Andreessen Horowitz is a venture capital firm located in Silicon Valley, California, which was founded in 2009 by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. The firm supports entrepreneurs who build the future through technology and they invest in seed to late-stage companies, across the consumer, enterprise, bio+healthcare, crypto and fintech industry. The firm has a total of $28.2 billion in assets under management across multiple funds, including the $2.9 billion Bio funds, $3.1 billion Crypto funds and the Cultural Leadership Fund.
The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of 10,000 unique Bored Ape NFTs which was founded by Greg Solano and Wylie Aronow. Ownership of Bored Ape NFTs grants access to members-only benefits, such as access to The Bathroom, a collaborative graffiti board. The cheapest Bored Ape NFTs is 94 ether (which is equivalent to $288,000). Since there are only 10,000 of them and many celebrities have been buying Bored Ape NFTs, the general public will perceive the NFTs as being more valuable and it has resulted in a massive rise in value.
The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is rapidly growing and has risen to be worth over $41 billion by the end of 2021. The large majority of investors in cryptocurrencies undertake small payments (below $10,000), with the industry being dominated by a few major players. NFTs are blockchain-registered, meaning that they are unable to be altered or replicated. Besides the Bored Ape Yacht Club, other popular NFTs are CryptoPunks and tokens created by celebrities to connect with fans. The basis of NFTs is a culture of exclusivity as they are difficult and expensive to obtain.
Yuga Labs, the start-up company responsible for the Bored Ape Yacht Club, is currently in discussions with Andreessen Horowitz over selling a multi-million dollar stake of the company. The financing could potentially bring the company valuation to a range of $4 billion to $5 billion. If the deal passes successfully, it would become the first corporate investment into Yuga Labs. Andreessen Horowitz has previously invested in other cryptocurrency and NFT exchanges, such as Coinbase and OpenSea. However, no deal with Yuga Labs is certain yet.
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https://a16z.com/about/ https://boredapeyachtclub.com/#/home
https://www.cnet.com/how-to/bored-ape-yacht-club-nfts-everything-you-need-to-know/ https://www.ft.com/content/acc635d6-bb05-4af6-b4da-b8462c06466d https://www.ft.com/content/e95f5ac2-0476-41f4-abd4-8a99faa7737d