Otherside Land Sale Explained: Otherdeeds, Gas and Aftermath

The Otherside land sale was the primary mint of Otherdeed for Otherside, a collection of virtual land NFTs released by Yuga Labs on April 30, 2022. Yuga Labs is the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC). Otherside is its planned metaverse, and Otherdeeds were presented as the key to claiming land inside it.

The sale mattered for three reasons:

• Scale. It was one of the largest NFT mints ever measured by money raised, with reports putting primary sales at roughly $310 million to $318 million.
• ApeCoin. Buyers had to pay in ApeCoin (APE), the token tied to the ApeCoin DAO ecosystem. The sale was a major test of the token's utility.
• Network stress. Demand pushed Ethereum gas prices so high that the event became a case study in how not to run a mint on a busy chain.

An Otherdeed is an ERC-721 token on Ethereum. Each one has its own mix of environment, sediment and sometimes other features, which describe the plot and the resources it is said to hold. Some deeds came with a Koda, a creature character linked to the Otherside lore, and some with an artifact.

This guide separates what is well documented (the date, the payment token, the gas problems, the rough amounts raised) from what changes often (floor prices, volume, and roadmap status). For anything that moves, it points you to where to check rather than quoting a number that would go stale.

The sale took place on April 30, 2022, on Ethereum. Anyone who wanted a deed had to hold ApeCoin, because the mint price was set at 305 APE per Otherdeed. Contemporary coverage described that as less than $6,000 at the time, though the dollar figure depended on where ApeCoin was trading.

The broad mechanics were:

1. Approve APE. Buyers had to approve the sale contract to spend their ApeCoin.
2. Mint. They then sent a mint transaction and paid ETH gas on top of the 305 APE.
3. Supply. The total Otherdeed supply is commonly given as 100,000. About 55,000 were sold in the public sale, and the rest were kept by Yuga Labs and its ecosystem.
4. Pause. As demand and gas climbed, Yuga Labs paused the sale, so only the first wave of the planned supply went out.

Sources disagree on a few details. One summary cited a total of 200,000 deeds, which does not match the more widely quoted 100,000, and total proceeds were reported as anywhere from about $310 million to over $318 million depending on the source and how the ApeCoin amounts were converted. When figures conflict like this, the safest approach is to treat them as approximate and check the contract's own supply and mint data on a block explorer.

The sale was not an auction in which people bid against each other. It was a fixed-price mint, which is why the competition played out through gas bidding rather than through the sale price.

The main complaint about the sale was not the price but the gas. Coverage at the time described the mint as straining Ethereum, with transaction costs far above normal.

Gas fees are what you pay validators to include your transaction in a block. When many people send transactions at once, they bid higher gas prices to be included first. For a fixed-price mint with far more buyers than deeds, that creates a gas war.

Several things made this one worse:

• Thousands of wallets competing at the same moment. The mint opened at a set time, so demand arrived in one spike.
• Bots. Automated tools can send transactions with very high gas prices to get ahead of ordinary users.
• Failed transactions. If the supply of a mint wave ran out or a transaction was outbid, it could revert. A reverted transaction does not return the gas that was spent on it.
• Two-step process. Approving APE and then minting meant more transactions per buyer.

The result was that some people paid very large gas bills and still ended up with no deed, while others minted successfully but paid far more than the mint price in fees. Because costs were paid in ETH, the problem was separate from the APE price.

The episode is often used as an example of why newer mints use methods such as allowlists, raffles, claim windows, Dutch auctions or deployment on cheaper networks. Those designs spread demand out or reduce the cost of failing.

An Otherdeed is a land NFT that Yuga Labs describes as the key to claiming land in Otherside. Each deed carries a set of traits that describe the plot.

Environment. This is the biome or setting of the land. Different environments have different looks and, in the project's lore, different characters of land.

Sediment. This describes the ground layers, and it is linked to the resources associated with the plot. Sediment has tiers, and some are rarer than others.

Resources and artifacts. Some deeds are described as holding resources, and some include an artifact, a distinctive item tied to the plot.

Koda. A Koda is a creature character that came with a portion of deeds. Kodas are separate tokens and are traded on their own, so a deed with a Koda can be priced differently from one without.

The things to keep clear:

• Deeds were presented as access to Otherside and its in-world land, and what that gives holders depends on what Yuga Labs builds and its terms.
• Rarity is a market judgment. Look at recent sales for deeds with similar traits rather than assuming a rare label means a high price.
• A deed is a token on Ethereum. It is not a legal title to real property, and the rights attached to it are whatever the published terms say.

If you are considering a purchase, read the current official terms and the collection's trait information, then compare it against actual completed sales.

The table sums up the widely reported facts. Treat the money figures as approximate, since sources differ.

