Is PAYC a Cheap Derivative or a Solid Investment: Here’s the Scoop

Here’s one for the counter-culture movement: PAYC (Phunky Ape Yacht Club) and PHAYC! These two parody NFT projects merely flipped the original Bored Ape Yacht Club JPEGs from right-facing to left-facing, and sold them. In fact, the common eye would not even notice the difference between the original and the imitation.

OpenSea and Rarity recently delisted all NFTs associated to PAYC and PHAYC as they are in violation of some of the copyright infringement rules. However, interested buyers can still purchase these inverted apes on NFTrade. At the time of writing, the floor price sits at 0.069 ETH and 0.13 ETH respectively.

Rise of the Planet of the Phunky Apes

As 2021 comes to an end, it is evident that not all investments rely on utility. Meme coins for instance have minimal utility but thrive on their ability to attract large community support. PAYC launched early this month with a counter-culture theme. The project managed to build a community that supports their mission, which basically is to denigrate the rich for dominating the NFT market. Early entrants even got to mint them for free.

PHAYC entered the scene a little later with the same left-facing collection, with a satirical theme indicating that people are taking the NFT market too seriously. Although launching later, the value of their collection is clearly higher than PAYC’s. Interestingly, both ‘competitors’ were also seen taking jabs at each other on Twitter. PAYC even called PHAYC a “cash grab fraud project”.

Both these projects do not have celebrity following nor eye-popping price tags, but they are certainly far from nothing.

Buy, Hold, or Sell?

There are many reasons for investments to increase in value, some are fairly straightforward, and some that make absolutely no sense. While NFTs can have massive upsides, it is still a relatively risky venture. Not to mention the unending scams, rugpulls, and hacks.

These are definitely not the only meme/parody/copycat/fake/ripoff NFTs in the market, there is a tsunami of them. From a conservative investment standpoint, it is a strong PASS. But then again, high risk high return am I right?

It is not an easy task, but if you really want to take a shot at PAYC-like NFT projects, here is a simple checklist for you. Firstly, there should be a mission where you can see a strong community forming around it. Virality is key. In addition, you should beware if the only goal of the team and the community is to pump the price of the NFTs. Ideally, there should be some direction or ultimate goal. Finally, see if you can check out who’s behind the project.

However, not all buyers are investors looking for the next 30X investment. For instance, some of them genuinely want to support the cause behind charitable projects like Cool Cats and Shaq Gives Back. Even so, it pays off to do your due diligence so your money actually reaches who it was meant for.

Now that I’ve laid it out, which side are you on?