The highly-anticipated virtual land sale related to Yuga Labs’ metaverse project went live hours ago and affected a large portion of the entire crypto market. The massive demand led to ETH fees worth nearly $200 million, while ApeCoin’s price slumped by double digits after the sale.
- Ever since Yuga Labs, the creators of popular NFT projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, announced the metaverse project Otherside, the anticipation for the actual sale was soaring.
- This led to a substantial price increase for BAYC’s native coin – ApeCoin – as the organization said it will be used to purchase virtual land. Somewhat expectedly, APE charted an all-time high just a few days before Yuga Labs’ sale went live.
- Hours ago, the sale indeed went live and caused massive disruptions for the Ethereum network – the blockchain that it’s built on.
- Data from Etherscan shows that users have paid almost 64,000 ETH in fees, equaling over $175 million, in the past 24 hours in relation to Otherside.
- Will Papper, the co-founder of Syndicate DAO, said the contract had “nearly zero gas optimizations” and provided a few “tricks” that could have “saved many millions.”
- Yuga Labs also addressed the event, noting that the mint was “so large that Etherscan crashed” and apologizing for “turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while.”
- BAYC’s creators also promised to reimburse gas fees for users who had failed transactions and suggested that ApeCoin should be mitigated to its own blockchain in the future.
- ApeCoin’s price was also affected after the sale. APE, which was among the best performers in the past week or so, tanked by about 30% in the following hours and is down to $17 now, having traded at $27 just a few days ago. This was somewhat expected, as investors rushed in to buy APE ahead of the sale to participate in the sale.