The Simpsons fried NFTs, Yuga Labs exec’s anti-Semitic tweets, and more later

Simpsons NFTs will be fried in a new Halloween special

The animated television series The Simpsons spent an entire episode mocking the final season of the 34th Treehouse of Horror Halloween special in the episode “Wild Barts Can't Be Token.”

In the special, Homer accidentally touches Bart on the blockchain, and in subsequent scenes, creators joke about NFTs, all while referring to collections like Bored Up Yacht Club, Doodles, and even viral digital artist Beeple.

Get ready for an incredible night tomorrow with #TreehouseOfHorror XXXIV on @FOXTV , the following day on @hulu . pic.twitter.com/Y4cSiyp4kD

— The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) November 4, 2023

The exception revolved around entertaining the speculative nature of NFTs and how the market was fueled by fear of missing out (FOMO).

When Marge finds out that Bart is on the chain, she also digitizes herself as an NFT. She fights carriages on a virtual train to save Bart.

The final joke is when Homer finally gives in to FOMO and considers himself an NFT. As he does so, the train runs out of steam and the value of all NFTs approaches zero, ending the scene with a “Doh!” It ends with the visual phrase.

Although the episode's long joke was the main point, the NFT community on Crypto Twitter reacted with excitement, with Beeple saying that his work on the show was a “bucket list moment” for him as an artist.

Notably, the creators of The Simpsons are launching their own NFT collection – Golden Moments – in partnership with Disney+ on the NFT platform Vive in November 2021.

“We've seen this,” wrote Vive's official report.

We saw that @TheSimpsons pic.twitter.com/nBAQEjJmyp

– Veve | Digital Collectors (@veve_official) November 6, 2023

Degens invested in the Simpsons NFT segment.

NFT fans certainly haven't let the Simpsons fry go to waste, with creators rushing to capitalize on the newfound publicity for NFTs.

Hours after the show first aired, Italian parody artist Rino Russo launched a Simpsons-derived NFT project combining Simpsons characters with CryptoPunks.

The set, dubbed Springfield Punks, launched as a free mint and quickly sold out as NFT fans rushed to jump on the action.

Bart is an NFT in Treehouse of Horror XXXIV.

Celebrate live with FREE Springfield Punks Mint!!

♂️‍♂️‍♂️Mint Site:

Deal: #Simpsons #NFTs #Halloween #FreeMint pic.twitter.com/v1D9ccSj4X

— RinaldoRu (@RinaldoRu) November 6, 2023

At the time of publication, the Simpsons Punks Collection has made a whopping 1,377 Ether (ETH) – worth $2.6 million at current prices – in trading volume, the third highest transaction on OpenSea in the last 24 hours.

After anti-Semitic tweets resurfaced, Yoga Labs social leader stepped down

Shpend Sahilu, the social leader of NFT company Yuga Labs, has announced that he will be released after anti-Semitic tweets he posted years ago surfaced on social media.

Sahilu, who goes by the pseudonym NGBxShpend on X, said he was leaving his role at the company because his previous anti-Semitic tweets had become a “distraction” from Bored Up Yacht Club.

“I want to apologize to anyone who interrupted my tweets in poor taste,” X wrote in a post on November 5.

Hello everyone, today is a difficult day. I am serving from my position at Yoga Labs. Some tweets from my past have resurfaced and it's become interesting about the club and what we're all about. These tweets do not reflect who I am or what I believe. It was amazing…

— ngbshpend.eth (@NGBxShpend) November 5, 2023

A user He attached a screenshot of one of the offensive tweets from 2016 in the comments section of the original post, showing him making fun of Hitler.

Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Up Yacht Club and Crypto Punks, has been accused by controversial artists Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen of harboring anti-Semitic views in their artwork. The allegations of knocking the NFT collection led to a legal battle that lasted more than a year.

However, Yuga Labs recently won a legal victory against the duo, with a court ordering Rips and Cahen to pay Yuga Labs $1.6 million in damages for copyright infringement.

NFT sales are showing signs of strength after a year-long slump

After a long and continuous decline in NFT sales, the market seems to be finally showing signs of recovery, with monthly trading volume growing for the first time in a year, according to a report from crypto data company Dapradar.

“The year-long downward trend in NFT trading has been broken. Trading volume increased 32% from $306 million to $405 million, returning to levels seen in August,” the report wrote.

Dapradar said that the volume of NFT trading in October increased by $99 million compared to sales in September, which brought the total trading activity back to a level slightly below that of August.

While that seems like a big month-over-month increase, it's worth noting that October's $340 million volume compared to March's $1.98 billion volume seven months ago.

When it comes to trading volume, Ethereum-based NFTs still dominate the market, growing more than 50% in October. Meanwhile, others such as Polygon, Starkware and Flow saw their sales decline by 48%, 42% and 32% respectively.

The report made a special note of the NFT activity on the Solana (SOL) ecosystem, which – after suffering from the failure of FTX – showed signs of strength, showing a 15% increase in the overall trading volume.

Other good news:

Attendees at Yoga Labs' ApeFest event in Hong Kong on Nov. 4 reported burning, blurred vision and “extreme pain” in their eyes, which they attributed to improper lighting.

NFT marketplace OpenSea has announced that it will lay off 50% of its workforce on November 3rd. Co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer broke the news on X that the company is launching OpenSea 2.0 with a small team.

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