The price of ApeCoin has risen over 22% in the last 24 hours, after Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creator Yuga Labs gave a few lucky players a first look at the Otherside metaverse .
ApeCoin is currently trading at around $6, having risen 30% over the past week. The explosive move in the price of ApeCoin follows an Otherside, or “First Trip” technology demonstration last Saturday, in which 4,300 members of the BAYC community who had purchased “otherdeeds” (digital title deeds) were entitled to an exclusive visit of the “biogenic swamp” from the Otherside.
In a litepaper published shortly after Saturday’s tech demo, Otherside developers announced that only Otherdeeds owners and “selected third-party developers” will be able to participate in the game during its first phase, and only after performing a “First Trip“.
ApeCoin, which can be claimed by BAYC and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) holders, was launched by ApeCoin DAO earlier this year. This utility token powers spin-off projects from the BAYC universe, including the BAYC-inspired metaverse game, Otherside.
In search of a golden ticket
Last May, the game Otherside briefly spiked Ethereum prices after over $157 million worth of Ether was burned in gas fees.
Some said they paid more than double the sale price of 305 ApeCoin (APE) – around $5,800 at the time – in gas fees alone, while others saw their trades fail but were still charged for gas. About 56% of all Ether burned between April 25 and May 2 was caused by the Otherside mint.
Yuga Labs spent 90.57 ETH on refunds, according to Etherscan. The largest single refund cost the company 2.6 ETH (about $7,500), while the gas charges incurred by Yuga Labs during the refund process reached about $780.
We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We’d like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.
— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022
Following the refunds, Yuga Labs stated that “it seems quite clear” that it will migrate ApeCoin out of Ethereum and onto its own blockchain.