Yuga Labs Sells 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs in Otherside Metaverse Launch

Yuga Labs officially sold out 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs in its Otherside Metaverse launch on Saturday night. 

The sale lasted approximately three hours, burning more than 55,000 ETH (~$150M) in the process according to ultrasound.money, a site that monitors the ETH burned as a part of transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. 

The sustained gas fees dominated the conversation for much of the night, and criticism was appropriately cast on Yuga Labs, who issued a statement at the conclusion of the sale. 

The statement brought on more scrutiny, some noting the message deflected blame on what many have deemed poorly devised drop mechanics. Interestingly, Yuga also used the opportunity to suggest that the ApeCoin DAO should consider submitting proposals for a move to its own blockchain. After the event, the price of ApeCoin has dropped to $16.83 despite all the ApeCoin from the sale being locked up for at least one year. 

The shift to an "ApeChain" had previously been theorized by notable NFT participant, @iamDCinvestor,  who voiced it as a legitimate option in late March. Since the conclusion of the sale, no other details have been shared by Yuga Labs, nor has any formal proposal been submitted to the ApeCoin council.

It wasn't just those in the NFT community that felt the ripples of the Otherside launch last night. The event created a large enough stir to warrant an opinion and comment from Ethereum founder, Vitalk Buterin as well. 

On the drop which congested the network Buterin said, "[I] don't think optimizing the contract would help. Regardless of contract details, tx fee goes up until list price + tx fee = market price."

Contract optimizations and gas fees aside, the demand for the Otherdeed NFTs has outpaced any other NFT drop in history in terms of demand. 

NFT participants were in astonishment as Moonbirds broke the one-day volume record on OpenSea just a few weeks ago, but Otherdeeds NFTs eclipsed the first-day Moonbirds trading volume in just nine hours. 

After about 13 hours from launch, the floor price has settled at approximately 7.85 ETH per Otherdeed NFT with more than 56,000 ETH in secondary trading volume on OpenSea. 

Despite a cloud of negativity surrounding Yuga Labs after the drop, Fractional's Andy Chorlian noted this drop may have been a net positive for Yuga Labs. 

This story is developing. As more information comes in it will be updated by Lucky Trader.