ApeCoin (APE) price surged more than 80% on Friday to roughly $0.18, breaking out of a tight range around $0.10, drawing optimism from Yuga Labs confirmation of Michael Figge as chief executive earlier this week.
On-chain analytics firm Lookonchain flagged a newly created wallet that rotated out of ether and into a 5x leveraged long on 9.19 million APE, sitting on a $713,000 unrealized gain at the time of reporting.
Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and the Otherside metaverse, promoted longtime chief product officer Figge to the top role around April 16. Co-founder Greg Solano moved to chairman of the board.
Figge has been with Yuga since 2021 and joined from a background in film, animation, and digital art. His appointment coincides with fresh ecosystem plans, including a proposed Yuga Grails over-the-counter desk for high-end NFT liquidity.
Community sentiment around the token has shifted sharply in recent days. Billionaire BAYC collector Adam Weitsman, who holds thousands of Otherside deeds and multiple Mega Mutant Apes, has publicly reiterated confidence in the new leadership team.
Data from Lookonchain shows the anonymous trader sold 75 ether worth $174,000 on Hyperliquid before opening the 5x APE position valued at $1.03 million.
The wallet has no prior transaction history, which fueled speculation about informed trading ahead of the move.