One Week After Launch, ApeCoin Is Now a Yield-Bearing Asset As Nexo Adds ‘Full-Fledged APE Wallet’

Holders of ApeCoin (APE), the newly launched governance and utility token of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem, can now for the first time earn a yield. 

Yield for ApeCoin holders will be made available through the crypto lending and borrowing platform Nexo (NEXO), with returns ranging from 7% to 12% annually, an announcement from the company said on Tuesday.

Nexo’s announcement said that,

“We don’t know exactly what’s coming next but we sure know what Nexo’s role in this ecosystem is – offering users utility for ApeCoin that don’t exist until now – earning yield for holding APE. Cause you’ll need more APE in the BAYC universe.”

The announcement went on to say that Nexo has already made APE available to buy, top up, earn on, swap, and borrow against on the platform, adding that Nexo will work as “a full-fledged APE wallet.”

Further, Nexo said that users on its platform can borrow money by using their APE tokens as collateral. Gold and Platinum members can borrow with interest rates of 1.9% and 0%, respectively, and get a line of credit of up to USD 2m with “instant approval,” the company said.

The move by Nexo comes after what was described as a “leaked deck” from Yuga Labs, the creator of the BAYC NFT collection, showing that the team is planning to move further into the world of DeFi with the new APE token.

A pitch deck said to be leaked from Yuga Labs was shared on Twitter earlier in March by a popular user known as Leonidas.eth. Among other things, the deck appeared to outline future plans for an “interoperable gaming metaverse” centered around ApeCoin as its currency.

Given that ApeCoin was launched via an airdrop just a week ago, the addition of the token on Nexo is an example of the speed at which hyped cryptoassets can be supported by major platforms.

The addition of the token happened despite an unfortunate circumstance around the airdrop, when one user managed to exploit the smart contract and walk away with USD 380,000 in profits.

The 62nd coin by market capitalization, APE, is trading at USD 14.27 (at 12:10 UTC). It’s down 6% in a day and up 36% in a week – currently being the worst performer in the past 24 hours among the top 100 coins by market capitalization.

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