A Sandbox Bored Ape sale has set a new record for the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection, spending 740 ETH to buy Bored Ape #3749, which works out at around $2.9million.
This far exceeds the previous highest value BAYC asset, Bored Ape #7090, which sold for 600 ETH — around $2 million at the time of writing. In that instance, the buyer was NFT collector Robistravelling, who placed the highest bid at a Sotheby’s auction.
Why Did The Sandbox purchase a Bored Ape NFT?
It might not be immediately obvious why an immersive crypto virtual world decided to spend such a huge amount of money on a non-fungible token collectible. We weren’t sure either, so reached out to The Sandbox in the hope of understand the thinking.
“We became early fans of the BAYC collection and acquired about 30 of them,” a spokesperson for The Sandbox told NFT Evening. Apparently, these were for display and testing purposes to gauge upcoming interoperability bridge features. “We announced earlier in May 2021 our partnership with BAYC and are naturally continuing on our initial plan.
“Owning several Bored Apes will enable us to add them into several experiences,” they continued. “The culture of games, music, and visual arts, will be one of the pillars of the open crypto metaverse. We don’t just build and sell. We also invest and in so doing help build the ecosystem.”
The Sandbox is currently working towards new levels of interoperability when it comes to NFTs. The aim is to allow each individual Bored Ape owner to play with what was originally a 2D artwork. So the non-fungible token takes on the form of a playable avatar, capable of movement, chat, engagement in micro-grames, and interactions with others in the environment.
The platform already has a raft of NFT content serving different purposes. This includes Gutter City, the first non-fungible town in this particular metaverse. And last week The Sandbox unveiled a beach party-themed NFT collection, for those who aren’t done with summer just yet.