The Bored Apes got bored and launched not only their own coin (ApeCoin of course), but also announced a new, virtual world. Built by Yuga Labs, founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Otherside completed their first land plot sale, otherwise known as Otherdeeds. The buzz and buildup to this sale was epic, as were the resulting gas fees. But now, 33,000 wallets can call themselves land owners in the upcoming ape-verse!
As creators of one of the most well known NFT collections, ever, Yuga Labs knows how to grab attention. And they certainly did so with this first land sale for their upcoming virtual world / metaverse known as Otherside. Holders of Bored Apes and Mutant Apes had the privilege of skipping the line. They have land deeds reserved for them and can mint anytime during the 21 day post-sale window. For the general public, however, it was a free-for-all. And it wasn’t pretty.
Mint price was 305 Apecoins (worth ~$6-7k around the time of the sale), with 55,000 plots up for grabs. Users were required to complete a KYC application before they could even get on the whitelist. But even with this limitation, there was no shortage of people willing to pay for these NFTs. The sale opened and ETH gas prices soared to the highest they’ve been since 2020 as people paid crazy amounts of fees to make sure that they were able to mint. Buyers have reported paying gas fees higher that 2 ETH and over $115 million worth of ETH was burnt on gas fees for this mint alone!
Otherside Otherdeed Mint
Someone pointed out places were Yuga Labs could have optimized their minting contract, but in reality, I’m not sure it would have made much of a difference when people are willing to shell out $6k in transaction fees! Yuga Labs suggested that it might be time for an Apechain — though perhaps partnering with an already existing rollup project might be a better direction.
The graphics for the Otherside plots are generally pretty cool. Some are truly amazing. There are also quite a few special items that may be contained within each plot. From Kodas, mysterious, primal beings, to tools and treasures, to harvestable resources. All the info is shown on the NFT image, and the team promises that Otherdeeds (land plots) will be dynamic and mutable, evolving as you play the game. Strangely, some plots seem to have come with no resources at all. It remains to be seen how much of a disadvantage a blank plot might have when getting started.
As expected, the value of ApeCoin dropped after the sale. However, this sale accounts for only about half of the planned Otherdeed plots. The team says that there will be a total of 200,000 plots in all, some with new biomes that we haven’t seen yet. I would expect a similar setup for any additional sales — KYC required and payments made with ApeCoin. Or for those who want to skip the hassle, Floor prices for Otherdeeds currently sit at 4.5 ETH — significantly higher than The Sandbox lands, but below the floor of NFT Worlds.
What is Otherside?
Otherside is a Metaverse project by Yuga Labs, the founders of Bored Ape Yacht Club. The team plans to build an SDK for third parties to add their own creations to the Ape-verse. Land location matters somehow. And apparently those offered to Ape holders are closer to the center. The website for Otherside promises opportunities for land owners to participate in events and contests. But overall, we know very little about the game.
What kind of world with Otherside be? We just have some vague marketing speak about a gamified metaverse where NFTs can become playable characters.But it would be nice to have more details. How are the Otherdeeds connected? Is it one big, walkable world or lots of small ones? How do you earn resources? Is there a staking system? Will ApeCoin be used in-game? Yuga Labs released a fancy animated trailer leading up to the sale, but really all we have is a bunch of speculation.
The Otherside has received a lot of attention and hype. And the secondary sales market has seen heavy activity — 172,000 ETH worth to be more specific. That’s a lot of a money for something that is selling on hype alone. But with the amount of ETH they’re generating from the initial sale and secondary fees, I hope that Yuga Labs can build something really cool!
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with this render created by danny_p3d, a 3D artist.
