Coinbase pauses plans for Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT Short Film Trilogy

On top of Bored Ape Yacht Club hype earlier this yearcryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced a trilogy of short films inspired by NFT project in the run-up to the launch of the exchange’s NFT marketplace. But after releasing the first listing in July, the company confirmed that Decrypt today that it has stopped further production of the series.

“We are continuously evolving our content strategy and have decided to halt production on the remaining two films while we identify the best path forward for the creative,” a Coinbase spokesperson said Decrypt. “We will continue to focus on more immediate creative endeavors.”

The spokesman refused to elaborate on the reasons for the production stoppage.

The Degen Trilogy had the blessing of the Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs, and it was meant to feature various Bored Ape characters submitted by their respective owners. Coinbase’s terms stipulated that it would pay $10,000 worth Bitcoin or ApeCoin to the owner of each selected Ape, in exchange for licensing rights to the films.

The first part was released in July via YouTube and social media platforms, with the five-minute CG-animated short introducing human characters on an ApeCoin-themed hunt in a skyscraper filled with “money zombies” – with just a handful of short Bored Ape appearances.

It was a lot of criticism by the NFT community, with social media commenters slamming the confusing story, long credits, and lack of meaningful Bored Ape Yacht Club elements in the first entry.

The timing was also considered unfortunate by some, as the film launched after Coinbase laid off around 1,100 people in June. “Imagine being laid off by Coinbase [because] they couldn’t afford to pay you and then they come out with this.” tweeted pseudonym NFT artist, Hawkward.

Beyond layoffs, much had changed from the April announcement to the July launch. The once flying NFT space struggled mightily following May’s crash in the crypto marketBored Apes had lost significant value in the same time frame, and Coinbase’s long-awaited NFT marketplace failed to gain traction after the launch.

Months later, the situation is no better. NFT sales continue to fall month after monthBored Ape rates recently fell below $60,000-down from a peak of $429,000 worth of ETH in April—and Coinbase’s share price has crashed to an all-time low in the midst of continued market struggle.

The Coinbase NFT marketplace has given up just $7 million in trading volume since the launch in April. That’s less than the leading marketplace OpenSea usually manages in a single day. Coinbase Chief Product Officer Surojit Chatterjee, who had overseen the launch of the marketplace, left the company in November in front of further redundancies.

IN an interview in August with journalist Laura Shin on the Unchained podcast, Chatterjee admitted that the first entry in the Degen trilogy “probably didn’t hit the mark” for “some people”, saying it was “something our marketing team tried.” Quoting Coinbase’s lively Super Bowl ad this year he added: “Some things are more successful than others.”

Despite falling Ethereum asset prices, Bored Ape Yacht Club remains one of the best-known and most successful NFT projects to date, and is accumulating more than 2.5 billion dollars in trading volume since its release in April 2021. Yuga Labs has launched a series of follow-up NFT collections, including land notes for the upcoming Otherside metaverse game.