Liquid Ape NFTs Strategically Plan Their Launch to Coincide with ApeFest 2026
London, United Kingdom, October 16th, 2026, Chainwire
The 10,000 piece collection will debut immediately after ApeFest, amid renewed discussion about liquidity and long term value in the NFT market.
There’s a new troop of Apes heading into Web3. And judging by their entrance, they have no intention of arriving quietly.
The timing places Liquid Apes alongside a wider conversation about the future of NFTs, as the sector continues to evolve following the dramatic market expansion and subsequent correction of recent years, while also tackling something the NFT market has long been missing: real underlying dollar liquidity.
Liquid Apes, a collection of 10,000 original, hand-drawn NFTs, will begin minting on 21 October, with public access opening the following day. The project is supported by an international team including Nathan Hill, CEO of the CMC Group of Companies, whose portfolio includes *The Crypto Magazine* and the award winning Liquid NFTs marketplace.
While the technology behind the collection is serious, the team has been having rather a lot of fun introducing it.
10,000 Reasons to Get Noticed
In September, the team quietly slipped 10,000 NFTs onto OpenSea.
Not the real Liquid Apes, of course.
NOT THE LIQUID APES was a deliberately cheeky parody collection, free to mint, with 9,000 NFTs proudly offering absolutely nothing and 1,000 hiding a guaranteed opportunity to join the real collection’s whitelist.
Ten thousand pieces of marketing, planted directly inside one of the world’s biggest NFT marketplaces. No conventional advertising campaign. Just curiosity, a little mischief and a very deliberate strategy.
And that was only the beginning.
Coincidence? Not remotely.
With ApeFest drawing the global NFT community together this week, the team has timed the Liquid Apes launch to follow immediately afterwards.
Drawing on NFT history Liquid Apes has adopted two characteristics associated with the original Bored Ape Yacht Club launch in 2021: a supply of 10,000 NFTs and an initial mint price of 0.08 ETH ($236 equivalent at the time of the final BAYC mint). Bored Ape Yacht Club became one of the defining collections of the NFT boom, achieving substantial secondary market valuations and helping establish NFTs as a mainstream cultural phenomenon. Although valuations and trading volumes across the NFT market have since fallen considerably from their peaks, BAYC’s influence on digital collectibles and community led Web3 projects remains significant. The Liquid Apes team describes the shared numbers as a recognition of that history rather than an attempt to replicate the original collection. The new project features exclusive hand drawn artwork and will launch using a very different underlying economic structure.
Addressing the Question of NFT Liquidity
Beyond the collection itself, the launch will also provide a high profile demonstration of the Liquid NFTs marketplace, which has been developed to address one of the longstanding challenges associated with digital collectibles: the ability to realise value without relying entirely on secondary market demand. Unlike conventional NFTs, which typically require a willing buyer for an owner to exit a position, NFTs created on LiquidNFTs.finance have individual pools of underlying dollar denominated liquidity. It’s a proposition that has already earned Liquid NFTs two European Global Business Awards for innovation in Web3 liquidity and next-generation NFT infrastructure. These pools provide holders with a redemption mechanism independent of finding another buyer, while the platform’s economic model allows the underlying liquidity to increase through wider marketplace activity. The approach does not eliminate market risk or guarantee a return, but it introduces a different structure for NFT ownership and liquidity. Liquid NFTs, launched to the public in may 2026 has already received two European Global Business Awards, recognising its work in Web3 liquidity innovation and next-generation NFT infrastructure.
Nathan Hill, CEO of the CMC Group of Companies, said:
“Bored Ape Yacht Club brought Ape focused NFTs into mainstream consciousness, and that deserves recognition. We chose the same original supply and mint price as a nod to that history, but Liquid Apes is built around a different economic proposition.
“The market has changed significantly since 2021. Collectors are asking more questions about utility, liquidity and the value behind digital assets. We believe those are important questions, and Liquid Apes gives us an opportunity to demonstrate how a different model can work in practice.”
Launch schedule
Whitelist applications for Liquid Apes close at 12:00 UTC on Tuesday 20 October 2026.
The whitelist mint will open at 18:00 UTC on Wednesday 21 October 2026, followed by the public mint at 18:00 UTC on Thursday 22 October 2026 at a fixed mint price of $236 with $118 locked directly into each Liquid Ape.
Further information about the collection is available at https://LiquidApes.com, with details of the underlying marketplace at https://LiquidNFTs.finance.
About Liquid Apes
Liquid Apes is a 10,000 piece, hand drawn NFT collection launching in October 2026 on the Liquid NFTs marketplace. The project is supported by an international team and the CMC Group of Companies.
About Liquid NFTs
Liquid NFTs is a multichain NFT marketplace built around individual NFT liquidity pools and holder-controlled redemption. The platform has received two European Global Business Awards for its approach to NFT liquidity and infrastructure.