Yuga Labs to Mint Otherside NFTs for 305 APE: Community Token Hits ATH

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection creators Yuga Labs have decided to set the price of its upcoming Otherside metaverse NFTs (Otherdeeds) in ApeCoin. The news, which pushed ApeCoin toward new monthly highs, is yet another indication that the coin is more of a utility token than a meme coin.

Minting Cost of Otherside Land NFTs Set at 305 APE

Yuga Labs has announced that it will not proceed with the planned “Dutch auction” to sell its upcoming Otherside land NFTs. Instead, the company aims to set a flat price of 305 ApeCoin (worth around $6,700 at current rates) as the minting cost for an Otherdeed NFT. 

Dutch auctions are a method of selling in which the auctioneer starts with a high asking price and gradually lowers the price until someone makes a bid. In a blog post, the company said this type of auction does not solve the problems they are designed to fix. 

“NFT “Dutch auctions” are actually bullshit. They do not successfully mediate demand, nor do they really negate gas wars in highly-anticipated mints. This is especially problematic when you consider that the Otherdeed mint may be one of the largest scale, high-demand NFT mints ever.”

Yuga Labs further stated that a total of 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs will be available for purchase by KYC wallets, with an initial limit of two NFTs per wallet. The auction will take place at 9 pm ET this Saturday and users will be able to set pre-approval for ApeCoin a full 12 hours prior to the launch.

There are not many details about these hotly-anticipated Otherdeed NFTs. However, it is believed that they are land plots in the Otherside metaverse, a virtual world launched by Yuga Labs. Earlier this week, the company announced that its metaverse project will launch on April 30 in partnership with Animoca Brands.

ApeCoin Rallies to New Monthly Highs

Launched in mid-March, ApeCoin is an ERC-20 token designed for utility and governance. Yuga Labs first teased it as “a token for culture, gaming, and commerce used to empower a decentralized community building at the forefront of web3,” adding that they will adopt the coin “as the official currency of the BAYC Ecosystem.”

Notably, the token experienced wild price fluctuations during its debut, rising by over 700% before plunging by more than 80%. However, ApeCoin has performed strongly over the past month and even hit a new monthly high following the recent announcement. 

ApeCoin hit $26.91 late hours on Thursday before falling to around $20. As of now, the coin is trading around the $22 mark, up by more than 8% over the past 24 hours. The token is also up by 56.1% over the past seven days and up by 64.1% over the past month. 

Meanwhile, besides being used as payment in the Otherdeed NFTs sale, there are more use cases for ApeCoin. For one, the coin is the gateway for ApeCoin DAO. “Holding ApeCoin is the only requirement for membership in the DAO,” BAYC had said during the announcement.

Moreover, since ApeCoin is the token of one of the largest Web3 companies, various decentralized apps and games are expected to integrate this token to appeal to the wide community of Bored Apes. In fact, some projects, including the crypto game maker Animoca Brands, have already announced plans to integrate APE into their future products.

What is your year-end price prediction for APE? Let us know in the comments below. 

About the author

Ruholamin Haqshanas is an accomplished crypto and finance journalist with over two years of experience writing in the field. He has a solid grasp of various segments of the FinTech space, including the decentralized iteration of financial systems (DeFi), and the emerging market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs). He is an active user of digital assets for remittances.