CryptoKitties’ ‘Eggs’ Soar 30x as NFT Community Calls for a Comeback

In the midst of “it’s so over”, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are looking to find their way back.

CryptoKitties, one of the oldest Ethereum-based NFT collections from 2017, quietly released an open edition mint for its “Eggs” collection on August 30, priced at 0.008 ETH ($20) per NFT. The market didn’t catch on until the mint concluded 24 hours later, and the Egg NFTs are now trading at 0.3 ETH ($750) apiece, more than 30 times the mint price.

The collection features three tiers of unrevealed egg NFTs – common eggs are trading for 0.3 ETH, uncommons are trading for .38 ETH, and rares are going for 1.42 ETH, a staggering 175x from mint.

Details surrounding the eggs are sparse, but the CryptoKitties social media page teased that the eggs are related to a P2E, presumably play-to-earn, game mechanic.

CryptoKitties launched in November 2017 as “the world's first-ever ERC-721 token” and is led by the Canadian crypto studio Dapper Labs. Dapper is also known for creating NBA TopShot, the viral trading card NFT hit of 2021, and its development of the Flow blockchain ecosystem.

While the company is based in Canada, the P2E release comes at an interesting time, as NFT marketplace OpenSea recently received a Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission claiming “certain NFTs” sold on their platform are considered unregistered securities.

The SEC notice did not specify these NFTs, but some market participants presume that the charges pertain to NFTs that involve staking emissions and P2E mechanics.

Trading volume on the original CryptoKitties collection has picked up after the success of the eggs, but its floor price is expected to remain relatively unchanged since there are over 2 million CryptoKitties NFTs as a result of the collection’s breeding mechanics.