BAYC’s Land Sale Jacks Up ETH Gas Price, Wastes $80M

Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs launched a land sale for their metaverse, Otherside. The sale minted 100,000 NFTs and $561M in sales.

BAYC’s Land Sale Jacks Up ETH Gas Price, Wastes $80M
Land deeds from the BAYC land sale

This week, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Yuga Labs launched a massive land sale for their metaverse, called Otherside. All said and done, the land sale minted 100,000 land deeds and resulted in $561M in sales. But that was all expected; the unforeseen aspect of the sale was how poorly it was implemented.

The land sale was very popular, and because of the trading and minting volume of the NFT, Ethereum fees spiked to heights not seen in recent months. Many Twitter users posted pictures of their estimated fees, ranging from $3,500 to $13,000.

Shortly after the sale, Will Papper, a crypto figure known for his involvement in Syndicate DAO and Constitution DAO, tweeted out a thread explaining how a few minor improvements could have saved users tens of millions in gas fees.

Will Papper explains the issues with BAYC's land sale
Will Papper explains the issues with BAYC's land sale

Papper went on to explain how a few very minor changes, including a whitelist, would have prevented a rush on blockspace for the mint, and prevented gas prices from rising so much.  In response to the fees, Yuga Labs tweeted that it was “abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale.”