The Yuga Labs “Otherdeeds” mint on the Ethereum blockchain has set a new record for any NFT launch. Not only did it set the record in terms of revenue but it had also broken records previously set in terms of fees. It was the sole driver of the transaction fee surge on the network which reached a new ATH. In this report, we take a look at the Yuga Labs mint, how it broke the largest DeFi platform, and led fees to new highs.

Yuga Labs Clogs Ethereum

The days leading up to the Yuga Labs mint were filled with expectations and excitement from the NFT community. Anticipating a large turnout for this mint, Yuga Labs had opted for a KYC-only mint and limited each wallet to only two mints. However, this would prove to still be ineffective once the launch was underway.

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In an event that saw a total of 55,000 “Otherdeeds” NFTs minted, the Ethereum network had been effectively shut down, causing Etherscan to crash. On average, an Ethereum block usually has a maximum of 30 million gas and the mint saw a single NFT requiring between 100,000 and 200,000 gas to mint. 

ETH fees touch new highs following Yuga Labs NFT mint | Source: Arcane Research

This was solely the reason behind the sudden increase in gas prices on the network, leading to the infamous “gas wars” as buyers tried to outbid each other for a chance to mint. What resulted from this had been transaction fees on the network rising drastically.

Fees had surged as high as $200 at the height of the gas wars. A new record for the smart contract platform, however, there were points during the mint where this number had been higher. Yuga Labs had had to issue an apology following this in a bid to appease network users who had been greatly impacted by the rise in fees.

Miners Smile To The Bank

Although users of the network had been up in arms about the surge in fas fees, not everyone was negatively affected by this. In fact, this was a welcome development for miners on the Ethereum network who had been the winners in this situation.

On Saturday, it was reported that users had paid $231 million in total to transactions on the Ethereum blockchain. It came out to 100% higher than the previous all-time high of $117 million that was recorded back in May of 2021 at the height of the bull market. 

ETH price trading at $2,855 | Source: ETHUSD on TradingView.com

This means that miners had had an incredibly successful mining day on Sunday as they got to pocket higher fees. Mining ETH had already been more profitable than mining bitcoin but the Yuga Labs mint had seen Ethereum miners pocket more in a day than bitcoin miners do in a week. 

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Gas fees on the network have since returned to a reasonable point since the mint. However, the aftereffects of such an incredible surge continue to linger as average transaction fees struggle to return to pre-Otherdeeds mint levels.

Featured image from Swyftx Learn, charts from Arcane Research and TradingView.com