The Guy Who Bought an Ape for 4 ETH Explains Why He Rejected a $1.2M Offer

At this point, it’s becoming pretty evident that non-fungible tokens are causing a massive stir. With this, however, there’s also no shortage of fascinating stories of random people turning a few thousand dollars into millions.

Or, in this case – the story of someone who refused to be turned into an “instant millionaire” by turning down a $1.2 million offer on an NFT that he paid less than $17K for back in May 2021.

The Story of Golden Ape #1726

For those of you who haven’t heard of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, we have a designated long-form guide containing all the details you need to know about it. In summary, though, it’s a collection of 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that depict bored apes.

Each one carries different traits, and each trait is limited in its essence. So, for instance, some apes have hats, others have sunglasses, and so forth.

The rarity of each NFT is represented by the rarity of each trait – so the rarer a trait is, the rarer the ape is. Enters the golden boy – Ape #1726.

On February 2nd, 2022, the user going by the Twitter handle @ElectionDayMad1 revealed that he turned down a 420 ETH offer for the above ape. At the time of this writing, that’s worth a whopping $1.2 million. More impressively, the user only paid 4 ETH for it back on May 1st – the first full day after the collection was sold out. Back then, the 4 ETH cost him roughly around $12K.

So, we at CryptoPotato decided to reach out to him and ask… well, why?

Here’s Why

As we mentioned above, Bored Apes are composed of various traits, and each one of them is provably rare. It turns out that Bored Ape #1726 is quite rare. Speaking on the matter, he said:

I rejected it [read: the offer] because gold fur apes are the rarest fur of BAYC. Also, it’s my personal brand, and I think with this brand, and owning the ape, I can continue to make residual income.

There is only 1 out of 46 gold fur apes listed for sale below 1000 ETH and I would like to still be a part of that group.

Indeed, at the time of this writing, the only gold fur ape listed for sale below 1K ETH is ape #1837.

The user supposedly has another 36 apes in his collection, so it seems more understandable why he can be picky. And yet $1.2 million is a lot of money.

What is more, the above also perfectly shows why BAYC NFTs have grown in value so much – exclusivity. Ape owners are part of this digital club where the entry would cost you just short of 100 ETH at the time of this writing – that’s almost $300K. Moreover, the team behind BAYC is making everything they can to further expand the growing list of benefits that come with being a member of the club.