What is APENFT?

Can historical masterpieces converted into NFTs create new paradigms in art and new marketplaces

What is APENFT

• APENFT was born with the mission to register world-class artworks as NFTs on the blockchain ( on March 29, 2021)
• Building a bridge between renowned artists and the blockchain, while nurturing the growth of native crypto artists in the NFT space
• Objective is to transform art pieces, which once was an elite-exclusive item, to something that belongs to everyone
• Their motto is art for everyone

From their whitepaper:

Core businesses of APENFT include: investing in top NFT platforms and artworks, incubating leading NFT artists to build a bridge between world-class artists and the NFT world; sponsoring galleries, organizing art exhibitions or publications, and setting up awards to support art creation and criticism; establishing art collections, etc.

By applying blockchain technology into the NFT world, APENFT expands the use cases of blockchain. APENFT purchases well-known traditional and NFT artworks as underlying assets, and works to improve the NFT trading standard. It provides support to government agencies, universities, lawyers and industry elites in issuing policies that govern the healthy development of the industry.

There are now three major use cases in the blockchain industry, namely value exchange, collaboration, and record-keeping. The unique NFT fits in all three of the use cases. It is not only a hot trend in the blockchain industry, but also a critical element that is very likely to revolutionize the industry and take it to the next level. As a blockchain enterprise, APENFT will invest in artworks and promote traditional and digital art by leveraging its strengths in technology, market, industry and policy research, with the aim of introducing blockchain into diverse use cases.

What blockchain is it built on?

• It is built on the TRON ecosystem and powered by BitTorrent, the world’s largest distributed data storage system
• TRON currently has a total number of users exceeding 30 million, with more than 1.8 billion transactions, the world’s largest stablecoin circulation, and a rich and thriving blockchain business ecosystem.
• All the NFT artworks that APENFT acquire will be made into unique ERC-721/TRC-721 tokens on-chain
• The tokens will be stored in the ERC20/TRC20 smart contracts of NFT tokens, and the rights and interests of the underlying artworks will belong to NFT holders
• Records of the artwork would be permanently stored on the BTFS network (BitTorrent File System)

Coin Offering Details: Supply creation

• NFT, the digital asset of APENFT, is a TRC721-based token with a total supply of 999,990,000,000,000
• It’s initial issuing price is $0.00000012
• Users will get NFT by participating in commenting, creating, recommending, displaying works in APENFT, providing industry information, policy analysis and other behaviors, or by participating in BTC, ETH, DOGE, TRX, BTT, JST, SUN, WIN liquidity airdrop and mining
• NFT Defi airdrop and mining will be completed in 23 months. From June 2021 to April 2023.
• The supply will account for 19% of the total supply or 189,998,100,000,000 NFT
• The Initial release began in June 2021, with a total supply of 19,999,800,000,000 NFT
• A monthly supply of 7,916,587,500,000 NFT will be released between July 2021 and March 2023
• The last release totaling 3,749,962,500,000 NFT will be made in April 2023

How will it work?

• Traditional works of art such as paintings are valuable because they are one of a kind.
• But digital files can be easily and endlessly duplicated.
• With APENFTs, artwork will be “tokenised” to create a digital certificate of ownership that can be bought and sold. Quite like auctions, but on the blockchain
• The APENFT team will promote the creation and re-creation of top-class artworks and established franchise and custom NFT works with A-list celebrities with massive followings
• NFT, a native token of APENFT, will be governed by smart contracts, with all information accessible on-chain
• Community members will discuss and expand the features of contracts which will be voted on through NFT and executed in accordance with the majority rule
• NFT will in the future seek to expand its application in DeFi projects to boost connectivity by using smart contracts and the virtual machine on the TRON public chain

What kind of art work are we talking about?

• FEMME NUE COUCHÉE AU COLLIER(MARIE-THÉRÈSE — by Pablo Ruiz Picasso
• OCEAN FRONT — by Beeple
• THREE SELF-PORTRAITS- By Andy Warhol

Initial speculative price projections from the internet

Am not a finance or investing expert and none of this should be taken as investing advice. You should do your own due diligence on investment/risks around NFT before deciding to invest in any digital asset or coin.

I am only curating what’s being speculated around APENFT because its founders consist of professionals from the world of Christie’s , Sotheby’s and PE Banks. They have dealt in art as an asset class for decades and know the investment value of it and the market for it.

