Free NFT Inspired By The Simpsons Crosses $2M In Trading Volume

In a special Halloween-themed episode of the long-running animated series "The Simpsons" that aired on Sunday, the popular yellow family ventured into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto.

The episode, titled ‘Treehouse of Horror,’ presents the Simpsons' misadventures in a fictional metaverse called Microcosm. Here, Bart Simpson, in an unexpected turn of events, becomes an NFT, a unique digital token representing his character. In the episode, various characters from the Simpsons universe, including family members and iconic residents of Springfield, navigate the world of decentralized finance and digital art.

As the episode aired, Springfield Punks, a collection of 3,405 NFTs from Italian artist Rino Russo, went live and quickly sold out. Collectors could mint one for free with additional NFTs costing 0.01 ETH ($19) apiece.

The collection surged to a floor price above 0.3 ETH ($600) before settling to a more modest 0.14 ETH at the time of writing.

‘The Simpsons’ has a long history of social commentary and cultural satire, and this latest episode continues the tradition by tackling the topics of NFTs and cryptocurrencies just as markets are showing signs of recovery.

But while the show pokes fun at NFTs, it’s worth noting that producer Disney did not hesitate to cash in when the bull market of 2021 was in full swing.

NFT Market Perks Up

As Bitcoin trades at $35,000 and altcoins are seeing some of their best days this year, NFT trading volumes have been quietly picking up over the last three weeks after languishing at multi-year lows for most of the summer.

Notable gainers over the past week include Cryptoadz, Animoca Brands’ Mocaverse, and OnChainMonkey. Popular collections CyberBrokers, Treeverse, Parallel Avatars and Doodles also posted substantial gains.

Sentiment has been further buoyed by the BLUR token rallying ahead of the end of Season 2 on Nov. 20 and Yuga Labs co-founder Wylie Aronow splashing out 600 ETH ($1.1M) on a rare CryptoPunk.