Bored Ape Metaverse Project Raises $320 Million, Majorly Disrupts the Ethereum Network

Yuga Labs, the creator of the popular Bored Apes Yacht Club collection of NFTs, is calling the shots with its new Metaverse project. The company recently concluded the sale of virtual land raising a staggering $320 million in its largest offering to date.

The demand for the sale was so high that it disrupted the entire Ethereum network activity while causing transaction fees to rise once again. ApeCoin (APE) crypto holders rushed to buy the rights of 55,000 parcels of virtual land in Otherside, a planned metaverse game in the new project. The plots for sale on the virtual land were available in the form of Ethereum-based NFTs called Otherdeeds.

Each plot was costing around $5,800 as of the $19 price per APE last Saturday. However, the ApeCoin (APE) price has corrected since and is currently trading 14% down at a price of $16.39.

The Bloomberg report mentions that the transaction costs mint Otherdeed NFTs shot to a staggering $123 million. As per Etherscan data, each Otherdeed NFT was costing 2 ETH or $6,000 to mint. Speaking to Bloomberg, Jason Wu, founder of decentralized lending protocol DeFiner said:

“Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale has triggered one of the highest spikes in transaction fees on Ethereum. I have seen other NFT launches causing high gas fees, but this is definitely one of the highest”.

What’s Next With the Bored Ape Metaverse Project?

All the ApeCoins raised in the sale will be locked and can’t be sold. This will significantly reduce the coins in circulation for a year.

Furthermore, apart from the 55,000 Otherdeeds sold last Saturday, Yuga Labs shall be making another 45,000 were to be made available to holders of Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape NFTs, as well as project developers. Additionally, Yuga Labs would be awarding Otherdeed holders with another 100,000 of the ApeCoin tokens.

ApeCoin is looking to make its way into a variety of Web 3 apps by leveraging other digital coins and blockchain networks. It also serves as the governance token for the ApeCoin DAO.

Yuga Labs launched the ApeCoin last month in March 2022. Since then the APE price has been skyrocketing touching an all-time high of $26. However, APE has already corrected by 40% since then.