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.

Some news to share:

After serving as CEO the past couple years, I’m moving into the role of Chairman of the Board, and @mfigge will become Yuga’s next CEO.

Figge is the absolute best person for the job. There’s no one I trust more to lead Yuga through this next chapter.

He’s…

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.

The @mfigge new @BoredApeYC playbook is one of the best I have seen in the history of the entire space. Now @apecoin up 80 % today ! Proud to see one of my best, most trusted friends literally crushing it 💪.

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.

“We spotted this insider before $APE surged 80%! He is now up $713K,” Lookonchain reported.

APE had traded near $0.10 for months before Friday’s breakout, leaving it still roughly 99% below its 2022 peak. In it’s latest surge, the altcoin topped out at $0.1965, up 70% in the last hour.

Whether the rally holds will depend on how quickly Figge delivers on the roadmap and whether broader NFT volumes follow.

The post ApeCoin (APE) Price Rallies 80%, Puts One Trader In the Spotlight for Insider Trading appeared first on BeInCrypto.

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