It’s a crisp autumn afternoon in Philadelphia. Tourists drift by the Art Museum beneath the city’s hazy skyline. Cameron Kates explains the Barnes Museum lawsuit while we climb the Rocky steps, two Philly institutions built on defiance.

The Barnes Foundation fought for decades to keep its vaunted art collection out of the city’s hands. Rocky Balboa famously ran these steps to prove he belonged. Both lost their original battles but won something bigger: the Barnes got its museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Rocky got his statue, and Philadelphia got two more monuments to its particular brand of stubborn glory.

“The city ended up suing to take possession of the collection,” Kates says. “It was against the founder’s will. A court had to decide how long after you die your will lasts.” He pauses. “The museum’s right here, so we know who won.”

It’s a perfect Philly story, and Kates tells it like someone who understands that in this city, you fight for what’s yours even when the odds are stacked. Which explains how a corporate lawyer from Cherry Hill came to helm a half-billion-dollar blockchain after spending years battling through trademark lawsuits, SEC threats, and market crashes.

“I took a job with guys I’d known for many months but had never met,” he says, recalling his leap to Yuga Labs in 2022. “First day, I flew down to Austin, walked up the street, and there’s Gordon and Garga sitting outside eating dinner. I’m like, ‘Hey, I’m Cameron. I’m your new guy.'”

The journey from Big Law to running ApeCo reads like a case study in calculated risk-taking. Kates spent years at Latham & Watkins grinding through billion-dollar M&A deals before crypto caught his attention. Not the trading side — he bought Ethereum at $72 when his buddies got it at $9 — but the legal architecture underneath. While others saw speculation, he saw an opportunity to build the structure that would help an industry emerge.

“The internet can be a tough place. But when you’re running a company, you can’t worry about that. You make decisions, you have great counsel, and you move forward.”
CAMERON KATES

Now, as CEO of ApeCo and the driving force behind ApeCoin and ApeChain, Kates oversees one of Web3’s most ambitious cultural experiments: expanding a JPEG collection into a sustainable ecosystem. The recent vote to sunset the ApeCoin DAO — 99.9% approval — marks a pivotal moment. After years of regulatory uncertainty and decentralized governance experiments, Ape is returning to what works: focused execution under clear leadership.

“The internet can be a tough place,” Kates says, reflecting on the legal battles and bear markets he’s weathered. “But when you’re running a company, you can’t worry about that. You make decisions, you have great counsel, and you move forward.”

Cameron Kates and Matt Medved at the Rocky statue in Philadelphia. Credit: Nox Media

Stomping Grounds

Born on July 4th — five weeks early, stopping the parade to get to the hospital — Cameron Kates came out swinging. Growing up in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, just across the river from Philadelphia, he channeled relentless energy into sports. Basketball, soccer, baseball, tennis, anything involving competition and a ball.

“I just couldn’t stop bouncing a ball and trying to win,” he recalls. That competitive fire would later manifest in high-stakes court battles and eleventh-hour deal closings, but first it made him a die-hard Philadelphia sports fan. Allen Iverson’s arm sleeve, Donovan McNabb at the draft (whom he booed, wanting Ricky Williams instead), the years of suffering that bond Philly fans together.

His father was a lawyer who told him not to become one. Naturally, Kates decided law school was the answer to his post-Penn State uncertainty. Standardized tests bailed him out — “you got a one in four shot at worst” — landing him at University of Pennsylvania Law School, back in his hometown orbit.

“You start to think at that macro level, but you still have to handle the details. [Law school] stretches you.”
CAMERON KATES

Law school awakened something in Kates. After years of regurgitating information, the Socratic method’s intellectual combat felt like home. His first 24-hour final made him cry, but it also proved something crucial: when forced to deliver, he could. A class on the Holocaust’s legal aftermath opened his eyes to how law shapes civilization itself. “The Nuremberg Trials didn’t just prosecute war criminals; they shaped international law as we know it.”

It was the first time he saw how the abstractions of the classroom connected to the real architecture of the world.

“You start to think at that macro level, but you still have to handle the details,” he says. “It stretches you.”

From ICOs to NFTs

The recession was over when Kates joined Latham & Watkins in 2015. Law firms were dangling high-paying internships at desperate students carrying six-figure debt. His first deal: a billion-dollar acquisition where the partner never spoke to him directly. Two weeks of diligence, dozens of hours straight, learning by drowning.

The education came not from the paperwork but from watching decisions get made. Why does a strategic buyer think differently than private equity? How do companies evaluate risk? What makes businesses move? Perceptive clients answered his questions, even the ones beyond legal scope. Slowly, patterns emerged.

Then came the assignment that changed everything. Partner Vivian Maese asked if he knew anything about ICOs. It was 2016. Kates was taking trains to New Jersey just to access Coinbase, not smart enough yet to use a VPN. His firm’s clients wanted to do regulated securities offerings while the rest of crypto was raising millions on white papers and promises.

