THE FUTURE OF FUNDING: Yuga Labs CEO Garga Says ApeCo Will Supercharge ApeChain And Give $Ape Builders An Unfair Advantage!

The future of funding builders was the talk of the timeline this morning as Yuga Labs CEO Garga sat down with the Coffee With Captain crew to discuss his Ape Improvement Proposal and how he hopes it will give $Ape builders and creators an 'unfair advantage' while growing all things ApeCoin.

Things were anything but boring on Tuesday as Garga joined Steve Bark and Chris Jourdan on Coffee With Captain to discuss his AIP titled “Sunsetting the DAO and Launching ApeCo — A New Operating Model for ApeCoin,” which calls for the shutdown of the ApeCoin DAO and the reorganization of its assets under a new Yuga-backed business called ApeCo.

During the conversation, Garga explained that he envisions ApeCo using all of its funds to help builders create and drive value to ApeChain, Otherside, and the BAYC, while also keeping them accountable and reducing sell pressure on $Ape.

“The goal of that has to be the idea of funding builders,” Garga said. “That’s what this pool of money is for. It’s to support the $Ape ecosystem and try to give an unfair advantage to products that are building on ApeCoin and ApeChain. But we need to be able to negotiate those deals harder. We need to have tighter accountability loops where we don’t go years without knowing where something went. It also means just having a really high bar. If people think that this money is going to go into ApeCo and it’s going to be rained upon anyone who wants to build with Ape IP, no! This thing needs to be much about what it is going to fund as what it’s not funding. Because... we need to fund projects that will help drive value to Ape. If the Ape price goes up then its good. That treasury is able to fund people that much more effectively.”

 

When asked what this would look like in practice, Garga said he’d like to see a formal application process created, along with several dedicated funding pools of different sizes at ApeCo.

“We have to look after different buckets.” He explained. The main thing we will have to be driving most of these deals towards, what the shape of them will have to look like, has to be closer to the kind of thing that we’d be evaluating on a Banana Bill level,” he said. “It’s things that are replenishing the treasury and high impact deals. For smaller check sizes you really need someone who will specialize in that and maybe with some of the talent from ThankApe now, some of that can be done internally.”

 

In closing, Garga said his goal for ApeCo is to supercharge the ApeChain ecosystem and fund builders who can help grow $Ape.

“You only want to emit tokens when you are helping to grow the network. I think that hardcore take is something ApeCoin and ApeChain can use,” Garga said. “It behooves all of us to have a mercenary way of thinking when we are trying to grow this. Do we think this will make ApeCoin or ApeChain stickier? Does it make people want to hold it from a cultural relevance perspective? Is it creating a revenue shared deal that can be used to sustain the treasury? That kind of thing. I think if we are just a social org that’s funding a lot of things, that has a drag bigger than most people realize. It doesn’t take a lot of sell pressure to tank the price of a token.”

 

 

As the Bored Ape Gazette previously reported, ApeCoin Foundation CEO Cameron Kates announced over the weekend that all things ApeCoin DAO have been put on pause as the community prepares to head to the polls later this week and begin casting their coins to decide whether the DAO should continue or if ApeCo should formally be established.

“Until June 11, the APE forums will remain open to discuss proposed AIP “Sunsetting the DAO and Launching ApeCo — A New Operating Model for ApeCoin’,” Kates tweeted on Saturday. “From June 12-25, the proposed AIP will be up for a vote. To pass, it must receive 69% of all votes, with no less than 3.5% of all votable tokens either in favor or abstaining.”

 

 

If passed, Garga’s sunsetting proposal would end the DAO’s governance system, meaning no more AIP votes or Special Council elections. It would also override all past AIPs, transfer all of the DAO’s assets to ApeCo (except for 10 million $Ape reserved for “legal and contractual obligations”) and ensure that the DAO’s previously passed staking protocol finishes out its final year of rewards, which are set to end in March 2026.

If the community votes against Garga’s proposal, then things will continue as outlined in AIP-582, with on chain voting rolling out soon and Special Council elections back on.

 

Everyone is encouraged to read the full AIP and make their voices heard on the Discourse forum page here: https://forum.apecoin.com/t/sunsetting-the-dao-and-launching-apeco-a-new-operating-model-for-apecoin/28242

 

The Bored Ape Gazette is working to bring you additional coverage of this morning’s conversation with Garga and will let you know how the community votes on this proposal as $Ape holders cast their coins later this week. Stay tuned for updates!