donated 135 ETH ($419,000) to a range of animal charities on June 30, including a 33.75 ETH ($100,000) donation to Orangutan Outreach at the time. Other charities included Friends of Bonobos (bonobos being a type of great ape) and Wright-Way Rescue, which rescues pets.

On July 9, it donated 11.5 ETH ($36,000) via The Giving Block, including 5.75 ETH ($18,000) to Orangutan Outreach. And on July 28, it gave 169 ETH ($524,000) to the same cause.

To put this in context, members of the crypto community jokingly refer to themselves as "apes," in reference to the idea of "aping into" a hot new project or NFT collection. (Hence why FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has an "APE SZN" sign next to his desk, standing for "ape season.")

Arts

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/114030/nft-project-bored-ape-yacht-club-has-donated-850000-to-an-orangutan-charity

Interesting NFTs
Alex in Wonderland
A figure, Alex, stands mostly naked in the midst of a physical and psychological maelstrom. He is clad only in nostalgic 80’s era socks, on a tenuous island between active waters and a variety of shark denizens. Sharks on the right side of the image are all beached, including a shark with a quartz crystal snout, an orange shark wrapped in a life buoy, and a shark further in the distance wearing an 80’s style shirt with the number “88”. On the left side is the largest shark, wearing bright glossy red lipstick and brandishing prominent teeth with braces. She is cordoned off from the figure by a roped float divider, and within her thought bubble is a warning symbol. Behind the figure, hovering in the air, are Grey aliens emerging from the distance, out of a series of elliptical UFO shaped interdimensional membranes. The Greys take on the visual form of spermazoa ostensibly impregnating the interdimensional thresholds. As is typical, these Greys inhabit a zone just behind the unconscious topology of Alex’s dissociative mind. Though Alex’s bottom half is representative, his top half mutates into a psychological cornucopia. In a manner akin to “Auto-Erotic Sphinx”, a predecessor work, the figure has self suctioned—an act of sensual infatuation, enjoyment, and exploration. Upward exists the figure’s primary conscious eye, adorned with a revolutionary beret emblazoned with a Bitcoin badge. The figure’s summit features the nose of a fighter jet facing off against video game Bullet Bills, one of whom is marked by a communist North Korean star. A cropped section of a UFO observes the contest. Alex’s mind branches both left and right. To the left is more singular embodied consciousness, manifesting two eyes and a Ganesh trunk grasping crayons. The right branch dissociates upward diagonally, emerging into an array of eyes, faces, teeth, tail, a unicorn horn, and much more—all of which participate in expressing his unconscious being; a democracy of psychic factions representing thought impressions and associations. All illumination and darkness– fernal, infernal, high consciousness and corporeal underbelly–reside in this realm. In the distance are relatively languid, light clouds, and against the firmament hovers a colossal distant eye peering over the scene and far beyond. This painting possesses underlying genetic traits with previous works such as “Auto-Erotic Sphinx with Toys”, “Dionysus”, and “Fuku-Shiva”. The work serves also as a nod to an earlier period of art inspiration during late teens and early twenties— born out of the nakedness, vulnerability, curiosity, and wonder inherent to coming of age and all subsequent psychedelic revelation.
Her Mind Had Gone Out For A Stroll & Fallen Down The Rabbit Hole
Her Mind Had Gone Out For A Stroll & Fallen Down The Rabbit Hole' is the first programmable piece of art by Kitty Bast. The owner constructs, modifies & tattoos their very own Doll Lady... Is she falling down a rabbit hole, lost in a sea of cats or gazing into the unknown void? Do you like Pink Ladies or Lilac Ladies? Or do you pick the Wild Card? There's always a wild side to an innocent doll face. Is she obsessed with crypto ponies or crypto kitties? Or does she have an insatiable desire for Mr. Honey Badger. Come inside and have a nice cup of NFTea with the bunnies. Is your lady chained to the blockhain? Does your lady shed Bitcoin tears or ETH tears? Does your doll face don a Rotten Heart? Do you HODL to the Moon to meet the ETH Kitty? Do you have an obsession for cyborgs or Puddin'? Would you like a slice of Death by Pink? Is The Cat's Eye green or golden? Little trolls with mini daggers not included. The cheshire cat might trade you his ears for your goggles. Modifications of the Host. How long is forever? Sometimes, just one second.
2.0
2.0
Kitty#397684
Good morning! I'm Kitty#397684. I've never told anyone this, but I once bit a dog. I once got in a fight with a gecko, and won. I look forward to sweating through my feet with you.
TPunk 3442
By A1F6BF