On April 30, Yuga Labs, the creator of one of the most popular non-fungible token (NFT) collections – the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) – launched land sales for its much-anticipated metaverse project, the Otherside.

Yuga Labs causes major spike in gas fees

Within 24 hours, Yuga Labs generated more than $561 million from just the Otherside’s “Otherdeed” NFT sales. The biggest NFT sales came with a caveat – because gas fees were paid in ETH, the frenzy caused Ethereum network fees to spike to new highs.

We reported gas fees soaring to $4,800 at the height of the sale and as high as $6,500 for some users (some reported $14,000). With a growth rate of more than 42,000%, Otherdeed was Ethereum’s largest gas contributor.

Yuga Labs Apologizes For Disrupting Ethereum Network after Backlash

Yuga Labs has been accused by community members of fraud, manipulation, and preferential treatment in the Otherside Land sales.

Yuga Labs apologizes for the high gas prices and failures of transactions caused by the outrageous gas fees. Yuga Labs has shared the following tweets (NYSE:).

We are sorry to have turned off Ethereum for some time. ApeCoin is going to need to move to its own chain to be able to scale. This seems obvious. This is something we encourage the DAO too.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022

To The Flipside

• The massive gas fees came with an upside, as more than $200 million worth of ETH were permanently destroyed during the sale – pushing ETH issuance into the deflationary territory by 18%.

Care is a must

Yuga Labs has now suggested that ApeCoin be moved to its own blockchain to help scale the project. This will avoid any future disruptions in the Ethereum network.

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