Bored Ape Yacht Club land sales became the most successful NFT project on the Ethereum blockchain. Many celebrities and well-known influencers have also endorsed it. With its unprecedented success, Yuga Labs, the creators of BAYC, decided to work on a new project. With Otherworld under development as an NFT game/metaverse project, they decided to introduce Otherseeds. Otherseeds are the virtual land NFTs available in the Metaverse for the Otherworld’s settings.
There will be a total supply of 200,000 Otherseed NFTs. The company launched the first 100,000 on 30th April 2022. 55,000 NFTs were open for public purchase, while others were airdropped to pre-registered users. That being said, this new NFT land sale brought some challenges and impacted the NFT world in ways we couldn’t have imagined: Over $320 Million was Gained By Yuga Labs.
Why all the headlines accompanying Bored Ape Yacht Club Land Sales?
The entire Bored Ape Yacht Club Land sale didn’t even last an hour. Users worldwide were ready with the requirements fulfilled. To avoid unwanted traffic, Yuga Labs introduced that only KYC-verified wallets will be eligible for sales. And that each Wallet can only purchase two Otherseeds NFTs. This should’ve limited the sales and the overflow.
Yet, it didn’t. The sale was at an all-time high and had a record-breaking speed. It was the fastest sale in the NFT’s history.
Almost $200 Million Worth of Ethereum Burned
Unfortunately, this led to the gas wars among the people. Everyone wanted to process the transaction faster to acquire these NFTs. Ethereum has introduced the burn feature recently for each transaction. During the transaction solely based on NFT lands, people burned over $180 million worth of Ethereum, closing to $200 million.
Ethereum Blockchain Faced Something Similar To A Downtime
The traffic was so high that the Ethereum blockchain slowed down significantly. That was the sole reason for the gas wars. It took hours for people to complete their transactions, even if they failed. As a result, Ethereum transactions jammed across the chain and created a backlog for all transactions, not limited to the NFT sales. This led to significant problems. It didn’t go down, but it certainly experienced something similar.
Yuga Labs Announced Blockchain Project
With such a tremendous loss of Ethereum and other monetary value for the users, Yuga Labs posted apologetic comments. People didn’t take lightly to it, saying that Yuga Labs isn’t taking the responsibility. The company has decided to work on and launch its unique blockchain infrastructure to prevent these mishaps from happening again.
They also promised refunds for the completed transactions but didn’t receive any NFTs.
Twice The Profits Of NFT Sales From Secondary Markets
The reason for Ethereum overload wasn’t just the sale. People took it upon themselves to immediately list the bought Otherseeds on the OpenSea. As a result, people who desperately wanted to buy them decided to pay almost five to six times the original price.
Paired with the high Ethereum cost, this led to tremendous profit growth for people on OpenSea for the same sale.
Highest Gas Fees Of All Time – Gas Wars
The gas wars didn’t just hinder Ethereum; they also wasted thousands of dollars and a lot more Ethereum for people. Of course, they could’ve used Ethereum for something else. However, it was their choice to use it and burn them.
As a result, we witnessed an all-time high in the Ethereum gas fees. It also broke the record of the highest Gas fees ever.
OpenSea Sets All-Time Single Day Record With Over $450 Million ETH.
With such tremendous records, OpenSea also acquired new milestones of over $450 million in Ethereum sales or transactions on the marketplace. Of course, Yuga Labs wasn’t solely responsible for it, but it played a significant part.
All-Time High Transactions In Q1 Of 2022 For NFTs
Another record that was possible due to the NFT land sales was all-time high sales and transactions of the NFTs. In Q1 of 2022, we witnessed tremendous growth in numbers. It holds to the future valuations and predictions regarding the NFT world. We can expect it to grow significantly.
The Bottom Line – NFTs Are Far From Over
The bottom line is that there will be criticism that Yuga Labs will face. They should’ve taken the responsibility where it was due. But what is done is done. All of this has proven one thing: NFTs are here to stay.
People may be influenced by the hype around NFTs, but they are also moving towards value-based NFTs. There was nothing wrong with trying something bullish with the Otherseeds NFT land sales.
We can expect several other projects. It can also be a valuable lesson for many NFT projects conducting their sales. Yuga Labs and their NFT Land sales have left a drastic impact. We can only expect things to get better from here.
