Yuga Labs with its new NFT “The Otherside” became the new undisputed leader of the NFT micro sector

Yuga Labs, the NFT creators behind the glitzy Bored Ape Yacht Club, released a teaser for what looks like a forthcoming metaverse called “Otherside”. 

Their post highlights ApeCoin as the potential token to be used for the new creation. ApeCoin was launched last week by ApeDAO and was claimable by Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club owners along with being offered for trading on major cryptocurrency exchanges like Coinbase Global Inc, FTX, Gemini, and eToro on its inaugural day.

The video centers on the launch of Otherside, a project from Yuga Labs with few public details. The trailer features the appropriate background song “Break on Through (To the Other Side)” from The Doors.

The trailer opens with a BAYC Ape fishing by a stretch of water. He feels a tug on his rod, hoists his catch, and sees it’s a bottle labeled “DRINK ME.” The ape obliges and finds himself abducted by a flying visit. The video goes on to reference other NFT collections: Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CryptoPunks, CrypToadz, Meebits, Nouns, and World of Women.

What’s the Plan?

Critically, Yuga Labs appears intent on making BAYC into something far more mainstream than a collection of hyper-luxury JPEGs.

After the ApeCoin drop, Yuga tweeted a teaser trailer for what looks like a 3D gaming/metaverse development, with the line, “See you on the Otherside in April. Powered by @apecoin.”

And, just to make things even more far out, the video was tweeted later by the official Twitter account of 1960s psychedelic legends The Doors.

The Leaked Pitch Deck

Yuga’s leaked pitch deck explicitly positions what they are creating as not just a vacant web3 zone waiting to be filled, but as a gaming experience, and this could be very important. For the metaverse to succeed it has to be enjoyable, while remaining open and decentralized, and don’t forget that BAYC brings with it an entire community.

If there is one standout aspect of the Bored Ape Yacht Club (besides the cost), it is that it always looked weirdly fun, like an outfit you would want to join in with. And, as for decentralization, that is directly mentioned in the leaked materials.

There are no guarantees, but of all the metaverse developments out there, Yuga is beginning to look like the first that could go beyond the crypto and NFT space, and capture the wider public imagination.

NFT Sales

In less than 24 hours, Yuga Labs has generated more than US$561 million from just the Otherside’s “Otherdeed” NFT sales.

NFTs are unique blockchain tokens that signify ownership of a digital or physical asset. In the case of Otherdeeds, each is meant to be “the key to claiming land in Otherside,” Yuga Labs’ upcoming metaverse game.

Some 55,000 NFTs were minted at 305 APE each, which means each Otherdeed cost about US$5,800 given Ape Coins’ price (approximately US$19) at the time of mint. Yuga Labs raked in over US$318.7 million from this mint alone. According to data from CryptoSlam, Otherdeed has already seen over US$242 million in total secondary volume traded. Of that figure, over US$190 million was on OpenSea.