- ApeCoin’s price reached the highs last seen in April, jumping more than 15% in 24 hours and topping out at $1.66.
- ApeCoin surged over 100% last week following news about the launch of ApeChain.
ApeCoin (APE), the governance and utility token for the ApeCoin web3 ecosystem, climbed back to its highest levels since early April.
The APE token, tied to the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, hit an intraday peak of $1.66 after a roughly 100% gain over the past week.
ApeCoin was last trading near these levels in April, during a broader crypto upswing led by Bitcoin’s rally toward $73,000.
Why is ApeCoin’s price rising?
APE’s gains accompanied Bitcoin’s move above $69,300 over the weekend, but another catalyst appears to be driving ApeCoin specifically.
That catalyst is the launch of ApeChain, a blockchain network built as a layer-3 solution on Arbitrum One. Yuga Labs, the developer behind BAYC, announced ApeChain’s debut on October 20.
Horizen Labs and Offchain Labs first proposed the ApeChain concept in December 2023.
The new blockchain network brings NFTs, trading and decentralized applications directly to APE token holders. ApeChain’s bridge is now live, enabling holders to transfer APE to ApeChain and earn staking rewards. Supported assets include APE, Ether (ETH), and several stablecoins.
At the same time, integration with LayerZero enhances cross-chain transfers and interoperability for the ApeChain ecosystem.
At the time of writing, the APE token was trading around $1.53, up roughly 15% over the previous 24 hours. APE previously reached its all-time high of $26.70 in April 2022, which means the current price is still about 94% below that peak.
Since falling to $0.482 on August 5, 2024—during a broad crypto sell-off that followed Bitcoin—APE/USD has risen more than 215%. Technical observers note a possible breakout from a rising triangle pattern could provide bulls with further momentum.