A fresh spark has been lit in the red-hot NFT market – a universe of cannabis-inspired NFTs are budding the two worlds together and taking the industries by storm. The MonsterBuds NFT collection was released in September 2021 and has since done 3,600 ETH in trading volume. Ethereum (ETH) is the native cryptocurrency on which most NFTs trade. One ether at the time of writing is $3,400
What started as an idea after his crypto trading account got hacked, MonsterBuds founder Greg Tumolo has since turned MonsterBuds, or originally “CryptoBuddz,” into a multi-million dollar enterprise in the span of months. Users are able to buy, sell, breed, and smoke their MonsterBuds all on their native platform, monsterbuds.io.
“I couldn’t have done this by myself,” mentions Tumolo, “I really needed to build a team I can trust.” Tumolo, a lifelong tech aficionado and entrepreneur, has been in the crypto industry since 2017 and knew how competitive it could be. After conceptualizing the idea, Tumolo immediately thought to bring in a newfound friend and incredible artist, Trevor Van Meter. Van Meter, or TVM, is an award-winning illustrator and animator, whose clients include Google, Disney, Kanye West, and many others.
The two, along with a core team of developers, created the initial concepts and turned MonsterBuds into what it is now. They launched their program in September 2021 and sold out within a matter of hours during the pre-sale window. Since then, the MonsterBuds team has created a diverse community of NFT and cannabis lovers alike, with both Twitter and Discord communities of 10,000+. MonsterBuds regularly conducts community interviews, hosts game and movie nights, and moderates chat rooms buzzing 24/7. “Our community is really something special. I’ve been able to connect with like-minds all around the world,” says Tumolo. The team has even built their own marketplace, where they’re able to keep trading fees in-house and have them go straight back to the community. NFT sales in 2021 topped $40 billion, according to the Financial Times.
Everything MonsterBuds has accomplished to date is each a feat on its own, but 2022 might just top it all. This year they are planning to expand the MonsterBud universe into a play-to-earn game, an online card-based game where their users can earn dank tokens (cryptocurrency) while also being fun-to-play. MonsterBuds just released news on partnerships with major players in the cannabis industry, including Raw Rolling Papers, PackWoods, and Cannabis Talk 101. The future is bright for these buds and is a clear indicator of where they are headed.
