Stoner Cats NFTs See Prices Surge Fourfold
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from the Stoner Cats collection, inspired by the animated series about marijuana-smoking cats, have seen their prices soar more than four times in just 24 hours. The price jump followed a victory for the show’s creators over regulators.
Price Spike Driven by Regulatory Dispute
Between September 13 and 14, the floor price for Stoner Cats NFTs on the OpenSea marketplace rose from 0.0189 ETH to 0.084 ETH (from $31 to $136 at the current Ethereum exchange rate). Over the past week, trading volume for these tokens across all platforms increased 61-fold, the number of tokens sold grew more than 20 times, and the most expensive NFT sold for 0.49 ETH ($798).
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) recently accused the creators of Stoner Cats NFTs of violating securities laws, classifying the tokens as securities and charging the issuers with selling unregistered securities. The penalty for this violation was a $1 million fine.
However, on September 13, SEC Commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda disagreed with the regulator’s stance. They argued that Stoner Cats NFTs are not securities, but rather a way for fans to support the project. They compared the tokens to certificates issued in the U.S. in the 1970s that allowed buyers to purchase Star Wars action figures. The surge in demand for Stoner Cats NFTs is attributed to the commissioners siding with the creators and acknowledging the regulator’s mistake.
Fan Support Funded the Animated Series
In 2021, Stoner Cats founders Mila Kunis and her husband Ashton Kutcher released 10,320 NFTs in partnership with The 3050 Gang to raise funds for the animated series. The tokens were sold at 0.35 ETH each, raising $8.2 million. The funds were used to produce the first season of “Stoner Cats,” which tells the story of a group of cats who accidentally get high while living with an elderly woman.
On the secondary market, Stoner Cats NFT trading volume reached $28.2 million. Although the token price dropped several times from its original value, most holders avoided losses by selling quickly—the average holding period is just 11 days. Currently, Stoner Cats NFTs are held in 5,190 Ethereum wallets and can be purchased on OpenSea, Blur, LooksRare, Uniswap, and X2Y2.