SUCCESSFUL SUMMIT: ApeCon 2025 Kicked Off With A Call To Build From Yuga Labs’ Garga And Ended With A 5,000 $APE Prize for MBA Brand Vonga!

The first-ever ApeCon Virtual Conference & Startup Competition was a huge success, opening with an invitation to build from Yuga Labs CEO Garga and ending with a 5,000 $APE grand prize for Made By Apes business, Vonga!

Things were anything but boring on Thursday as Bored Ape Yacht Club members Chris Jourdan, Steve Bark, and TheMiamiApe teamed up with ThankApe to host the first-ever ApeCon Virtual Conference & Startup Competition, an event packed with prizes, business tips. and more!

The nearly seven-hour event kicked off with a keynote interview featuring Yuga Labs CEO Garga, who told attendees that both ApeChain and Ethereum’s best days are ahead, thanks to a more friendly regulatory environment under the Trump administration, which allows creators to experiment onchain.

"I’m looking everyday at things we wouldn’t have been able to do 6 months ago,” Garga said. “I think you could be bearish on recent price action but having an SEC that is open… Long term that is incredibly bullish.”

 

Garga left the crowd with a call to action, encouraging developers and more to ape into ApeChain and to always “have fun and do something crazy.”

 

“If it delights you, it will have the possibility to delight everyone else,” he said.

 

Following Garga’s speech, attendees watched the first round of the Startup Competition, where builders from around the swamp and the ApeChain ecosystem pitched their ideas to guest judges and Modern Markets Hosts BCheque and LegendaryGainz.

In the end, OnSkyCo, Zards, Gamifi Dot fun, Dob Protocol, and Vonga advanced to the finals, where Vonga took home the 5,000 $APE grand prize for its onchain clothing brand.

 

 

“I think I’m still processing it all,” Vonga Founder Von Frontin told the Gazette after his win. “Overwhelmed by the support from the judges as well as the community since it all happened. I’m grateful for the opportunity and truly inspired by all the builders in the ecosystem. I saw some amazing teams building some amazing things today. It’s legitimately an honor just to stand shoulder to shoulder with all of them. The $APE will help me continue to build out my inventory and fulfill some of our upcoming orders for our fall collection. Our wholesale partners don’t pay until we ship, so this allows me to get a jump on production and start bringing more people to ApeChain that much sooner.”

 

Alongside the Startup Competition, attendees also learned a lot about ApeChain from community leaders like Lost and NGBShpend, picked up networking tips from BAYC members Rahim Mahtab and VeraTheApe, and got a crash course in Direct to Consumer sales from three of the best Bored Apes in the business: NFTHoarder of Bored Trading Co., Von Frontin of Vonga, and Pieter of Bored Brewing Co.

The Bored Ape Gazette is working to bring you additional coverage of today’s ApeCon event. Stay tuned for updates!