If you spend time online, particularly on Twitter, you might experience the trending hype of NFTs, especially the Bored Ape NFTs. The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is the most influential NFT project, the BAYC is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs. The BAYC NFT collection was technically created by Yuga Labs, which is the parent company of BAYC.
You might wonder, what makes BAYC such a big deal and why the Bored Apes are so expensive? Well, there are only 10,000 of the Bored Ape NFTs and more celebrities are buying in, so fixed supply is perceived as becoming more valuable. Some Bored Apes with “Solid Gold” fur are extremely rare and expensive (only 46 out of 10,000 apes have this attribute).
BAYC also made the utility of the Bored Ape NFTs clear from the start, so more famous people are buying for NFT’s utility like access to future events, merchandise or keeping it as an investable asset. Subsequently, they kept their community interested, so more and more individuals are buying their NFTs to push the price of the Bored Ape NFTs higher.
This guide will cover everything you need to know to understand the phenomenon better and explain the traits, rarity and sales history of the top 10 Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs ever sold. We will also reveal the most expensive Bored Apes in terms of Ethereum (ETH) and dollar value.
10. Bored Ape #1837
Selling Price: $1.58 Million
ETH Tokens: 569
ETH Price: $2769 / ETH
Last Sold: 25/02/2022
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #246
Bored Ape #1837 sold for $1.58 Million (569 ETH) in Feb 2022 through the largest NFT marketplace OpenSea, this weird-looking ape has been sold for six times in a year. It’s a considerable mark-up from its first selling price of $31,107 (11.48 ETH).
The buyer, Moonpay bought this gold fur bored ape and added fuel to the Elon Musk Rumors about whether this ape was going to Elon Musk. Because the seller, Twitter user ‘Deepak’ tweeted after the sale, said: “I thought I had it at 690.420 ETH. Oh well..as long as it goes to @ElonMusk I’ll be happy. CC: @moonpay”.
It’s unclear if the seller has inside information on Elon Mush joining the Bored Ape Yacht Club. But a photo of Elon Musk meeting with the CEO of Moonpay was circulated around the BAYC on the date before the last sale date (February 25, 2022) of bored Ape#1837. The BAYC member Will Bullish also tweeted along with a photo of Musk and Moonpay CEO Soto-Wright said: “Moonpay meeting with Elon Musk? Is it finally happening?!?”.
The Bored Ape #1837 is a six-trait solid gold fur ape wearing a wool turtleneck sweater. This ape has crazy eyes and a short mohawk in orange background. Based on these traits, this bored ape has a rarity rank of 246 and a rarity score of 208.54, according to Rarity Tools.
9. Bored Ape #4580
Selling Price: $1.84 Million
ETH Tokens: 666
ETH Price: $2769.00 / ETH
Last Sold: 25/02/2022
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #257
Bored Ape #4580 sold for $1.84 million (666 ETH) in Feb 2022 on the leading marketplace OpenSea, it’s a considerable mark-up from its previous sale of $86,664 (40 ETH) in Jun 2021.
Bored Ape #4580 is a six-trait solid gold fur ape wearing 3D glasses, Seaman’s Hat, a Biker Vest with a dumbfounded mouth in orange background. Based on these traits, this ape ranks at #257 with a rarity score of 207.30, according to Rarity Tools.
These traits in themselves aren’t making the rarest, but the combination is forming a unique and fun-looking ape. The buyer is n0b0dy.eth with a collection worth more than 3,000 ETH which consists of at least 12 bored apes.
8. Bored Ape #8135
Selling Price: $1.87 Million
ETH Tokens: 550
ETH Price: $3398.82 / ETH
Last Sold: 17/09/2021
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #7
Bored Ape #8135 is the rarest NFT featured in this guide that breaks into the top 10 rarity ranks, it’s the 7th rarest ape with a rarity score of 320.12 (bored apes with a rarity score around 300 are extremely rare) according to Rarity Tools.
Bored Ape #8135 sold for $1.87 Million (550 ETH) in September 2021 on OpenSea. The buyer is MetalinkLabs and Bored Ape #8135 is the first bored ape in his NFT collection.
The buyer caught the attention of the BAYC as they made a few million dollar offers on rare gold fur apes and also teased a “bigger announcement” for the BAYC coming soon after the purchase. The buyer has named the ape “Mick Dagger” and even created a new Twitter for him.
Bored Ape #8135 featured one of the rarest attributes, the Bored Unshaven Pizza, only 26 out of 10,000 bored apes have this trait. This ape also has another ultra-rare mouth trait, which is the Bored Unshaven Dagger, only 28 out of 10,000 apes in the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection have this trait.
Combining all these rare traits from Bored Ape #8135 will give this ape a high rarity score which justifies the ranking at #7 out of all BAYC NFTs.
7. Bored Ape #7090
Selling Price: $2.27 Million
ETH Tokens: 600
ETH Price: $2769 / ETH
Last Sold: 02/09/2021
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #77
Bored Ape #7090 comes with one of the rarest traits, Solid Gold fur, which only has 46 occurrences out of 10,000 in BAYC full collection (0.46% occurrence rate). It comes with a rarity score of 250.33, ranking at #77 according Rarity Tools.
