The NFT market has been very hot since 2022, with top trending projects such as CryptoPunks, Mutant Ape Yache Club(MAYC), Bored Ape Yacht Club(BAYC), Doodles, and much more. However, a new №1 in terms of transaction volume has emerged which is called Sewer Pass on OpenSea, with a volume of over 30,000 ETH over the last 30 days. In fact, from January 16 to 23, BAYC-related assets accounted for nearly half of the total ETH NFT volume.
The Team Behind the Sewer Pass
In fact, the Sewer Pass comes from the same team as MAYC and BAYC — Yuga Labs. Besides the famous MAYC and BAYC NFTs, Yuga Lab also issued their own tokens ApeCoin through an independent decentrailzed organization named ApeCoin DAO. In March 2022, Yuga Lab announced their new metaverse attempt named the Otherside, a gamified, interoperable metaverse experience allowing players to own land and turn their existing NFTs of Yuga Lab brands into playable characters. In its primary sales, Yuga Labs sold 55,000 Otherdeed NFTs linked to virtual land ownership, valuing about $320 million.
Although the Otherside is still under development and there is no specific timeline announced for the project, the community didn’t just sit around and wait. Since the announcement of the Otherside, it has gained over 240,000 followers on Twitter, with lots of community interaction every day.
Sewer Pass and Dookey Dash
On January 17, 2023, Yuga Labs launched a skill-based NFT game named Dookey Dash. Holders of BAYC and MAYC NFTs are allowed to claim a ‘Sewer Pass’ for free, which enables users to participate in Dookey Dash, and it’s available from January 18 to Feburary 9.
The storyline behind Dookey Dash is around Jimmy the Monkey, who was covered with a series of events that opens up a BAYC multiverse. In ‘Trial Of Jimmy The Monkey’ video, there is a magical key stuck in Jimmy’s buttthole, and some other Bored Apes are on their way to retrieve it. While Jimmy locked himself up in the bathroom, those apes found the only way to retrieve it was to go through the sewers.
Dookey Dash is an endless running game similar to Temple Run or Subway Surfers on mobile devices. Players need to make it as far as they can through the sewers while collecting “fragments” and dodging or destroying obstacles along the way. Depending on the result, the Sewer Pass can then evolve into different rewards. Players can also purchase a power-up pack, which is a trio of boosters lasting for 10 minutes from purchase time. The cost of 1 power-up pack is 2 $APE, which is about $11~$12 as of the time of writing.
Incredibile Amount of Participation
Although the threshold is kinda high because you need to hold the relevant NFT to participate, the community is still very active. According to Dookey Dash’s website, over 21,000 players have participated at least once, with 6,113,100 dashes in total. Its high quality and popularity make it quickly out of the NFT circle. Pro Fortnite player Mongraal tweeted that he broke the record with 695,549 points on January 28. Four days later, Mongraal broke the record again with a score of 864,396, keeping him №1 and №2 in the rankings.
There is also a significant increase in price and trading volume of ApeCoin ($APE) since the launch of Dookey Dash, as players can use $APE to buy the booster pack, they will have to buy more $APE from other markets. Although it is also possible that the price increase of APE was due to the recent market rise, its daily trading volume grew from $80 million in early January to over $150 million, peaking at nearly $450 million.
From Yuga Labs’ Short-term Success to Long-term Plan
There are still 4 days left before the Dookey Dash ends. But undoubtedly, Dookey Dash has brought new traffic to the relatively sluggish NFT market recently, and also provided new directions and ways to combine tokens and NFTs. It is also an important ramification for Yuga Labs before the official launch of the Otherside.
Besides the BAYC and MAYC NFTs originally created by Yugalabs, they have also acquired many other top trending NFT projects such as Cryptopunks, 10KTF, Meebits by acquiring the companies behind them. With so many NFT brands set to launch their own metaverse project, Otherside, Yuga Labs’ next move is worth paying attention to.
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