Yuga Labs' Otherside Metaverse NFT Mint Broke Ethereum and Other Records, Here is a Recap of What Happened 14
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Yuga Labs’ Otherside Metaverse NFT Mint Broke Ethereum and Other Records, Here is a Recap of What Happened

Avatar photoBy John P. Njuion

Quick take:

  • The Otherside Metaverse NFT mint spearheaded by Yuga Labs is thus far the largest in blockchain history
  • 55,000 Otherdeeds NFTs were sold for a flat rate of 305 Apeocin, raising $320 million using an APE value of around $19
  • The mint congested the Ethereum network raising network fees to as high as 8,000 Gwei
  • Some users paid as much as $7k in fees
  • Roughly 64k Ethereum in transaction fees was consumed during the mint
  • The floor price for Otherdeed NFTs had gone as high as 5 ETH on OpenSea

Yuga Labs’s Otherside Metaverse NFT mint has dominated crypto and blockchain headlines since the day of the event, April 30th, because it shattered several industry records.

$320 Million in Apecoin Raised as Ethereum Gas Fees Skyrocketed

To begin with, the Otherdeed NFT mint allowed Yuga Labs to raise roughly $320 million in a few hours considering there was 55k NFT up for sale, each was selling for 305 Apecoin and the average value of APE on that day was $19.

However, behind the monetary success of the Otherdeed NFT mint lies another aspect of the event as demand caused Ethereum’s gas fee to skyrocket to as high as 8,000 Gwei, with one participant parting with $7k to mint two NFTs. He said:

Such a let down not getting to mint my 2 land plots… transaction sat for 2.5 hours straight and canceled… wasnt expecting 7000$ in gas.. and @coinbase really let me down as well, couldnt transfer more eth due to network outages for most centralized exchanges…

According to the team at Wu Blockchain, ‘some buyers lost their deals in this gas war, and Yuga Labs said at the end of the current round of sales that it would refund the gas fees to users who lost their deals.’ By the end of the mint, roughly 64k Ethereum worth $176 million had been spent on transaction fees.

Yuga Labs had attempted to mitigate a gas war by stating on April 29th that they would not use the traditional Dutch auction for the event but rather sell each plot of land at 305 Apecoin. It also announced plans to pre-approve sales 12 hours in advance and issue an NFT limit of two per wallet. But none of these measures worked, thus leading Yuga Labs to suggest that Apecoin should launch its own chain.

Otherdeed NFT Floor Price Goes as High as 5 ETH

Furthermore, after the Otherdeed mint, the floor price of the NFTs went as high as 5 ETH. At the time of writing, the floor price has cooled down to 4 Ethereum.

Yuga Labs' Otherside Metaverse NFT Mint Broke Ethereum and Other Records, Here is a Recap of What Happened 15
Otherdeed NFT stats, including floor price. Source, OpenSea

Otherside Metaverse NFT Mint Was Also a Success

Despite the challenges of congestion on the Ethereum network and paying high ETH gas fees, many participants of the Otherside Metaverse NFT mint are happy with their Otherdeed mints. The majority are sharing their plots of land on Twitter, as seen in the following two sample tweets.

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John P. Njui
John is a journalist and writer with a vast crypto and blockchain industry background. He has been passionately writing and creating crypto content since 2017. When not immersed in the complex world of decentralized finance, John is often seen playing a chess game or running a marathon. He is a man of many talents.