Bored Ape #7090 is a five-trait ape wearing servicing clothing, which looks like a solid gold luxury hotel doorman with heart eyes, a grin multicolored mouth in a new punk blue background. It’s a truly rare combination of these traits.
Bored Ape #7090 was purchased by NFT investor icanfly3 in September 2021 for 600 ETH, which is equivalent to a $2.27 million sale at the time. It was last selling for 199 ETH in August 2021. The return on investment is almost 300% in just one month! The surge in popularity of the BAYC collection has also contributed heavily to record volume figures on NFT marketplace OpenSea in 2021.
6. Bored Ape #2087
Selling Price: $2.31 Million
ETH Tokens: 769
ETH Price: $3000.83 / ETH
Last Sold: 30/09/2021
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #9
Bored Ape #2087 sold for $2.31 Million (769 ETH) in September 2021, it’s a considerable mark-up compared to its previous sale price of $99,443 (42 ETH) in June 2021. It’s the second rarest Bored Ape NFT featured in this guide, ranking at #9 on Rarity Tools, with a rarity score of 312.34.
This ape is one of the most minimal bored apes so far with just 4 traits including rainbow-colored trippy fur, angry eyes, purple background and a bored cigarette in his mouth. The rarest trait for Bored Ape #2087 is trippy fur which only occurs 77 times out of 10,000 in the BAYC collection.
The Bored Ape #2087 was sold to an NFT investor: IPCollector with around 300 NFTs in his collection on the marketplace OpenSea. This ape was transferred to an unnamed investor in October 2021.
This sale was marked as the most expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT sale in terms of Ethereum as at the purchase date of September 30, 2021.
5. Bored Ape #8585
Selling Price: $2.70 Million
ETH Tokens: 697
ETH Price: $3877.45 / ETH
Last Sold: 19/10/2021
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #441
Crowned Bored Ape #8585 sold on marketplace OpenSea for $2.7 million (697 ETH) in October 2021, compared to the first sale price of $14,082 (5.9 ETH) in May 2021, the value of the ape increased almost 191 times in just 5 months.
Bored Ape #8585 is a five-trait trippy fur ape with heart eyes in blue background. This ape has two rare traits: King’s Crown and Trippy fur. Only 77 out of 10,000 apes in BAYC collection are wearing King’s Crown, combined with the rare trait trippy fur, only 3 out of 10,000 BAYC NFTs have unique trait combinations like Bored Ape #8585.
Although the rarity rank and rarity score for Bored Ape #8585 aren’t as high as other apes in this guide, the unique aesthetic and trait combination makes it the grooviest ape in the entire collection with high collectible value. Remember, rarity is not everything sometimes.
The last sale of Bored Ape #8585 in Oct 2021 may kickstart a trend for collecting the trippy fur apes and we are expecting to see more trippy fur apes in the top rankings.
4. Bored Ape #232
Selling Price: $2.81 Million
ETH Tokens: 1080
ETH Price: $2602.89 / ETH
Last Sold: 30/01/2022
Marketplace: LooksRare
Rarity Rank: #503
Bored Ape #232 sold for a whopping 1080 ETH on January 30, 2022, it’s equivalent to $2.81 Million if we convert 1080 ETH to USD by using the ETH price: $2602.89 / ETH on the purchase date.
Bored Ape #232 is the most expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT sale in terms of Ethereum and it’s the only bored ape NFT that was sold for more than 1000 ETH in history. While this ape NFT is not the most expensive sale in terms of dollar value because the ETH Price was relatively low on the purchase date compared to the highest ETH-USD price which was $4644.43 / ETH in Nov 2021. Otherwise, this ape will become the most expensive bored ape NFT in terms of Ethereum and dollar value.
Bored Ape #232 has six traits including:
- Solid Gold Fur
- Smoking Jacket
- Seaman’s Hat
- Sleepy Eyes
- Bored Mouth
- Army Green Background
The combination of all these traits made it one of the very rare bored apes NFTs in the BAYC collection and the rare solid gold fur also boosted the ape’s value, only 0.46% of the collection has this trait.
Bored Ape #232 was purchased by an unnamed NFT investor: 7a1567 through one of the leading marketplaces LooksRare for 1080 ETH which was 913% above the floor.
The hype around the BAYC NFT collection has continued to rise in recent years. Many celebrities also joined the club and displayed their bored apes on Twitter. Female tennis star Serena Williams bought her pink bored ape recently and displayed it on her Twitter.
3. Bored Ape #544
Selling Price: $2.86 Million
ETH Tokens: 675
ETH Price: $4237.04 / ETH
Last Sold: 23/11/2021
Marketplace: Unknown
Rarity Rank: #31
Bored Ape #544 with the highly sought-after solid gold fur trait sold for an incredible 675 ETH ($2.86 Million) on November 23, 2021. This purchase was one of the largest sales of BAYC Bored Ape NFTs because the ETH price was at all-time high.
