What is ApeCoin and what is it used for?

ApeCoin is APE, a cryptocurrency created in March 2022 for the community around the Bored Ape Yacht Club, a well-known NFT collection made by Yuga Labs. It is used to pay fees on its own network, ApeChain, and to buy things inside games and apps linked to Yuga Labs. Its total supply is fixed at 1 billion APE.

What is ApeCoin used for?

According to Trust Wallet's guide, APE has been used for:

• paying for events, merchandise, games and services in the Ape ecosystem
• paying transaction fees on ApeChain
• earning yield through ApeChain's built-in yield feature
• voting in the ApeCoin DAO, before it was closed

At launch, 62 percent of supply went to an ecosystem fund, 16 percent to Yuga Labs and charity, 14 percent to launch contributors and 8 percent to the founders of Yuga Labs and BAYC. The 2026 white paper says almost all tokens are unlocked and that vesting was due to finish in March 2026. Some APE is also destroyed, which what is a token burn explains in general terms.

What blockchain is ApeCoin on?

APE was created as an ERC-20 token on Ethereum, and it still exists there. It also runs on ApeChain, a separate network announced in April 2024 with the rollup company Caldera and Horizen Labs.

ApeChain is built with Arbitrum Orbit, a toolkit for launching chains that settle to Arbitrum. That makes it a layer 3, one step further from Ethereum than a layer 2. Its mainnet went live on October 19, 2024, ForkLog reported. APE is its gas token, and LayerZero handles moving APE between chains. According to the white paper, gas paid in APE on ApeChain is burned, and ApeCo buys and burns a matching amount.

What does ApeCoin do now that the DAO is gone?

ApeCoin was originally governed by the ApeCoin DAO, where holders voted on proposals and the APE Foundation acted as its legal steward. For how this kind of voting works, see what is a governance token.

In June 2025 Yuga Labs CEO Greg Solano proposed shutting the DAO down. Decrypt reported that the plan would move DAO and foundation assets to ApeCo, a new Yuga Labs entity focused on ApeChain, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Otherside, Yuga's planned metaverse. APE holders would lose their governance rights.

The proposal went to a vote as AIP-596. ChainCatcher reported that it needed a 66 percent majority and that early results showed more than 99 percent in favor. The 2026 white paper confirms the proposal passed and that ApeCo now handles strategy and execution. As of October 2026, APE remains in use, but decisions about it no longer go through a holder vote.