The blue-chip NFT project Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) announced it will hold a series of community events in the Asia-Pacific region from September 25 to October 6, covering five cities: Shenzhen, Seoul, Taipei, Manila, and Singapore, with registration through Luma.

The Shenzhen event will be a Mid-Autumn community dinner for about 20 people, featuring a small-scale gathering and reminiscing. The Seoul event will be the largest, hosting a 5-day brand pop-up shop in Sinsa-dong, launching limited edition products and collaborations with Korean artists, and will showcase ApePay for the first time during the 2026 Korea Blockchain Week (KBW). The Taipei event will be a happy hour after work in Xinyi District, where CEO Michael Figge of parent company Yuga Labs will meet with local community members.

The Manila event will consist of two parts: one is a cocktail networking event hosted by the local BAYC community BAYKADA at Bar Good Times; the other is Figge's "homecoming party," officially dubbed "Philippine BAYC CEO Meets Jollibee," themed around the local fast-food chain, wrapping up the weekend in Manila. The Singapore event will be co-hosted by Figge and Won Kim, inviting BAYC holders and collectors to join, with drinks, a DJ, and possibly gifts, but spots are limited and prior registration is required.

Figge took over as CEO of Yuga Labs on April 24, 2026, the 5th anniversary of BAYC, with co-founder Greg Solano transitioning to chairman of the board. Figge is a co-founder of the creative studio POSSIBLE and has produced over 200 large-scale shows for events like the Super Bowl, MTV Video Music Awards (VMA), and Coachella. In 2021, he co-founded the NFT company WENEW with digital artist Beeple; after Yuga acquired WENEW in November 2022, he served as Chief Content Officer, Chief Creative Officer, and Chief Product Officer. On the day of the announcement, ApeCoin (APE) surged 92% within hours to $0.223, with trading volume skyrocketing 2130% to about $300 million; a newly created wallet had previously invested over $1.03 million in a 5x leveraged long position, peaking at an unrealized profit of about $713,000.

This Asia tour is a continuation of Figge's "return to community" strategy. Within a month of his appointment, Yuga organized over 30 offline gatherings globally; on June 30, Yuga held a "Yuga Asia Tour" event at the headquarters of Korean crypto venture Hashed in Gangnam, Seoul. Figge acknowledged at the event that the BAYC floor price had dropped from a high of 153.7 ETH to 8.83 ETH, but the number of unique holders is increasing, with 72% of NFT buyers being new users. He stated, "Data shows that blue-chip digital collectibles were once oversold." Yuga also announced plans to open a BAYC club in Miami, launch an animated project based on the BAYC worldview, and launch the GrailsOTC over-the-counter trading platform for matching unlisted rare BAYC, Koda, and Otherside land.

In terms of market mechanisms, this is a brand-driven community event, not a capital trading event. Potential buyers are attracted by offline events and co-branded products, being new users entering the NFT market, with Figge stating that new buyers account for 72%. Sellers are long-term holders who entered at high prices between 2021 and 2022 and have been stuck, with the liquidity brought by community events providing them an exit opportunity. The flow of funds is shifting from pure speculative trading to brand consumption, offline experiences, and payment scenarios (ApePay). Beneficiaries include Yuga Labs and its brand ecosystem, the usage scenarios of the APE token, and local NFT communities in Korea, the Philippines, and others; those under pressure are other NFT projects that rely solely on secondary market speculation without offline operational capabilities.

Supplementary data: In May of this year, the BAYC floor price doubled from about 5 ETH to over 10 ETH within a month, with a series market value of about $251 million as of May 10, and a 30-day sales volume of $13.42 million; during the same period, APE rebounded from under $0.10 to about $0.16, but is still down over 99% from its historical high of about $27.

Source: Public Information