Speculative future pricing as of today based on internet crypto indexes

• As per the given price history, it could reach 0.00000371 (USD) at the end of the current year
• The highest and lowest price could reach up to 0.000026 USD and .00000229 USD in the next three years, respectively
• By the end of 2022 , it could reach approximately 0.00000751 USD .
• But, can easily go 0.000012 USD , at the end of 2023
• By the end of 2024, it can reach , 0.000019 USD per Ape nft.
• And, its price can fly by USD 0.00001058 , by the end of 2025

Can historical masterpieces converted into NFTs create a new market?

Too early to tell with any definitive assurance. The use cases of NFTs are huge. But if we look at the core use case of APENFT from a trading standpoint, then it’s around using art an investment option. Any asset that accumulates value is a good investment option. So the question is how can we make an asset accrue value.

Scarcity and access are the two things that make anything valuable. In art as well, the value of it as an investment class is due to its scarcity and adoption by investors. There is only one Guernica. One Wheatfield and Poppies. This rarity is what prompts people to pay millions of dollars in art auctions to buy a piece of art.

It is the perceived value and exclusivity.

The other way is to support the industry and create more investment whereby newer artistes are supported to come up and create new generations of art for the next millennium.

APENFT aims to do both. Art is a community in the sense that patrons engage with the art and artistes in a community paradigm. These communities can indeed adopt and trade tokens as some form of digital badge/ identity / barter system. As long as a system of record is created and maintained and people are willing to use NFT as a form of transaction to exchange value for their investment in art, there always will be real world use case.

Interoperability is key here.

NFTs can be successful as a digital asset class, provided

• There is perceived value within a specific community of people who are willing to have a tokenised/ autographed piece of the said digital asset as investment option
• They are aligned to DeFi protocols
• They have a specific and dedicated community which is committed to transacting with it
• Laws , regulations , safety and volatility are managed
• Real world transactions are made possible

But is there value in the use case?

Well, art as an investment has been in vogue for a long time and has even outperformed the S&P 500 in many cases. So holding it an an investment asset is not a new real world use case that needs solution

Having said that, is there value in expanding the market?

There is no one answer. There are positive sand negatives depending on your stand on the matter as well as personal preference.

Given NFTs can be fractionalised, there is a possibility that the ordinary retail investor can invest in fractional tokens(shares) of famous artworks which are on the blockchain. In theory that would mean an artwork can be “owned” by multiple owners who own a percentage of the art token on sale.

A real world comparison of this would be a consortium who own a famous artwork. But while a consortium is a limited number of individuals or entities, fractional percentages of token can go to any level. In that case how does ownership get defined? Or does it even matter?

Now on the positive side, blockchains and tokens can increase investment in art, as more or more retail investors would be able to invest in percentages of it at much lower costs. This would create more liquidity in the system (network) and that can help in modernising infrastructure, education, promotion, and creation of art as a viable profession not only for eclectics and geniuses, but also for those who enjoy it as a hobby. It can help create more art creators and help them get financial assistance when they are honing their craft.

Right now the proceeds of art tourism go to the state and or the museums. In an NFT world, every afficionado/ fan can also get a part of these proceeds where the money is not flowing one way. It is being circulated between the artist and the fan. The fan is getting economic returns for supporting an artist. I personally believe this creates a far more sustainable economy and a more vibrant art community.

On the flip side, at least for me, famous artwork has historical and cultural significance. Consider the Italian renaissance and even 400 years later you find millions of tourists traveling all the way to Uffizi Gallery and or the Vatican to experience the majesty of the Italian masters in person. It is part of Italy’s cultural identity. Soft power. Perception. Should it all be up for sale? This is a tough one to answer.

Sure the state creates an economy around it. An economy of tourism and state culture. I don’t get reimbursed for my effort in visiting the gallery. I am sold an experience for which I have to pay and yes this experience requires effort and investment from my end. But I personally enjoy this. This in-person, live experience. Sure I can see it in VR from the comfort of my bedroom without the crowds, and the experience may be interesting as well, along with me making profits with more and more people investing in famous artworks I have invested in myself.

But I enjoy seeing the real canvas in front of my eyes with all the hordes of tourists, the queues for tickets and the effort. Call me old school.

So, there are pros and cons. What would be interesting to watch is how the NFT market regulates itself, as what is innovation today becomes commonplace tomorrow. For now I have no interest in owning 0.000000000001% of the Monalisa, because even if I did manage to do it somehow, Monalisa would never be on sale and thereby my investment would be locked without growth. Then that leaves bragging rights of ownership and in that case the only way I would want to own the Monalisa would be if I could hang it in my living room.

Not on a blockchain. Not yet.

About Me:

In my day job I drive product marketing and growth @ Google

For the next few months I will use this publication on Medium titled Metapherse to curate my experiences of learning web 3.0 in the open.Follow me on twitter @hackrlife or on my substack on all things Web 3.0 here.