Number Crunch

Why Taco Bell, Charmin, and Pizza Hut are Trying to Sell You NFTs

Corporate merchandise is going crypto

10 ETH, or approximately $18,000: That’s how much a limited-edition digital collectible created by Taco Bell sold for on the NFT trading platform Rarible last week. The fast-food chain last week issued a series of four different collectible GIF depictions of tacos in different art styles, each in a collection of five, all of which have been sold. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are records of ownership of digital assets on the Ethereum blockchain, providing a degree of uniqueness and scarcity to otherwise endlessly reproducible digital items.

Although the buyer who paid $18,000 for one of the Taco Bell NFTs bought it in a resale and not directly from the fast-food chain, the NFT allows Taco Bell to earn 0.1% of every resale, the proceeds of which it directs to its foundation for youth empowerment. (It’s worth noting that Taco Bell’s other NFTs have not sold for nearly as much — the next highest sale as of this writing was around $4,000 — although some of their owners are presently trying to flip them for several times what they paid.)

Taco Bell is not the only corporate brand to jump on the NFT bandwagon. Pizza Hut has issued some NFTs of its own, tied to pixelated…