Bored Ape raises US$ 320 million from virtual land sale in its Metaverse

On Saturday, the creators of Bored Ape Yacht Club revealed the Otherside Metaverse virtual land sale as the largest NFT mint in history to date. The virtual lands sold over the weekend can be used in Yuga Lab's upcoming BAYC-themed Metaverse game "Otherside".

The Web3 company offered parcels of the land for around US $5,800 each, plus transaction fees. The total proceeds of this sale emerged at US$ 320 million and 55,000 Otherdeeds sold. 

It is reported the Otherside Metaverse virtual lands, dubbed "Otherdeeds", were met with such overwhelming response that ethereum gas fees skyrocketed dramatically and disrupted activity on the ethereum network.

"We're sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while…It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We'd like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction." Yuga Labs tweeted.

However, some transactions were not successfully processed due to high demand, the company claimed it will refund the gas fees for affected users. 

Feeds associated with minting Otherdeeds reached US$ 123 million after the debut and required users to post two ether tokens, which is more than the cost of the deed purchase, according to Bloomberg’s report. 

However, some transactions were not successfully processed due to high demand, the company claimed it will refund the gas fees for affected users. 

About Yuga Labs

Yuga Labs is a U.S. based startup that created the BAYC NFTs, which are blockchain-based tokens representing a series of 10,000 computer-generated ape avatars. They quickly became one of the most well-known NFT collections, with celebrities backing the brand, such as Paris Hilton.  

In a fundraising round led by Andreessen Horowitz, in March, Yuga Labs raised US$ 450 million for its Metaverse project - “Otherside”, the multi-player gaming platform is under development and details are to be announced, according to its website. 

Virtual land sales outlook

Virtual land sales are new to the industry but growing exponentially. Virtual real estate sales on four major Metaverse platforms hit US$ 501 in 2021 and are expected to reach almost US$ 1 billion, according to research by investment and analytics company MetaMetric Solutions. 

Photo: The Handout