Yuga Lab’s ‘Virtual’ Land Bonanza Makes History as the Biggest NFT Mint last week when 55,000 “virtual land” plots were sold on the Ethereum blockchain for more than $300 million. Despite the controversies, it was a success in the end.
A customer paid over $6,000 for an Otherdeed NFT, which authenticated the buyer’s ownership of a piece of digital real estate in the Otherside game environment developed by Yuga Labs.
With a virtual parcel of land, the possibilities are endless. Well, you can use it to create your own online games, or you may use it to create a digital art gallery. It’s also worth noting that the Otherside “world” is an expansion of Yuga’s popular NFT project, the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC).
About three hours after the sale began, all of the NFTs were gone. Ethereum’s gas fees rose dramatically during this period, with eager consumers often demanding thousands of dollars for a single transaction. This is in addition to the purchase price of the land. As a result of Otherdeed’s debacle, hundreds of investors lost not just their tokens but also their Ether (ETH) gas fees. Even the Ethereum blockchain was briefly unavailable.
Yuga Labs has been accused by some of bias in the process of saving the best “land” for itself or the owners of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, for example.
Some people were perplexed as to what this all meant for gaming and NFTs. Was it becoming a playground for the wealthy only if a parcel cost $6,000 and petrol costs up to $6,000 merely to play?
Additionally, the sale sparked new concerns about Ethereum’s scalability, and the dangers of blockchain-based businesses being manipulated or self-dealing.
The Metaverse is a brilliant beacon of light.
At this point in time, when Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and other cryptocurrencies are trading flat or down, shouldn’t the Yuga Labs sale be celebrated as a milestone in the crypto/blockchain world?
Last week, Kraken Intelligence published a report that confirmed the Metaverse—a network of online “worlds,” many of which are devoted to role-playing games—is one of the brightest stars in the cryptocurrency cosmos. There was an annual return of +389 percent in the metaverse sector over the past year compared to Bitcoin’s annual return of -34 percent, Ethereum’s at +3 percent, layer-1 networks at -10 percent, and decentralized finance (DeFi) projects’ annual return of -71 percent.
Decentraland (MANA), The Sandbox (SAND), Axie Infinity (AXS), and Yuga Lab’s Apecoin are all part of the Metaverse sector (APE). It is possible to establish a virtual environment in online “community” like Sandbox (an Ethereum-based play-to-earn (P2E) game) where participants may buy nonfungible tokens that guarantee the ownership of digital land. For the ETH-20 standard token, “SAND,” holders are allowed to participate in The Sandbox’s governance decisions as well as buy land, buy equipment, and personalize avatar characters.
According to Kraken’s Thomas Perfumo, “The Metaverse is still a relatively new subject in the crypto business,” which helps explain why the Metaverse is thriving while other sectors are stagnant. In the second half of 2021, when Facebook relaunched itself as Meta, the price of metaverse-associated fungible assets such as SAND and MANA went up as well. Prior to it, the majority of market players had not given it any thought.”
It’s also a part of the crypto industry’s continual progress. “It expands from financial utility into creative expression and community development,” Perfumo stated in a press release.
Even yet, paying $320 million for 55,000 “virtual land” parcels seems excessive. Asked whether “virtual land” had any distinctive traits or uses that may be overlooked by the general public, Fred E. Taylor chairman professor of real estate at Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business Mark Stapp replied, “I don’t think so.” On the other hand, “I consider the ‘virtual land’ as having value for marketing purposes,'” he explained to Cointelegraph. For attracting tourists and raising awareness, a good location would be ideal.”
Having Snoop Dogg, for example, as a neighbor in your online eco-system could strengthen your personal or commercial brand or game, if that is what you’re doing. Dogg’s The Sandbox estate was recently the subject of a $450,000 virtual land purchase.
