Non-fungible tokens have spurred a new range of innovative offerings in the web3 space. The new and unique group of digital assets has created a new definition for asset ownership on the blockchain. One of the most popular NFT projects or collections that have garnered significant levels of popularity is the Rare Apepe Yacht Club or RAYC NFTs. 

The new NFT collection has emerged as a top addition among other NFT projects, such as Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs and CryptoPunks. Therefore, the interest in learning about Rare Apepe YC NFTs is gradually increasing among NFT enthusiasts. The following discussion will provide an introduction to the RAYC NFTs and their history.

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Underlying Elements in the Background for RAYC NFTs

The discussion on the fundamentals of the Rare Apepe YC NFT collection would start with an investigation into their background. One of the crucial highlights of non-fungible tokens refers to the fact that they are a significant part of popular culture. Do you know anything else which is an important part of popular culture? Memes! Memes have been one of the basic components of internet culture and have been deeply embedded in human behaviors. As a matter of fact, memes are one of the foremost highlights of the way people use the internet today. 

The Rare Apepe Yacht Club NFT collection has a deep-seated relationship with the foundations of memes. Early social networking platforms and forums served as the ideal destinations for popularizing the first internet memes in the early 2000s. Now, one of the most popular memes from the early era of web2, i.e., Pepe, garnered a lot of attention. Well, there’s nothing you can’t like about Pepe the Frog. The anthropomorphic frog, with its callous old-man expression, made a lot of names in the early internet era. On the other hand, Pepe the Frog also has a significant history associated with blockchain technology, which you shall explore later in this discussion. 

Interestingly, some of the developments in the blockchain and web3 landscape have a connection with memes and other aspects of popular culture. Apart from technological innovation, the adoption of web3 depends on how it can tap into the interests of general users. RAYC NFTs have evolved as a notable milestone in bringing popular culture and the world of NFTs together. 

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What is Rare Apepe Yacht Club?

The Rare Apepe YC is a genesis NFT collection featuring 10,000 unique Bored Ape Yacht Club-style NFTs with variations of Pepe the Frog. Digital artist the Rare Designer created the NFT collection on the Ethereum blockchain. The distinct highlight in answers to “What is Rare Apepe Yacht Club?” refers to the way the collection honors two notable NFT collections. 

RAYC NFT collection includes highlights of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Rare Pepes. As a matter of fact, Rare Pepes are often referred to as one of the greatest NFT collections. On the other hand, you have the Bored Apes, which have taken over the internet and the NFT world by storm. The Twitter profile pictures of many users and celebrities are a clear indication of the popularity of BASIC NFTs. 

The Rare Apepe Yacht Club NFT collection focuses on combining the best traits of two different cultures, from the present and past. All the Rare Apepes feature different traits, with a glimpse of different cultures, across multiple timelines. The NFT collection started off with a launch of 1999 NFTs without any whitelist by leveraging a paid minting strategy. Even if it faced some setbacks in its initial stages, the RAYC NFT project continued on, and the other NFTs were offered through a free mint later on. 

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Who is Behind the Rare Apepe Yacht Club?  

The introduction to Rare Apepe Yacht Club remains incomplete without an explanation of its origins. The founders behind the RAYC NFT collection are Rare Labs, developed by the popular digital artist Rare Designer. He has more than 10 years of experience in the field of NFTs. Some of the other members of the founding team are the co-leader “kntrvlr,” a blockchain developer. The shared expertise and inventive contributions of both founders have led to the expansion of the project.

Diving Deeper into the Design of RAYC NFT Collection

The RAYC NFT collection features the distinct elements of two popular NFT collections in the NFT and web3 landscape. A closer look at the details of the Bored Ape Yacht Club and Rare Pepe collections can prove how they define the RAYC collection.  

  • Rare Pepe

The most notable NFT collection in history, Rare Pepe NFTs, incorporated the meme culture in the blockchain landscape. It gained appreciation in early 2016 after coming to the market in 2015. They were introduced in the form of a subset of the Pepe memes, featuring watermarks stating “RARE PEPE DO NOT SAVE.” In the initial stages, the Rare Pepe collection developed on the foundations of speculation. Rare Pepes were memes, and the artist had not posted them anywhere with public access. Interestingly, a rare Pepes collection found an eBay listing commanding a price of almost $99,166. However, the listing was removed from eBay soon after. 

The Rare Apepe Yacht Club NFT collection owes a lot to the Rare Pepe collection, especially in terms of inspiration. Did you know that the rare Pepe NFTs were mined on Bitcoin rather than Ethereum? In addition, rare Pepes came before CryptoPunks, with a gap of one year. Subsequently, the collection also came up with a Telegram chat group focused on discussions regarding the Counterparty NFT. Over the course of time, the collection developed further and spurred a massive community by 2017. The community had developed around the new meme-inspired digital collectibles alongside encouraging developers to build platforms to facilitate cataloging and exchange of the unique collectibles. As a result, the Rare Pepes NFT collection can also be credited with the development of the first crypto art NFT market.

