The founders of the Bored Ape Yacht Club say they’ll generate up to $300 million in cryptocurrency by selling land in the metaverse this weekend.
As the Financial Times reported Friday, the sale is expected to be the largest-ever launch of non-fungible tokens, with Yuga Labs selling NFT deeds for at least 55,000 plots of land in the Otherside, its metaverse game.
When the sale begins Saturday, each deedholder will get rights to land that costs 305 ApeCoin – the cryptocurrency Yuga unveiled in March – or more than $6,000. The FT notes that these bidders will be purchasing land in game that has not yet been released and has yet to be widely previewed.
Learn more: Bored Apes Yacht Club Creator Yuga Labs Raises $450M at $4B Valuation
With the help of blockchain technology, NFTs verify ownership of a digital asset and have turned into a multibillion-dollar market for virtual products.
In the last year, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) has become one of the leading NFT collections, taking in at least $1.4 billion in sales. Last month, Yuga Labs raised $450 million in a funding round that valued the company at $4 billion.
The company has said it wanted to get its valuation up to $5 billon on the premise it can find $455 million in funding this year, primarily from virtual land sales.
According to the FT, if the Otherside land sells out as expected, Yuga and its partners could generate sales of up to $335 million.
Read more: Planet of the Bored Apes
The report also argues the game will test whether Yuga can push the Bored Ape characters into a broader platform for NFTs that takes the tokens mainstream. Otherside will let NFT holders play as characters they own within the metaverse, although details of the game, its plot and its gameplay are unclear.
“It feels to me like the success of Web3 games ultimately rides on whatever happens with Otherside,” Ophelia Brown, whose venture firm Blossom Capital holds four Bored Apes and around 40,000 ApeCoin, told the Financial Times.
“It’s probably the most anticipated gaming launch in Web3 and you’ve got the most engaged community [of Bored Ape owners] and the most innovative, creative team behind this,” Brown added. “All the ingredients are there for this to be absolutely massive. If this falls flat, it feels like all of this was just a lot of speculation and hype.”