Item	What was reported
Seller	Yuga Labs
Collection	Otherdeed for Otherside
Sale date	April 30, 2022
Network	Ethereum
Payment token	ApeCoin (APE)
Mint price	305 APE per deed
Dollar value of mint price	Under about $6,000 at the time, per contemporary coverage
Deeds sold in the sale	About 55,000
Commonly cited total supply	100,000
Amount raised	Roughly $310 million to $318 million, depending on the source
Main problem	Very high gas fees and failed transactions

Two points about reading these numbers. First, dollar amounts depend on the ApeCoin price at the moment of conversion, which is why outlets reported slightly different totals. Second, the sale numbers describe the primary market only. Secondary trading, where deeds change hands between collectors, has its own prices that move constantly.

To verify details for yourself, use the contract page on a block explorer for supply and mint transactions, and a marketplace or NFT analytics site for floor price and volume. Do not rely on a single figure from an article, including this one, for anything you plan to spend money on.

Right after the sale, ApeCoin fell sharply, and the coverage tied the drop to the event. A common explanation was that the mint concentrated demand for APE into a short window, and once the sale was over, buyers had no further need for the token and some sold. That is an interpretation rather than a proven cause, so treat it as one reading of the price move.

On the secondary market, Otherdeeds started trading right away. Some deeds, especially those with a Koda or rare traits, sold for much more than the mint price, and listings with unusual traits drew headlines. Over time the broader NFT market cooled, and prices for most collections, Otherdeeds included, moved well below the early highs.

The project itself moved from sale to development. Yuga Labs ran limited, invite-style interactive tests in Otherside after the sale, and the roadmap has changed over time. The exact current status of Otherside, including which features are live and what deed holders can do, should be checked on Yuga Labs' official channels, because that information changes and the search material used for this guide does not give a current status.

What can be said with confidence:

• The mint happened and the deeds exist on Ethereum.
• The sale's gas problem and the ApeCoin drop were widely reported.
• Prices since then have been market-driven and volatile, and they are not guaranteed to recover.

If you are interested in an Otherdeed today, you would buy on the secondary market, not through the original mint. The process looks like this:

1. Find the official collection. Get the contract address from Yuga Labs' official channels, not from a search result or message. Copycat collections are common.
2. Check market data. Look at the floor price, recent sales and volume on a marketplace or an NFT analytics tool. Thin volume means it may be hard to sell later.
3. Compare traits. Look at the environment, sediment, any Koda or artifact, and compare listings with similar completed sales.
4. Budget for costs. Add marketplace fees, any creator royalty and Ethereum gas to the listed price.
5. Use a clean wallet setup. Consider a separate wallet with only the funds you need for the purchase.

Other routes to exposure exist. NFTX turns NFT collections into vault-backed tokens, so a user can trade against a pool at roughly floor price instead of picking a single listing. Check whether Otherdeeds are supported and how deep the pool is before relying on it. TokenWorks runs NFTStrategy, a protocol aimed at experienced users that uses trading fees to buy, relist and burn NFTs. Those products carry their own contract and market risks and are not a substitute for research.

None of these is a recommendation. NFT prices can fall to near zero, and you should only commit money you can afford to lose.

A large, famous collection attracts scammers. The sale era saw many phishing attempts, and the same patterns continue.

Common risks

• Fake mint or claim sites. Anyone claiming to offer a new Otherside land sale, a free claim or a bonus is a red flag. If an offer arrives in a message, assume it is fake until you confirm it on official channels.
• Malicious approvals. Signing a transaction that grants an approval over your NFTs or tokens can let a scammer drain them. Read what you are signing.
• Fake listings and lookalike collections. Check the contract address, not just the name or image.
• Support impersonators. Real support staff do not ask for your seed phrase or private key.

Defensive habits

• Use a hardware wallet for anything valuable.
• Keep high-value NFTs in a wallet you do not use to connect to new sites.
• Review and revoke old token approvals periodically using a reputable approval-checking tool.
• Bookmark official sites rather than following links in messages.
• Never share a seed phrase with anyone for any reason.

Market risks

Beyond scams, there is plain market risk. Floor prices can drop quickly, buyers can be scarce when you want to sell, and a roadmap can change. Past hype around a collection does not predict future value.

The Otherside sale is still referenced for what it showed about NFT launches in general.

Lessons often drawn from it

• Fixed-price mints invite gas wars. When supply is far below demand, the cost of competing shows up in gas rather than in the price.
• Token-gated sales concentrate demand. Requiring a specific token for payment can move that token's price around the event.
• Failed transactions cost real money. Buyers should understand that a failed transaction can still cost gas.
• Roadmaps are promises, not guarantees. The land was sold before the metaverse existed in finished form, so buyers were paying for a plan.

Other marketplaces and NFT projects have since moved in different directions. Pudgy Penguins, for instance, built a brand around a PFP collection, a token and physical merchandise, which is a different model from selling land in a world still under construction. Stargaze, a Cosmos app chain with its own launchpad, shows how NFT launches can run on a network with different fee dynamics. Foundation, an Ethereum art marketplace, is a reminder that platforms can also shut down: its team took it offline indefinitely on April 27, 2026 after a failed sale.

For readers, the practical takeaway is to treat any mint as a high-risk purchase, check how the sale is designed, set a gas limit you are willing to lose, and verify everything through official channels before connecting a wallet.