“That 2017 ICO cycle got wild,” he remembers. “The EOS founder just bought a $125 million compound. 2017 comes back and reminds you a couple times a year.”

“I didn’t want to spend my life doing work I didn’t feel passionate about. That was the first time I said, okay, I’m a blockchain lawyer now.”
CAMERON KATES

By 2020, Kates made his move. He left Latham for a Philadelphia firm where blockchain was the focus, not a sidebar. His first day: Monday, March 11. By Friday, COVID sent everyone home. He never returned to that office.

“Sometimes you just make moves because you feel like, even if it’s not the best financial move, you have to care about your career,” he recalls. “I didn’t want to spend my life doing work I didn’t feel passionate about. That was the first time I said, okay, I’m a blockchain lawyer now.”

The pandemic accelerated crypto adoption. Money printing, quantitative easing, and DeFi summer created a perfect storm of market catalysts, and suddenly Kates was drowning in blockchain work. When Andrew Albertson at Fenwick West promised crypto 24/7, Kates jumped again. Two weeks into his Fenwick tenure, colleague Jacob Wittman mentioned these things called “Bored Apes.”

Cameron Kates and Matt Medved in Philadelphia. Credit: Nox Media

Joining the Club

In September 2021, Andrew called with a question: “Remember those apes Jacob was talking about? I got a call with them. Want to join?”

The offbeat names: Gordon Goner, Gargamel, Emperor Tomato, No Sass. Real identities unknown, cameras off. Welcome to Yuga Labs.

What followed was two months of controlled chaos. The CryptoPunks acquisition (“Would you have predicted that?”), the seed round, ApeCoin’s launch, Otherside: each move building momentum at the forefront of a digital revolution. Kates was working with founders who thought in “wild, creative, controversial ways,” watching them build on instinct and execution.

He was there when they got doxxed. They were given thirty minutes’ notice from Buzzfeed with no chance to protect themselves or their families. Later, Garga would tell him about the black Suburban that roared up to his house one night, stopping just long enough to send an unsettling message before disappearing.

“This isn’t just business; it’s their lives, their families. People can say what the publication did was okay, but let’s not ignore the reality of the risk.”
CAMERON KATES

“It was so important to them to keep who they were offline separate from what they were building — and that was just shattered,” Kates reflects. “This isn’t just business; it’s their lives, their families. People can say what the publication did was okay, but let’s not ignore the reality of the risk.”

In his view, the founders’ success wasn’t luck: “It was Walt and Roy Disney, Buffett and Munger… They really were that one-two punch of visionary and operator.”

“They came from the internet,” Kates continues. “They were gamers online, they made friends, they created communities. They had a really clear understanding that we flock to the internet for connection.”

Cameron Kates heads to court with the Yuga Labs team. Credit: X

When Ryder Ripps started selling copycat apes, claiming parody while banking $1.3 million, Yuga had a choice: let it slide or fight. They fought. Kates led the charge.

“You can’t let people steal from you,” he says simply. “You can’t let people scam your community.”

The internet painted Yuga as bullies crushing artistic expression. Legal Twitter debated novel applications of trademark law to digital assets. But for Kates, the issue was straightforward: trademark law exists to prevent exactly this kind of confusion.

“You can’t let people steal from you. You can’t let people scam your community.”
CAMERON KATES

They won at every stage. Ripps’ motion to dismiss: denied. Ripps’ Appeal: denied. Discovery battles: won. Yuga’s summary judgment: granted. Yuga’s post-trial judgment: $9 million including legal fees. When the Ninth Circuit recently remanded for reconsideration on narrow grounds, some on crypto Twitter declared victory for Ripps. Kates sees it differently.

“I’ll stake my career on it: we’re going to prevail. Nothing has changed about that.”

The case became a referendum on NFT culture itself. But while Twitter raged, Kates focused on the actual law. In his eyes, this wasn’t about innovation or artistic freedom. It was about whether you could intentionally confuse consumers and profit from it.

“Every court has said the same thing: you made it look like Bored Ape Yacht Club, you made $1.3 million doing it, and you should pay the price,” he says. “We’ve won at every step.”

Aping In

In May 2022, Kates joined Yuga Labs in-house as Chief Legal Officer, finally meeting the founders in person. The timing was perfect and terrible: NFT mania at its peak, regulatory scrutiny intensifying, everyone from airlines to sports teams calling to ask, “What’s an NFT?”

His first ApeFest as a Yuga employee crystallized what they’d built. For four nights, 3,500 people took over Pier 17. Snoop Dogg made music videos. Bored & Hungry served burgers. People who’d known each other only as cartoon avatars finally shook hands.

“You had that moment being like, this is real,” he remembers. “There’s extraordinary passion. There’s energy. We’re going to do something big.”

