- The APE price reached its highest level since April, rising more than 15% in 24 hours to $1.66.
- ApeCoin’s price surged over 100% in the past week amid news about the launch of ApeChain.
ApeCoin (APE), the governance and utility token within the ApeCoin Web3 ecosystem, pushed up to its strongest price since early April.
The APE token, associated with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) ecosystem, hit intraday highs of $1.66 as weekly gains topped 100%. ApeCoin traded at similar levels last in April when Bitcoin led a broad crypto rally above $73,000.
Why is ApeCoin’s price rising?
APE’s gains coincided with Bitcoin climbing above $69,300 over the weekend. However, another catalyst appears to be driving ApeCoin’s rally: the launch of ApeChain, a blockchain network offering a layer-3 chain built on Arbitrum One.
Yuga Labs, the creator behind BAYC, announced ApeChain’s debut on October 20. The proposal for ApeChain was originally put forward in December 2023 by Horizen Labs and Offchain Labs.
The new blockchain network brings NFTs, trading, and decentralized applications to APE holders. The ApeChain bridge is already live, enabling holders to transfer APE to ApeChain to earn staking rewards.
Supported assets include APE, Ether (ETH), and stablecoins. Integration with LayerZero on the ApeChain mainnet also delivers cross-chain transfer capabilities and improved interoperability for the community.
At the time of writing, the APE token traded around $1.53, up roughly 15% over the past 24 hours. Its all-time high of $26.70 occurred in April 2022, meaning the current price remains about 94% below that peak.
Since falling to a low of $0.482 on August 5, 2024 — during a broader market downturn that coincided with a Bitcoin crash — APE/USD has climbed more than 215%. A possible breakout from the ascending triangle pattern could give bulls further momentum.