Of all the NFT sales that have taken place this year, the Otherside sale has perhaps been the most anticipated. This is partially because it was fronted by Yuga Labs, the company behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
Ahead of the sale, which was held on April 30, 2022, Yuga Labs had announced a change in the gas fee mechanism to prevent a gas war on the Ethereum network. Despite all of this, there were a few reported gas fee hitches during the sale.
Regardless, it has gone on to be one of the most successful NFT sales of all time, with almost $300 million made.
Welcome to the Otherside
The NFTs that were available during the sale were called Otherdeeds and represented ownership of digital land in the Otherside metaverse. Each Otherdeed was sold for roughly $7,000 and about 55,000 of them were created for the sale.
In total, about $285 million was made from the sale, officially making Otherside a success in the market. This comes as no surprise given how much excitement was in the air ahead of the sale from BAYC fans and others alike.
But the sale wasn’t without a hitch, specifically when it came to gas fees. Even before the sale, Yuga Labs had scrapped plans to decide on minting fees via a Dutch sale and instead, have a flat rate of 305 APE coins each. Part of the reason for this, the company said, was to avoid gas wars; a situation where gas fees are extremely high because buyers are competing on the network.
“Otherdeed mint may be one of the largest scale, high-demand NFT mints ever. All the usual problems with NFT gas wars would be exacerbated by the sheer number of NFTs to be minted, which could result in a gas war of historic proportions,” the announcement said at the time.
Despite their best efforts, there were still reports of gas fees on the Ethereum network being ridiculously high, with one Twitter user claiming that they paid over $14,000 in gas fees alone. The sheer demand for the NFTs and the speeds at which they were being bought proved to be too much for the Ethereum Network and Yuga Labs, which led to them apologizing to fans.
“This has been the largest NFT mint in history by several multiples, and yet the gas used during the mint shows that demand far exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations,” a statement from Yuga Labs said, “We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while.”
The Future of Blockchains
This Otherside saga has revealed a few things, one of which is that gas fees are still a major issues for blockchain users. Despite Yuga Labs trying to prevent issues with gas fees, the demand for NFT minting and the subsequent result could not be contained.
There has even been speculation that Yuga Labs will be moving future operations to another blockchain, which shows how much of an issue gas price stability is in the industry.
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Tokoni Uti
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