The price of ApeCoin has dropped by more than 16% this month to $4.50 following news that Yuga Labs, the $4 billion firm behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to a Bloomberg report citing an anonymous source, the SEC is investigating allegations that the company's NFTs violated security registration regulations.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a highly successful NFT initiative, with the main collection of 10,000 NFTs selling for $190 worth of Ethereum upon launch. About $1.9 million was the total profit from that sale for Yuga. The subsequent spinoffs and sequels, the Mutant Ape Yacht Club, and the Otherside metaverse game, grossed $96 and $319 million, respectively.
The secondary market for BAYC has seen approximately $2.5 billion in volume, as reported by CryptoSlam. Additionally, $3.35B was traded in secondary markets for Mutant Ape Yacht Club and Otherside. Each of these transactions generates a 2.5% royalty payment to Yuga Labs.
Owners of Bored Ape NFTs get access to a private community and live events, and they can use their owned illustrations to make and sell their works of derivative art. Many NFTs have sold for seven figures, and the project's rising profile has attracted several famous buyers.
Bloomberg reported on October 11 that the SEC is looking into Yuga Labs to determine whether selling certain digital assets violates federal regulations and whether certain NFTs are "more analogous to stocks."
Therefore, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced that it would investigate Yuga Labs over allegations that the BAYC NFTs and ApeCoin are unregistered securities.
The news caused a 10% reduction in ApeCoin and could lead to additional
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