Yuga Labs’ Otherdeed mint went live yesterday, leading to enhanced demand and sky-high gas fees.
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.
Source: cryptopotato