The live auction for Rare Pepes NFTs conducted in January 2018 also featured an NFT dedicated to Homer Simpson. Interestingly, Homer’s Pepe NFT fetched a price of almost $38,500. Some of the active members involved in the auction included representatives from the Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. Subsequently, the buyer sold the Homer Simpson-inspired rare Pepe NFT three years later at a price of $312,000. Quite a meteoric rise, isn’t it? It is practically impossible to undermine the historical importance of rare Pepe NFTs for the future and web3

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  • Bored Ape Yacht Club

The next critical element for the inspiration behind the Rare Apepe Yacht Club refers to the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Anyone could notice the evident similarity in their names while bringing Rare Pepes into the mix. The Bored Ape Yacht Club can be considered one of the most impactful NFT collections. Amidst the rapid growth of non-fungible tokens in 2021 and a gradually developing cultural phenomenon, BAYC emerged as one of the notable highlights of the NFT world. As a matter of fact, many celebrities, artists, and enthusiasts did not waste any time in grabbing Bored Apes immediately upon their launch. The Bored Apes are practically one of the first NFT collections to have caught the attention of mainstream media on a broader scale worldwide. 

Interestingly, the explanation for “What is Rare Apepe Yacht Club,” and its potential would depend significantly on the inspiration from Bored Apes. The Bored Ape Yacht Club started off as a collection of quirky images of apes with distinctive highlights. Now, the collection of 10000 Bored Apes has gradually developed into a bigger community with its own token. Apart from its own token, i.e., Ape Coin, Bored Apes have also stepped into initiatives like The Otherside metaverse platform. In addition, events like the Ape Fest could help in driving the popularity of Bored Apes among a diverse audience. As a matter of fact, the efforts by the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection can help fuel the broader adoption of non-fungible tokens. 

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Growth of Rare Apepe Yacht Club

The rise of the RAYC NFT collection can also serve as another significant highlight for understanding the origins of the new project. With the constant dominance of the bull market in 2021, some owners of Rare Pepe NFTs, as well as Bored Apes, discovered some anomalies. Interestingly, the foundations of the Rare Apepe YC NFT collection gained strength when the Rare Pepe and Bored Ape owners perceived that the NFT space had run into some considerable discrepancies. Almost every new project in the NFT ecosystem is claimed to be the biggest and most attractive, with favorable potential for the future. The common practice in the world of non-fungible tokens focused on a review of the floor prices of NFTs. No one was keen enough to figure out how the new NFTs would contribute anything of value in life.

The origins of the Rare Pepe Yacht Club NFT collection provide detailed insights into the most notable factors underlying their foundation. If you understand the principles behind developing RAYC NFTs, then you are more likely to understand their work in detail. The evolution of non-fungible tokens initially appeared as a good sign for artwork and digital collectibles. However, new NFT art projects focused less on art and more on the floor price. In addition, many artists began losing their grasp on the history of art, and only a few projects matched the history of art. 

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Fuelled by History, Bound to the Present

The development of the RAYC NFT collection primarily evolved from the thoughts regarding the fate of the Pepe memes and Rare Pepe NFTs. Based on the perception of a fleeting sense of losing their history, the renowned digital artist Rare Designer and his team introduced the RAYC NFTs. You can notice how the Rare Apepe Yacht Club blends the best of history, i.e., Rare Pepes, with the best of current culture, i.e., Bored Apes, in the NFT space. The introduction to the RAYC NFT collection establishes the perfect reminder for establishing a broader context in the domain of NFTs. If you look closely, the RAYC NFT collection basically shows that it is impossible to know the direction of a project in the future without learning from the past. The Rare Apepes have successfully bridged the gap between the present and the past. 

Growth of Apps

In the Summer of 2022, the Rare Apepes summoned a secret meeting with a specific agenda. The collection’s popularity kept growing, and around 20% of the Apps had discovered their homes on the blockchain. Now, the Rare Apepe owners want to present a distinct perspective on the history of the NFT collection. Therefore, the community has decided that it would follow a different approach to defining the trait structure of Rare Apepe NFTs. The design of Rare Apepe NFTs would now offer independence from the trait structure associated with BASIC. 

The discussions on “what is Rare Apepe Yacht Club” would also draw attention to the mechanism for defining traits of the NFTs. Once the 2000th mint is complete, RAYC NFT owners don’t need to match the traits on a one-to-one basis with the Bored Ape counterparts. On the contrary, the Rare Apepe NFTs would have a unique and randomized collection of attributes. As a result, the RAYC NFT collection would feel unique while honoring the two popular NFT projects.

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Final Words

The distinctive traits of RAYC NFTs are nothing new in the NFT ecosystem. As a matter of fact, every non-fungible token is unique because of the unique traits it possesses. On the other hand, many new projects in the NFT and web3 space follow the floor price as the primary goal. However, Rare Apepe Yacht Club introduced a revolution by bringing Rare Pepes and Bored Apes together in an innovative collection. The two most recognizable projects in the NFT space define RAYC NFTs. The new collection effectively bridges the gap between the past NFTs and popular culture. Learn more about NFTs and how new collections like RAYC can make an impact on the future.

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*Disclaimer: The article should not be taken as, and is not intended to provide any investment advice. Claims made in this article do not constitute investment advice and should not be taken as such. 101 Blockchains shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person who relies on this article. Do your own research!