The buyer, Twitter user ‘Saint Bayview’ thanked the seller on Twitter for the wonderful trade in the morning on November 23, 2021 and said “I couldn’t be happier with my 2nd BAYC #544 a 7 trait gold rare!”.
Bored Ape #544 is a seven-trait extremely rare solid gold fur ape wearing a tuxedo t-shirt, sushi chef headband and an eyepatch. Based on these traits, this ape has a rarity rank at #31 in BAYC collection with a rarity score of 282.23, according to Rarity Tools.
The Bored Apes with solid gold fur continue to be one of the most valuable NFTs that top NFT investors are constantly looking for due to its scarce and rare nature.
2. Bored Ape #3749
Selling Price: $2.91 Million
ETH Tokens: 740
ETH Price: $3928.40 / ETH
Last Sold: 06/09/2021
Marketplace: OpenSea
Rarity Rank: #27
Bored Ape #3749 known as “The Captain” sold for $2.91 Million on September 6, 2021, which is the second-most expensive bored ape NFT in terms of dollar value.
Bored Ape #3749 is a six-trait solid gold fur ape wearing a sea captain’s hat, a black t-shirt with red laser eyes and a small grin mouth in yellow background. Based on these traits, Bored Ape #3749 ranks at #27 with a rarity score of 283.99 according to Rarity Tools. There is no doubt that this bored ape has all the essential elements of becoming one of the rarest BAYC NFTs.
The red laser eyes plus the sea captain’s hat added some gaming elements into the design, which is a perfect example of why NFTs are the intersection of rarity, scarcity, art and gaming.
The buyer is TheSandboxGame who owns a large NFT collection with an estimated net worth of around 3,880 ETH ($13 million) at the time of purchase.
1. Bored Ape #8817
Selling Price: $3.41 Million
ETH Tokens: 819
ETH Price: $4161.17 / ETH
Last Sold: 27/10/2021
Marketplace: Sotheby’s Metaverse
Rarity Rank: #17
The most expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT ever sold is Bored Ape #8817 in terms of dollar value, it’s sold for an incredible $3.41 Million (819 ETH) through the high-end NFT exclusive auction house Sotheby’s Metaverse. This is the first time this ape has been made available since it was minted by Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
Out of 10,000 cartoon apes in BAYC’s full collection, less than 1% of all Bored Apes have the gold fur trait. Strictly speaking, there are only 46 Bored Apes out of 10,000 which is 0.46% of the bored apes have Solid Gold fur. Rarity.Tools estimates the floor price for any bored ape with Solid Gold fur is 999 ETH.
The Bored Ape #8817 is a seven-trait solid gold fur ape ranks at #17 with a rarity score of 297.37, according to the Rarity Tools. These seven traits include:
- Solid Gold Fur
- Bored Party Horn in the mouth
- Spinner Hat
- Silver Hoop Earring
- Wool Turtleneck Sweater
- Sleepy Eyes
- Orange Background
Unlike many anonymous NFT traders, the NFT investor “rhincodon” who purchased the extremely rare Bored Ape #8817 has revealed his identity to HYPEBEAST and shared his view about how he sees the value of this unique bored ape. He said: “I had been looking for a gold ape for the past few months, there are not a lot for sale – only 46, and those listed are usually sold at a price of 1,000 ETH or more”.
It seems any gold ape below 1,000 ETH is a bargain nowadays, there is no double the NFT investor “rhincodon” went ahead to purchase Bored Ape #8817 even though the ETH price was relatively high on the purchase date which was $4161.17 /ETH that brings the total selling price to $3.41 million (819 ETH times $4161.17 is equal to $3.408 Million).
The Future of BAYC NFTs
Time moves incredibly fast in the NFT space, the hype of BAYC NFTs could make the $3 million price tag for gold bored apes to become the new norm. The 46 gold bored apes might be available for sale again in the marketplace to push the selling price of BAYC NFTs higher sooner or later.
For people who are willing to immerse themselves in a community of passionate collectors and believe NFT is an investable asset will continue to seek for rare bored apes, so the question in the air is “what’s the next highest selling Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT of all time?”
To sum up, here’s the list of Top 10 Most Expensive Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs ever sold:
- Bored Ape #8817 – $3.41 Million (891 ETH)
- Bored Ape #3749 – $2.91 Million (740 ETH)
- Bored Ape #544 – $2.86 Million (675 ETH)
- Bored Ape #232 – $2.81 Million (1080 ETH)
- Bored Ape #8585 – $2.70 Million (697 ETH)
- Bored Ape #2087 – $2.31 Million (769 ETH)
- Bored Ape #7090 – $2.27 Million (600 ETH)
- Bored Ape #8135 – $1.87 Million (550 ETH)
- Bored Ape #4580 – $1.84 Million (666 ETH)
- Bored Ape #1837 – $1.58 Million (569 ETH)