Cats are wreaking havoc on Ethereum again as the Mila Kunis project sells out in 35 minutes

Tokenized cats have again wreaked havoc on the Ethereum network after an NFT project by actress Mila Kunis sold out in 35 minutes.

It commemorates the start of another cat-based NFT project, CryptoKitties, which the Ethereum network is known to have glued together in 2017.

The launch of Stoner Cats was initially delayed by a day after the team found a bug in the graphic layers below. The second attempt, however, was successful and sold out in just “35 meow nuts” after a disastrous pun by Stoner Cats.

We are SOLD OUT in 35 meow nuts!

If you have a TOKEn, hand it in here!

– Stoner Cats (@stonercatstv) July 27, 2021

Gas prices soared as NFT collectors nabbed the first tranche of Stoner Cats, which had a cap of 10,420 NFTs at a price of 0.35 ETH each, which was worth about $ 804 at the time of writing. Another 3,000 new NFTs will be released over the course of the first season, according to the project’s website.

Decentralized financial analyst DeFiprime joked that “cats are clogging Ethereum as usual” on Twitter, sharing on-chain data showing a sharp rise in ETH gas fees from 200 Gwei ($ 9.50) for a slow transaction to a hefty 709 Gwei ($ 33.67) for a quick transaction.

$ 700k lost in Cats’ failed TXs https://t.co/RczxG4xeAh

– defiprime (@defiprime) July 27, 2021

According to data from Dune Analytics, a total of 344.4 ETH ($ 793,000) in value was also lost to failed Stoner Cats transactions.

Stoner Cats is an animated series backed by NFTs, and the characters are voiced by celebrities such as Kunis, Jane Fonda, Ashton Kutcher, Seth MacFarlane, and Chris Rock. The NFTs give the owner access to watch the show, and the project uses NFT sales to fund its production.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is also the voice actor for the character named “Lord Catsinton”, who is described as a “spirit guide”.

lmao, someone just paid 5.8 ETH (and used 20% of a gas block) for a failed Tx that tried to mint 20 stoner cats https://t.co/JfvRtiGkm9

– jimmy (@ jimmyjames198) July 27, 2021

Investors have now gathered to list the NFTs on OpenSea, and a StonerCat NFT depicting Buterin’s character is currently being sold for 77 ETH worth about $ 177,000 – a percentage premium of about 9500%. An NFT depicting Seth MacFarlane’s character sells for 420 ETH, or more than $ 960,000.

Related: Blockchain technology is holding back NFTs because of these three design flaws

The short-lived increase, however, pales in comparison to CryptoKitties, which is known to have “broke Ethereum” as early as 2017 after its introduction and met with overwhelming demand.

Cointelegraph reported in May 2020 that a surprising drop in CrypoKitties overwhelmed the Nifty NFT marketplace after an abundance of collectors flooded the platform, leading to a range of service issues including slowness and failed transactions.