Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), one of the most popular and expensive Non-Fungible Token (NFT) collections in existence today, has sold their ape #3158 for a measly price of 10 ETH, which is approximately $19,000 at press time.
The transaction was tweeted by “boredapebot”, a page dedicated to Bored Ape NFT sales.
The Ape in question has many unique features such as rainbow suspenders (only 1% have this trait), robot eyes (4% have this trait), and a short mohawk (3% have this trait). The sale comes as a shock for many as BAYC NFTs are usually in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in worth.
An interesting point to note is that, according to Opensea, the NFT in question had three offers all above $140,000 in the last 24 hours.
Source: Opensea
While tracking the activity, it can be seen that the Ape was moved around a few different accounts until finally being listed for 90.99 ETH, worth $173,773.61, by user name “xtc1212“.
Source: Opensea
While it could be a classic case of a fat finger or typing error, but it could also be an attempt to evade taxes, as has been the case before in cases of NFT holders selling their assets to themselves for a tiny fraction of their worth.
Previously the BAYC #6462 Ape was sold for only $200 which riled up the Twitter space. Many accused the holder of tax evasion practices. While some assume that this is a possible tax evasion scheme, others sympathize with the NFT vendor. This isn’t the first time a user has sold their NFTs for a fraction of their true value.
Interest in NFTs has declined by a huge margin in 2022, which was not the case a few months ago, in late 2021. According to Google trend analytics, global NFT interest has reduced by 70%, which is a massive fall given that in late 2021, the space was booming.