The creators of the NFT collection Bored Apes Yacht Club raised $320 million by selling virtual land
Yuga Labs, creator of the popular NFT collection Bored Apes Yacht Club, organized the sale of virtual land associated with their long-awaited metaverse project Otherside, raising about $320 million in the largest offer of its kind, writes Bloomberg. Demand was so high that investor activity caused disruptions and increased commissions throughout the Ethereum blockchain.
ApeCoin cryptocurrency owners, who have confirmed their identity, bought documents for 55,000 plots of virtual land in Otherside, the future game in the meta universe of the project. Expectations of strong interest pushed the price of ApeCoin earlier this week on the eve of the sale of “land” – NFT based on Ethereum called Otherdeeds.
Each plot cost the buyer about $5,800, based on ApeCoin’s $ 19 price on Saturday, plus transaction costs or Ethereum’s “gas fee”, which rose greatly after sales began as land acquisition was in high demand.
“Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale has triggered one of the highest spikes in transaction fees on Ethereum,” said Jason Wu, founder of decentralized lending protocol DeFiner. “I have seen other NFT launches causing high gas fees, but this is definitely one of the highest.”
Making a token or making a transaction in Ethereum requires token developers or traders to pay a commission to those who order transactions online. The transaction fee increases when the network becomes congested, as more commission is required to prioritize the transaction.
According to the Otherside account on Twitter, ApeCoins collected during the sale will be blocked, i.e. they will not be sold, which will reduce the number of coins in circulation by one year. A Yuga Labs spokesman on Friday refused to say who would raise the money or whether big ApeCoin owners, including Andreessen Horowitz, Animoca Brands and others, plan to participate in the virtual land sale.
In addition to the 55,000 Otherdeed sold on Saturday, another 45,000 were to be made available to Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape NFT owners, as well as Yuga Labs and other project developers, and another 100,000 are expected to be transferred to certain Otherdeed owners later.