Stoner Cats NFT Sale Cost Users $790,000 in Failed Ethereum Transactions

By Liam Frost

While undeniably successful, yesterday’s sale of Stoner Cats—a series of animated shorts sold in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs)—resulted in the loss of 344.4 ETH ($790,000) due to failed transactions as well as briefly clogging the Ethereum network.

Developed by Mila Kunis’ Orchard Farm Productions, a total of 10,420 Stoner Cats NFTs were put up for sale yesterday at 0.35 ETH ($785 at the time) each—and the whole supply was sold out in just “35 meow-nutes.”

However, not every buyer managed to get their hands on NFTs as the Ethereum network struggled with the sudden load. According to crypto charting platform Dune Analytics, users have lost roughly 344.6 ETH ($790,000) in fees paid for Stoner Cats mints that never materialized.

Apart from failed transactions, the sale of Stoner Cats also catalyzed a spike in Ethereum gas fees, boosting the network’s commission to anywhere between $9.5 and $33.

“As usual cats clogged Ethereum,” tweeted decentralized finance analytics DeFi Prime, clearly nodding towards CryptoKitties—another popular cat-themed NFT project that caused heavy congestion on Ethereum in late 2017.

Meanwhile, the hype surrounding Stoner Cats is hardly surprising, especially since the show is voiced by numerous celebrities, including Kunis herself, Ashton Kutcher, Jane Fonda, Seth MacFarlane, Chris Rock, and even Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.

Notably, some of the lucky buyers are already looking to make a profit off their NFT investments on secondary markets. An NFT depicting Buterin’s character—Lord Catsington—is currently being sold on NFT marketplace OpenSea for 77 ETH ($175,770). Another, featuring one of the two characters voiced by Rock, is listed for 42 ETH ($95,875).

The first episode of Stoner Cats, dubbed “Stoned Awakening,” is scheduled to release tomorrow, July 29. To watch it, holders of the NFTs will need to connect their Ethereum wallets to the project’s website.

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