GORDON AND GARGA PROMISED CLUB MEMbers everything from a lo-fi hip-hop internet radio channel to exclusive apparel. They quickly made good on their first vow: paying their moms back for fronting them the money for BAYC. The initial sale of 10,000 apes had netted them $2 million, and while many crypto founders would’ve taken the money and runhorror stories abound of scam artists making off with a project’s funds, never to be seen again—the duo diligently ticked through the items on their road map. Their splurge? Pelotons, which sit unused and gathering dust in their homes.
At this point, Gordon and Garga thought of Yuga as “Web3 Supreme,” Gordon says, a crypto-powered streetwear brand that would sell official BAYC T-shirts to Bored Ape holders. “But like even cooler than that,” he adds, because the blockchain meant that they’d be able to verify membership and that “only you get this T-shirt.” Of course, the duo knew nothing about fulfillment, and when they made the first run of BAYC-branded gear, they foolishly decided to handle the shipping themselves. “There are these photos of us looking totally miserable packing [merch] in the sun,” Garga recalls. “My mom wouldn’t let us inside because of COVID restrictions. She didn’t understand what we were doing.”
Muniz did, though. Days after the BAYC NFTs sold out, she was already working with the founders on a new collection, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). The BAYC concept got weirder: Ape holders could now “breed” their ape using a “Mutant Serum,” which would morph the avatar into what Gordon describes as a “Thrasher magazine version of the apes,” rendered in resplendent flesh-melting, brain-spilling detail. Yuga gave 10,000 of the serums to ape holders as a reward for their loyalty and sold another 10,000 ready-made mutants in a public auction. Muniz worked closely with the founders on the drop strategy, pricing, and, crucially, how they could use mutants to expand the club without it feeling any less special. “Mutants could have gone terribly wrong,” Muniz says. “It was also really important to everyone that it didn’t feel like a cash grab, because it wasn’t.”
Still, the mutants generated a ton of money, close to $100 million after selling had taken notice of the trend. Current BAYC members loved MAYC, too, as it was a valuable perk of holding their Bored Ape rather than flipping it as the price rose. In crypto, a free mutant qualified as utility. Plus, owners now had more commercial rights to exploit, and they started to create novels, virtual rock bands, and hot-sauce lines using their apes. All of it helped disseminate Yuga’s apes into the culture, while Yuga itself had just a handful of staff and freelancers in addition to Gordon, Garga, Emperor Tomato Ketchup, and No Sass.
