NFT Traders Respond to ‘Simpsons’ Roasting by Spending Millions on Knockoff Collectibles

An NFT collection that combines CryptoPunks’ aesthetics with elements of “The Simpsons” has notched almost $2.5 million in sales in less than 24 hours, rocketing to the top trending spot on OpenSea after the long-running animated television show roasted NFTs in a special episode.

The unofficial Springfield Punks collection launched as a free mint on Sunday, with traders snatching up the 3,405 Ethereum NFTs in a hurry. Since then, the project has seen 1,311 ETH (over $2.4 million) worth of trading volume, according to the OpenSea marketplace. As of this writing, Springfield Punks NFTs start at just under 0.11 ETH (about $200) on the secondary market.

Launched by Rino Russo, a self-described parody artist, Springfield Punks went live on Sunday night. In terms of daily volume, the collection stood only behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club (2,412 ETH) and CryptoPunks (1,893 ETH), as of this writing.

Several NFT collections that appear to take inspiration from “The Simpsons” vied for prominence on OpenSea Monday, such as “SimpsPunks.” “The Chimpsons Official” and “Springfield Apes by Rino Russo” are examples of other Simpsons-themed projects that made an impact on OpenSea’s front page.

Donuts, beer, and blue-beehive hairdos are hallmarks of the seminal comedy—but the results resemble many profile picture (PFP) NFT projects. A kaleidoscope of “Simpsons”-themed imagery is plastered at random across thousands of simian-looking creatures—in both cases.

While “The Chimpsons Official” held a distinguished spot in the wake of Sunday’s episode, the collection was created last September. Since then, it’s garnered around 600 sales across 6,996 so-called Chimpsons, according to OpenSea.

The collection’s floor price—or the cheapest NFT from a collection that’s available for sale—surged overnight to 0.44 ETH ($840) from 0.03 ETH ($6). As of this writing, Chimpsons traded hands at around 0.01 ETH ($19), according to OpenSea.

Sunday’s “The Simpsons” episode paid homage to a variety of established NFT collections—including Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days—but the Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks garnered recognizable cameos as iconic projects.

Officially licensed NFTs from “The Simpsons” weren’t dropped alongside the new “Treehouse of Horror” episode, but the show has dipped its toes in NFTs before. In 2021, to promote the launch of Disney+, Disney rolled out NFTs of Homer, Bart, and his skateboard on the marketplace VeVe.

Edited by Andrew Hayward