Venture-Backed Sale Of ‘Virtual Land’ Raises Millions In Buying Frenzy

There’s an old investing aphorism that goes something like this: “buy land, because God ain’t making any more of it”.

And while that still holds for the real estate market here on Earth, in the metaverse, it’s a different story entirely. While the market for digital assets has been in rough shape lately (one only needs to glimpse the formerly high-flying market for NFTs to arrive at this conclusion), a weekend auction of “virtual land” sponsored by the creators of the Bored Ape Yacht Club – purveyors of one of the most widely hyped and most highly valued NFTs – raised about $320 million in crypto in what has been seen as the largest offering of its kind.

In fact, demand was so intense that activity related to the event caused ripple effects across the entire Ethereum blockchain, disrupting activity and causing transaction fees to soar, Bloomberg reports.

The ‘virtual land’ will feature in a new metaverse platform game called “Otherside” which is being developed by Yuge Labs, the creators of the BAYC.

Holders of the ApeCoin token who verified their identities jockeyed to buy deeds for 55,000 parcels of virtual land in Otherside, the project’s planned metaverse game and the latest extension of the Bored Ape franchise. Anticipation that interest would be strong for the plots – Ethereum-based NFTs called Otherdeeds – had pushed up the price of ApeCoin last week ahead of the sale.

Each plot cost about $6,000, and buyers paid in ApeCoin. For what it’s worth, the project has the implicit backing of major venture capital funds like the fund formerly known as Andreessen Horowitz. – READ MORE