Reddit is selling NFTs, and somehow they’re already worth thousands

Reddit is officially in the NFT game.

The front page of the internet announced the “experiment” Thursday morning, with Reddit Product Lead Peter Yang explaining that the non-fungible tokens would take the form of cartoon avatars modeled after the Reddit logo. Bidding on the NFTs, which are essentially metadata encoded onto the Ethereum blockchain that describe an object or artwork, is already in the thousands of dollars.

Dubbed CryptoSnoos, the three NFTs currently listed for sale were minted on June 17 and are listed for auction on the OpenSea platform. “Original Block,” “Helium,” and “Snoopermatic” — the artworks the NFTs point to — are all based on the original Reddit logo drawn by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian in 2005.

“Take advantage of this rare opportunity to own a piece of Reddit history—snag a CryptoSnoo NFT built on the Ethereum blockchain and start your collection,” reads Reddit’s NFT page.

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The auction is set to expire on June 30, but could be extended if the bidding gets fierce. At the time of this writing, bidding for the “Original Block” NFT is already at over $4,000 worth of WETH (WETH, or “wrapped ether,” is an ERC-20 token on the Ethereum blockchain).

Notably, this appears to be just the beginning of Reddit’s foray into NFTs. Much like with cryptokitties, Reddit looks to be banking on the idea that users will value rare CryptoSnoos and want to buy and trade them. The CryptoSnoos are broken down into three categories: “Legendary,” meaning “one of a kind,” “Rare,” which translates to “extremely limited edition, and “Epic,” aka “limited edition.”

Redditors are encouraged to “Find available CryptoSnoos in Reddit’s avatar builder.”

The three CryptoSnoos currently listed for sale are “owned by Reddit,” so presumably any profits from the sale will be split in some way between Reddit and OpenSea. (OpenSea typically takes a 2.5 percent cut of sales, though it’s not clear if that agreement applies to CryptoSnoos.)

Notably, purchasing a CryptoSnoo NFT means a very specific thing. According to Reddit’s NFT terms of service, that thing is entertainment.

“You acknowledge and agree that the CryptoSnoo NFTs are made available solely for entertainment purposes,” explains the TOS. But wait, there’s more: The TOS makes clear that your ownership of the CryptoSnoo NFT does not grant you commercial rights to the artwork it represents.

SEE ALSO: So you spent millions on an NFT. Here’s what you actually bought.

Oh, also, Reddit says it can terminate your “Licensed Rights” to the CryptoSnoos if you, among other things, “disparage or initiate any legal action against Reddit, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, members, employees, agents, and/or attorneys.”

So fair warning would-be CryptoSnoo owners, don’t talk shit on Reddit! If you do, you might find your immutable and public ownership suddenly revoked — which would only be entertaining for the rest of us.