Musk's Bored Ape Avatar Revival Sparks Fungibility Debate Again

Elon Musk has revisited one of his most memorable cryptocurrency-era social media stunts. In May 2022, he briefly changed his Twitter profile picture to a collage featuring dozens of Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.

The image was created for Sotheby's 2021 'Ape In!' auction and included the gold-furred ape #5809 wearing blue glasses at its center. Musk's stunt played into one of the criticisms of NFT collectibles: that they are not truly unique since anyone can download or screenshot an image.

At the time, Musk did not engage with a request from Michael Bouhanna, Sotheby's co-head of digital art, to remove the image or credit him for creating it. Musk simply quipped 'I dunno… seems kinda fungible.'