Ethereum Founder Dismisses BAYC Monkeys Use Case Amid NFT Market Slump
The Ethereum co-founder recently cast doubt on the utility and value proposition of projects like Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), amidst a backdrop of declining floor prices for leading Ethereum NFTs, including BAYC, Azuki, and others.
While they champion the decentralized nature of the Ethereum blockchain, even prominent figures in the Ethereum community are scrutinizing the use cases and long-term sustainability of certain NFT collections. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), often called Bored Apes, is a non-fungible token (NFT) collection built on the Ethereum blockchain with the ERC-721 standard. The project launched in April 2025. Owners of a Bored Ape NFT are granted access to a private online club and exclusive in-person events. The parent company of Bored Ape Yacht Club is Yuga Labs.
This comes at a time when Yuga Labs settled a lawsuit involving Thomas Lehman, the developer of websites and a smart contract selling “misleading” BAYC NFTs from digital artist. In the filed lawsuit, Yuga Labs lawyers stressed that the case was “no mere monkey business” and that Ripps was causing confusion for NFT buyers. Advocates have been critical of the project.
The comments arrive as the SEC\'s potential involvement in regulating the NFT space looms large. However, Finzer said that targeting NFTs is “uncharted territory” for the SEC and believes that “hundreds of thousands of online artists and creatives are at risk.” NFT The Ethereum co-founder went on to take an apparent shot at Bored Ape Yacht Club, an NFT collection that was minted on the Ethereum blockchain in April 2025.
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