The creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Yuga Labs, are releasing animated NFT stickers on Telegram. June 20, 2025, was the D-Day. Cool, right? Maybe. Or maybe it's a sign that the NFT party is winding down, and the music's getting turned off.

Regulatory Red Flags Everywhere?

Let's be blunt: the NFT space has largely avoided the regulatory hammer...so far. But that's changing. The SEC has been sniffing around, and countries worldwide are starting to figure out how to classify and regulate these digital assets. Now BAYC stickers are available on Telegram, getting access to its 900 million monthly active users. This would be like waving an almost comically large red flag, raising major concern with regulators.

Think about it. These stickers are purchased with Telegram Stars that can be converted to Toncoin. Is this a security offering? Are we skirting money-laundering laws? Are consumers adequately protected? Those are the kinds of questions that regulators are going to be asking, and Yuga Labs had better have some damn good responses. It raises centralization issues too, as the Stars are under Telegram’s control. It has been called a decentralized dream, but it comes with its own centralized gatekeepers.

And what about the kids? This isn't some exclusive art auction. Since it’s openly accessible on a platform already widely used by millions of kids, among others, this is particularly alarming. Are there age restrictions? Disclaimers about the risks involved? To the uninitiated, this sounds like a legal minefield that’s about to blow, and unfortunately for BAYC, they may have just stepped on the landmine.

NFT Saturation: Is Anyone Even Buying?

Remember when NFTs were all the rage? Everyone and their brother was buying them, celebrities were shilling them, prices were through the roof. Now? Crickets. The market has cooled significantly.

  • Peak Hype: 2021-2022
  • Current State: Market correction, declining trading volumes
  • Sticker's Impact?: Unlikely to reverse the trend

Dropping BAYC-inspired emojis onto Telegram doesn’t seem that radical. Rather, it comes off as one last lurching move to resuscitate a long flailing market. It’s similar to placing a new coat of paint on an old home with a crumbling foundation. It’s great that it looks better for a second, but the crux of the issue is how we present this data.

Do we even need BAYC-themed Stickers? Or is this simply the latest instance of Yuga Labs continuing to extract every last drop from its IP? I suspect the latter. And that’s the key—this is a business after all. Yet, we can’t help but feel that the tide might be moving against the NFT craze.

Environmental Impact: Still a Concern?

Sure, the TON blockchain is indeed much more energy-efficient than other blockchains like Ethereum. Great. But it's still consuming energy. Even in the form of stickers, advocating for the use of NFTs just adds to the cumulative damage that the crypto world has done to our planet.

We are still in the acute stages of a climate crisis. While each individual sticker might seem small, millions of individual transactions add up to make a huge difference. Is a BAYC sticker truly enough of a status symbol to support the worsening of climate change? Is this what we want to promote? It’s a question we all should be asking.

Think about fast fashion. It's cheap, trendy, and ultimately disposable. These stickers feel similar. Sure, they could be fun for a week or two. That allure will soon wear off, and as they do, they’ll leave a lasting but mild environmental footprint.

This isn't about hating on BAYC. It's about being responsible. It is, and it’s about understanding that the tiniest of actions can have the most profound effects.

As for the long-term sustainability of these stickers, well that’s up for debate too. Products based on whether people will be using them in a year. Two years? Or will they fade away like just another relic from the NFT craze’s heyday? As with any new technology, NFTs should look for tangible uses outside of speculation and hype.