Canned water for NFT holders? Ape Water wants to do something about Bored Ape NFTs.

Looking for something to do with that cartoon monkey JPEG you bought for six figures earlier this year?

You are not alone! Various Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT holders have recently launched project after project – everything from pop-up restaurants to comic shops – in an attempt to leverage their expensive blockchain investments.

And that brings me to the latest to hit the Mashable inbox recently: Ape Water.

Ape Water, brought to you by a new company called Ape Beverages, brings the Web3 community fresh spring water … in a can with a Bored Ape image slapped on it.

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While the current marketing for the yet-to-be-officially launched product shows the same Bored Ape art on all the early boxes, the idea is that Bored Ape NFT holders will be able to license their monkeys to be featured on the boxes. This is possible because of the license agreement Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, gives to anyone who has a Bored Ape NFT. The NFT basically grants a license to the holder to use their specific Bored Ape for pretty much anything.

Along with the Web3 marketing language, Ape Water relies on the environmental aspects of canned water over the more popular bottled version. However, these environmental claims have been disputed by the website TreeHugger in the past. (Simply put, even recyclable cans have an ecological footprint, and only reusable bottles are truly sustainable.)

Canned water is not a completely original idea either. Edgelord brand Liquid Death is probably the best known of the niche bottled water companies, and it’s been around since 2019. So, the “innovation” here from Ape Water isn’t the cans or the eco-friendly claims; it is the Web3 attempt to “democratize” intellectual property.

We have seen attempts by Bored Ape NFT holders to monetize their holdings before. A Bored Ape-themed burger joint called Bored & Hungry opened earlier this year in California. The branding centers on Bored Apes, which is held by the restaurateurs behind the establishment. Bored & Hungry made some headlines in June after reports spread that the burger joint based solely around a crypto-asset had stopped accepting cryptocurrency for a period of time.

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Actor Seth Green had famously developed a TV series around his Bored Ape NFT. That series was put into legal limbo earlier this year when Green was hacked and his Bored Ape NFT was stolen. Because he no longer had possession of the NFT, Green then no longer had the rights to his Bored Apes IP. Green ended up Pays $300,000 to get Bored Ape back.

Ape Water is just the latest in a series of Bored Ape NFT monetization attempts.

“Officially launching on September 22, 2022, Ape Water will periodically feature various BAYC monkeys and other IP assets on the front of an infinitely recyclable can,” the press release said.

Will Ape Water be successful? We’ll see, but it should be noted that the whole idea behind it – while interesting – isn’t quite as democratizing as the press release would make it seem. Keep in mind that these Bored Ape NFTs are still selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars, even if marketing is slowing down.

From the time of publication is floor price for a Bored Ape Yacht Club, the NFT hovers around 75 ether, or about $118,000. That’s down about 50 percent from its May 2022 peaks.