ApeCoin Briefly Soared Double Digits After Elon Musk Changed His Twitter Avatar To Bored Apes Collage

ApeCoin is seeing some serious volatility.

In the past few hours, the token linked to the popular NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), enjoyed a short-lived rally before sinking. This was after the world’s richest man put up a Twitter profile photo that features a handful of Bored Apes.

A Rollercoaster: APE Soars Then Dips

ApeCoin (APE) is the governance token that is used to vote on a multitude of proposals made within the Bored Ape Yacht Club ecosystem.

According to data pulled from CoinMarketMap, APE was trading at around $14.39 earlier this morning. The BAYC-affiliated token then surged over 18% in the span of minutes to trade as high as $17.46, before dropping to its current price of $15.43.

The wild price fluctuation came after the soon-to-be-owner of Twitter, Elon Musk, changed his avatar on the social media platform to a collage of Bored Apes. 

APE was on a roll last month on the back of speculation that Yuga Labs, the startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT collection, would be using it as a currency for the sale of digital plots of land in its so-called Otherside metaverse initiative. The price of the token, however, retraced after the launch despite the record-breaking land sale. What’s more, as investors rushed to grab a piece of the virtual real estate, the gas fees of Ethereum — the network where the sale was conducted — skyrocketed to unprecedented levels.

The weekly chart doesn’t paint a bullish picture. Since last Wednesday, ApeCoin has fallen 13.4%. Additionally, the token is still far off from its historic high of $26.70 set on April 28.

The Elon Musk Effect

It’s not known whether Elon Musk owns APE or any Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The Tesla and SpaceX chief later tweeted a commonly-used comment from NFT skeptics, stating “I dunno … seems kinda fungible.”

It’s worth mentioning that this is not the first time Musk is toying with the cryptocurrency markets. He has a long history of engaging with the crypto community on Twitter. He’s particularly a big supporter of canine-themed cryptocurrency Dogecoin (DOGE) and has constantly sent its price flying with casual comments and memes.

After recently purchasing all of Twitter for $44 billion, many believe Musk will incorporate DOGE into the social media giant. He recently suggested using Dogecoin to authenticate Twitter users and reduce spambots on the site.