LISBON, Portugal--()--The ApeCoin DAO, in partnership with Yuga Labs, Layer Zero, The Arbitrum Foundation, Horizen Labs, Caldera, Wire Network and Off Chain Labs have launched ApeChain, a creator-centric blockchain powered by its native token ApeCoin ($APE), at ApeFest Lisbon.

“While ApeChain has all the best tech - account abstraction with Yuga ID, gas-sponsored transactions, native yield, one-click onboarding via Ape Portal and the first-ever use of LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token (OFT) standard - frankly being fast, cheap, and technically sophisticated is just table stakes,” said Michael Figge, Yuga’s Chief Product Officer.

ApeChain will also benefit from Wire Network's decentralized AI capabilities, which bring dedicated block space and gasless transactions to builders on ApeChain.

“ApeChain’s focus is beyond just the tech. We are focused on two things: (1) making delightful experiences for us all to enjoy and (2) making the tools that create those experiences available to everybody on ApeChain.”

The ecosystem website ApeChain.com debuted an easy to browse interface featuring a slate of launching and upcoming apps including Yuga Labs’ Top Trader, Pixel Vault’s Battle Plan, Sugartown’s Poker, mobile hit Dookey Dash: Unclogged, Made By Apes, Kagami’s Streets of New Tokyo, Otherside - Yuga Labs’ metaverse - and several dozen more titles at platform launch.

Yuga Labs also demoed an Otherside experience called “Bubbles,” a voice-enabled social feature that resembles a visual and interactive version of Spaces on X - that will be available to all builders on Otherside. The feature is built on ApeChain with the Otherside Development Kit (ODK), Otherside’s bespoke software development kit created by Yuga with partners Improbable and MSquared.

Initiatives to kickstart additional ApeChain development were announced by the DAO on Sunday. ApeChain’s user incentives are funded through the approximately $70 million USD fund, cheekily named “The Banana Bill,” that was approved by the ApeCoin DAO earlier this year. The Banana Bill is aimed at funding the long-term sustainability and growth of ApeChain through user incentives and complementary commercial agreements with projects, companies, and protocols committed to building on ApeChain.

An incentive program called Spotlight will reward users for engagement through a points system. Apps funded through the Banana Bill will set aside future rewards to users of Spotlight.

Learn more about ApeChain’s mainnet launch on apechain.com or by following @apecoin on X and Telegram.

About ApeCoin

Culture has found new expression in web3 through art, gaming, entertainment, and events. The possibilities for blockchain’s impact on culture are so endless that they can’t possibly all be predicted yet. ApeCoin is a token made to support what’s next, controlled and built on by the community. It will serve as a decentralized protocol layer for community-led initiatives that drive culture forward into the metaverse.

About Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs is the leading web3 lifestyle and media company offering creative brand IP/NFT projects, gaming, and community experiences. Guided by the belief that the potential of web3 can be realized when we start with imagination, not limitations, Yuga’s initiatives aim to reinvent what NFTs look like and push the space forward as a whole. Yuga Labs’ mission is to build culture on the blockchain.

About LayerZero

LayerZero is an interoperability protocol that connects blockchains (50+ and counting), allowing developers to build seamless omnichain applications, tokens, and experiences. The protocol relies on immutable on-chain endpoints, a configurable security stack, and a permissionless set of executors to transfer censorship-resistant messages between chains. LayerZero enables omnichain development thanks to unified semantics across blockchains. With LayerZero, application owners may define and control their own configurations for security and efficiency.

About Caldera

Caldera is one of the fastest-growing rollup ecosystems on Ethereum, empowering web3 teams to launch high-performance, customizable, application-specific rollups. Leading EVM chains like Manta, ApeChain, Kinto, Injective, RARI Chain and Zero Network by Zerion use our industry-leading rollups-as-a-service platform and enjoy unified connectivity with rollups across all leading frameworks. For more information, visit Caldera’s website.

About Wire Network

The Only Blockchain for the Ai Economy No Gas. All Chains. Lightning Fast Transactions. As Ai drives an economic revolution, Wire Network delivers the first third-generation blockchain, providing financial rails for the Ai agent economy - it's like a global passport and universal currency for Ai. Visit wire.network.