But building in crypto means navigating between innovation and regulation. The SEC under Gary Gensler had declared war on digital assets. Every structure, every token launch, every governance decision had to thread an increasingly narrow needle. The ApeCoin DAO represented “some of the best work of its era”: pairing decentralized governance to avoid securities law issues with community control to maintain legitimacy.

“Cameron is one of those rare people who can think big, grind hard, and still make it enjoyable for everyone around him.”
GARGA, YUGA LABS CEO

The DAO processed 580 proposals, funded hundreds of initiatives, and spent millions. But as Kates observed from inside, the limitations were obvious.

“It showed exactly why DAOs fail: they move too slow, you can’t get decisions, and economic power gets concentrated in ways you didn’t foresee,” he explains. “That’s why so many DAOs, including ApeCoin, have migrated to corporate structures.”

When Garga proposed sunsetting the DAO in favor of a corporate structure this year, the vote wasn’t close. The community understood what Kates had learned through years of legal battles: sometimes you need clear leadership to win.

“That set us on an even playing field with peers who’d already said, ‘we’re going to run the ecosystem as a company,’” says Kates. “It’s just a much faster, more nimble, more agile process. Setting up ApeCo under Garga’s vision gives us that same capability.”

“Cameron is one of those rare people who can think big, grind hard, and still make it enjoyable for everyone around him,” says Garga. “ApeCo couldn’t be in better hands.”

Cameron Kates at home with his family. Credit: Courtesy of Cameron Kates

Head of Ape

The transition from lawyer to CEO came 30 days before his first child was born. His wife’s response: “I support you. We’ll figure it out.”

The 45-day plan got compressed to 32 when his daughter arrived early (like father, like daughter). Between feedings and strategy sessions, Kates restructured spending, built out the team, and set ApeChain’s direction. When he returned from paternity leave, the foundation was set.

“My daughter has definitely perked up on some Twitter Spaces,” he laughs. “I’m often just feeding her and working.”

The vision for ApeChain is deceptively simple: become the home for NFT communities. Not chase every trend, not compete for every user, but build the best infrastructure for the kinds of communities that made crypto special in the first place. Already, 200 NFT projects call ApeChain home. Each brings its own builders and energy.

“The goal is to get millions of people to spend billions in APE in Otherside. We want to make it so simple that any user can just pay and we’ll handle the back end.”
CAMERON KATES

The crown jewel is Otherside, Yuga’s metaverse platform powered by ApeCoin. Kates sees its promise as a form of social infrastructure. He says people are moving from Twitter Spaces to Otherside’s ‘bubbles,’ where visual connection holds attention in ways audio alone cannot.

“The goal is to get millions of people to spend billions in $APE in Otherside,” he states plainly. “We want to make it so simple that any user can just pay and we’ll handle the back end.”

At this year’s ApeFest and ComplexCon in Las Vegas, ApeChain is putting the entire experience on-chain. Sports partnerships are brewing. Music deals are being structured. The pitch to Web2 brands is straightforward: blockchain lets you engage directly with consumers, without middlemen, ad agencies, or spam. You drop an NFT, you can reach that holder forever.

Cameron Kates in Philadelphia. Credit: Nox Media

“Maybe that’s no longer needed in the future when we’re all sitting on the same rails,” Kates suggests, picturing brands and consumers meeting peer-to-peer.

The competition — Abstract, Anime, other Web3-native chains — doesn’t worry him. In his eyes, the pie is too small for zero-sum thinking. Everyone needs to grow.

“I’m not here to hope that one of my classmates from 2022 shuts down,” he says. “That’d be bad.”

“Either we get to the level that people want to use the things we’re building or we have to stop saying retail is coming.”
CAMERON KATES

What distinguishes ApeChain is its commitment to digital distribution while others chase physical products or vertical integration. Kates sees the BAYC ethos, the Otherside platform, and the community-first approach as the natural evolution of the original vision.

Kates is clear-eyed about the challenges ahead. Crypto remains a small industry despite institutional adoption. GameFi has struggled, SocialFi hasn’t found footing, and attention remains scarce. But Kates sees opportunity where others see obstacles. The infrastructure is stronger, regulation is softening, and the brands are drifting back.

“Either we get to the level that people want to use the things we’re building,” he says, “or we have to stop saying retail is coming.”

Cameron Kates and Matt Medved in Philadelphia. Credit: Nox Media

While the institutional appetite for crypto has never been more bullish, Kates stresses that real adoption comes from things people actually use.

“We’re still too small,” he reflects on the industry. “We all have such opportunities to grow in our own ways.”

Through it all, his family helps him stay grounded. “I get to pick my daughter up in the morning, and the first thing she does is smile at me,” Kates says. “That’s when I know the world can’t be that bad.”

As for what the future holds? The Phillies are winning the World Series, the Eagles are repeating, and Dallas will still suck. Those are the certainties Kates carries in a business built on volatility.

There’s one more.

“Apes are always going to be apes.”

Editor’s note: Now Media has a partnership with ApeChain, which includes collaborations across content, events, and media initiatives.