Yuga Labs, the creator of the Bored Apes Yacht Club NFTs, launched a sale of virtual land on Saturday in a metaverse project, raising $320 million worth of cryptocurrency, which marks the largest offering of its kind. 

The demand was high that it spread over across the entire Ethereum blockchain, thus disrupting activity and sending transaction fees on a hike.

Those who hold ApeCoin tokens verified their identities to buy deeds for 55,000 parcels of land in the metaverse in Otherside - a metaverse game being planned out as the latest extension of the Bored Ape franchise.

Otherdeed, an Ethereum-based NFT, increased the price of ApeCoin last week ahead of the sale. 

A plot of land cost about $5,800, based on ApeCoin's price of $19 on Saturday. Gas fees, or in other words, transaction fees, also got significantly more expensive as demand hiked. Transaction costs just to mint Otherdeed NFTs reached $123 million - each Otherdeed required about 2 Ether, or $6,000 of transaction fees to mint, according to Etherscan data.

Phew.. Got 2! Damn that gas wasn't fun 🤪 #otherside #otherdeed #yugalabs #BAYC #APECOIN pic.twitter.com/DEDJBRfe8q

— bartnotsimpson.eth 🚀 (@bartnotsimpsonx) May 1, 2022

“Yuga Labs’ virtual land sale has triggered one of the highest spikes in transaction fees on Ethereum,” said Jason Wu, founder of decentralized lending protocol DeFiner. “I have seen other NFT launches causing high gas fees, but this is definitely one of the highest.”

When the network becomes busy to the point of congestion, transaction fees increase and are requested prior to the transaction to create a priority. The overwhelming busyness slows down transactions on Ethereum-based apps such as Uniswap.

According to Otherside's Twitter account, the ApeCoins raised in the sale will be 'locked up' for a year; they could not be sold, which reduces the number of coins in circulation. 

Many apps have sold virtual land for cryptocurrency before, but numbers could be described as relatively small regarding users and transactions.