Bored Ape Otherside NFTs Sold For $319 Million And Burnt Over $170 Million On Transaction Fees.

Yuga labs, owner of BAYC, MAYC, Meebits, Cryptopunks, and Otherside, a gamified, interoperable metaverse with land NFTs for users to develop, has launched the sale of digital land deeds for their metaverse.

Yuga labs released Otherside land deeds recently, and users set to mint each NFT at 305 apecoin. The project turned into a disaster when Ethereum gas fees skyrocketed, and many users couldn't pull through on the transaction.

The digital land deeds, Otherdeeds, required up to two Eth per NFT summing up to over $170 million on transactions fees for all 55,000 land NFTs purchases… learn more in the body of the article.


Owner of BAYC, Yuga Labs, on April 30, 2022, released otherdeeds; a digital land deed for the other side land NFTs at a floor price of 305 Apecoin or $5800. BAYC and MAYC holders were advised to approve their wallets, do KYC and begin minting the otherdeeds. The Otherside NFTs comes with an opportunity for each owner to be a part of the game's developers before it is released. The users can develop the land they own to add to the aesthetic of the game when it is launched.

KYC-approved users who minted the otherdeed NFTs have taken to Twitter to complain over the outrageous Ethereum gas fees. A while after the release, NFT holders had bought $319 million worth of Otherside NFT and spent over $170 million on transaction fees. All transactions were conducted on the Ethereum blockchain via OpenSea with the Ape Coin, and gas fees were paid in Ethereum.

Yuga Labs, on 1st May, took to their official Twitter page to apologize to holders of BAYC and MAYC NFTs who had tried to mint. They apologized for the turbulent minting process users experienced, with outrageous Ethereum gas fees and transaction failures. They said, "We wanted to say a few words about the mint tonight," The first tweet read. "We are aware that some users had failed transactions due to incredible demand being forced through Ethereum's bottleneck. The Ethereum blockchain was unable to process the number of users trying to mint NFTs at the same time. Yuga Labs agreed to refund gas fees to users who did not receive the NFT. Despite the promise to refund the gas fees, a lot of users were unsatisfied and disappointed, saying that Yugalabs Labs had many options to prevent such a disaster but they refused. A user complained of the number of hitches in the process, and despite the sums spent on gas fees, a lot of transactions still didn't pull through.

At the time, a total of 55,000 NFTs were sold off for $319 million, over $170 million in Ether had been burnt on transaction fees, and a lot of users did not receive the land NFT. Yugalabs Labs had initially proposed rigorous gating mechanisms to prevent gas fees from rising. A max mint of two NFTs per approved wallet was put in place for all users and a high clearing price of 305 Apecoin to reduce the rush, but this did little to solve the problem on the ground or promote smooth scaling transactions during the mint.

The NFT creators, Yuga Labs believe that Ethereum could not carry the heavy traffic posed by probably the most anticipated NFT drop ever, which was the reason for the Etherscan crash and gas fees surging. They decided that Apecoin would be migrated to its own chain to increase its scalability. On Eterscan's 'gas guzzlers' ranking, Otherside ranked number one showing that (at the time of the photo) users had burnt over $175 million on gas fees.

Gas fees on the Ethereum blockchain have always been a cause for concern, and users were very disappointed in the whole minting process, some even claiming their lives had been ruined by the lack of coordination and preparation shown by Yuga Labs during the minting of the Otherside digital land deeds. Analytics shows that users paid gas fees between 2.6 Eth($ 6500) and 5 Eth ($14,000) per land NFT.


As it seems, a lot more preparation should have gone into the project before the NFT release. The price of Apecoin dipped, causing a loss of assets for users, and gas prices left everyone in shock. Unfortunately, most users saw the project as a means for the 'rich to get richer.'


Author: Gate.io Observer M. Olatunji
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