Yuga Labs NFTs triggered gas fees to spike on the Ethereum blockchain
The owners of Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs, dropped its Otherdeed NFTs on Saturday, clogging the Ethereum blockchain and causing gas prices to skyrocket.
The NFTs open up various rewards and benefits in Yuga Labs’ upcoming metaverse, Otherside, which consists of 200,000 virtual plots for sale that only Otherdeed NFT holders can claim.
Almost immediately, the digital assets sold out, raising approximately $320 million in cryptocurrency.
The high demand caused transaction fees on the Ethereum blockchain to soar, with some users paying over 2 ETH to ensure the transactions went through, according to statistics provided by Etherscan. In total, Otherdeed buyers spent over $179 million on gas fees.
Following this, the blockchain technology company took to Twitter to apologize for “turning off the lights on Ethereum”:
The NFTs were originally planned to sell via a Dutch Auction – to prevent the price of Ethereum from being congested with high transaction fees.
However, after claiming Dutch Auctions to be “actually bullshit”, Yuga Labs changed its market structure by capping the number of NFTs purchased by each wallet.
Subsequently, Yuga Labs failed to fend off the predicted congestion issues, leading Otherdeed collectors to voice concerns on the company’s Twitter feed:
55,000 Otherdeed NFTs were sold in the auction, alongside 45,000 being issued to Bored Ape and Mutant Ape holders.
MORE ABOUT OTHERSIDE
Yuga Labs partnered with the creator of SandBox, Animoca Brands, to develop the unique metaverse experience, Otherside.
Each plot of land on the virtual world consists of attributes, including natural resources, artifacts and characters – all of which only Otherdeed holders can purchase and are essential parts of the game.
Rather than solely focusing on ape NFTs, the space also features other PFP avatars including CryptoPunks, Meebits, Cool Cat and World of Women.
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