"HOW DOES THIS GROW THE TOKEN?": Garga Asks Apes To Consider This Question When Reviewing New AIPs Amid A Broader Reimagining of $Ape, ApeCoin, And ApeChain!

As the crypto markets dump and ApeCoin hits a new all-time low, Yuga Labs CEO Garga has taken to the timeline with a thought experiment that every Ape and $Ape should ask themselves before passing anything new at the DAO: “How does this grow the token?”, a question that's tied to a larger reimagining of $Ape, the ApeCoin DAO, and ApeChain.

Things haven’t been easy at the ApeCoin DAO. From the very beginning in March 2022, $Ape has been under scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission, which kept Yuga Labs from taking an active role in the process for years. But now, it’s a new dawn.

 

Over the past month, the SEC officially dropped its investigation into ApeCoin and Yuga Labs and the Ape Foundation hired longtime Yuga Labs Chief Legal Officer Cameron Kates as its first-ever CEO.

On top of this, Garga has started talking more about $Ape, saying that Yuga Labs will work closely with the ApeCoin community to grow ApeChain. He also teased an AIP he wrote at the beach yesterday, and today challenged everyone to evaluate proposals based on one simple question: how do they grow the token?

“New dawn in crypto regulation means tokens should have an economic model built into the protocol,” he tweeted. “Memecoins aren’t better or more pure, you just would have gotten harassed if you tried to do literally anything else. Every AIP needs to answer how does this grow the token.”

 

 

Following Garga’s tweet, Apes took to the timeline and began calling for AIPs that directly support $Ape.

“This is a good shift IMO, but it's a pretty seismic one,” BAYC member and the Everything Token Co-Author Steve Bark tweeted. “Previously, proposals to the DAO just had to benefit the ApeCoin ecosystem (grants DAO), which could take many forms. Now, AIPs needs to clearly answer how it grows the $APE token; a more focused, strategic directive.”

 

 

 

This push for a more $Ape-centric approach at the DAO is part of a broader reimagining of ApeCoin and ApeChain that’s been taking shape since January 2025. Back then, the community voted in favor of a governance overhaul that will soon move AIP voting on-chain and require support from delegate communities before proposals go to a DAO wide vote, move 75% of the DAO's treasury on chain, among other things.

Garga’s tweet also comes just one day after ApeCoin announced it would retroactively review past AIPs to ensure authors have completed, or are actively working toward, their $Ape-funded goals.

 

The Bored Ape Gazette will continue to follow the changes and revamps happening around ApeCoin and will keep you posted on what Yuga Labs and Garga do next at the DAO. Stay tuned for updates!