Bored Ape Yacht Club floor prices have doubled over the past month, climbing from approximately 5 ETH to more than 10 ETH per piece.
In US dollar terms, the floor moved from $14,300 on April 10 to $25,156 on May 10, a 75.87% gain. The rally extended across other blue-chip collections including CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins and Mutant Ape Yacht Club.
At the same time, the broader NFT market posted approximately $238.54 million in 30-day trading volume, down 54.89% from the prior period.
NFT Market 30-Day Trading Volume
Period-over-period comparison, USD millions
Source: cryptoslam.io 30-day NFT trading volume data, as reported May 10, 2026.
BAYC floor climbs from 5 ETH to 10.4 ETH in 30 days
The BAYC collection’s market capitalization reached $251 million as of May 10, supported by $13.42 million in 30-day sales, outpacing CryptoPunks at $7.78 million.
CryptoPunks itself moved from $62,500 to $73,200, while Pudgy Penguins climbed from $9,500 to $12,900.
The largest percentage gainer in the cluster was BAYC’s sister collection Mutant Ape Yacht Club, which advanced from $1,500 to $3,960, a 164% move.
ApeCoin (APE), the ecosystem’s governance token, rallied from below $0.10 to roughly $0.16 alongside the floor price recovery, with a sharp pickup in trading volume.
NFT trading volume drops 54.89% despite blue-chip rally
The volume figure is the part most coverage has not led with. While individual blue-chip prices doubled, total sector activity contracted.
That divergence has a specific fingerprint: fewer participants buying fewer pieces at higher prices, rather than new entrants expanding the market.
BAYC’s unique-holder count provides supporting evidence. The collection has 5,676 unique addresses holding across a fixed 10,000-piece supply. That count has remained largely stable through the rally, meaning the same set of holders is paying higher prices to each other, not absorbing fresh demand from new wallets.
Outside the top tier, the picture is consistent with the volume figure. Collections beyond the BAYC, CryptoPunks, Pudgy Penguins and MAYC cluster have not posted comparable moves.
The notable secondary volume gains were concentrated in licensed-IP collections: Panini America, NBA Top Shot, Anome OG, and Guild of Guardians, which sit in a different category from generative profile-picture art.
Yuga Labs CEO Michael Figge points to DeFi stress as catalyst
Michael Figge took over as Yuga Labs CEO last month after serving in various executive roles at the company since 2022. In comments to CoinDesk on May 10, Figge attributed the BAYC rebound to a valuation correction rather than fresh speculation:
“It’s clear from the numbers that for some time, as far as blue-chip digital collectibles go, it was oversold. You had this huge compression in price, but if you actually look at an overlay graph, unique holders were actually up.”
Figge also acknowledged the counter-argument directly:
“A cynic will say prices doubled and the unique holder count didn’t double. But that’s really just recovery from a period where things fell disproportionately.”
The more interesting structural argument Figge made was about capital rotation. He pointed to ongoing DeFi exploits and declining lending yields as factors pushing risk capital back toward NFTs as an alternative speculative asset.
