Taco Bell Just Jumped On The NFT Bandwagon

Because we can now work, party, and find love on the internet, Taco Bell is inviting us to eat virtually, too. On the online marketplace Rareible, the fast-food chain is now selling one-of-a-kind digital representations of their menu items (called NFTs) so that, as Taco Bell announced on Twitter, they can "live in your hearts, stomachs and digital wallets" — forever, and ever, and ever.

CNN invites you to think of an NFT as a digital, limited edition Pokémon card, which often takes the form of gifs, songs, and bits of video games (via The Verge). You could trade your Taco Bell NFTs for digital artwork or cryptocurrency, or you can keep them in your digital wallet, for when you get virtually hungry.

"But wait!" You think, "If I invest, what makes my taco different from any other digital taco I might find for free on the world wide web?" Buying a Taco Bell NFT on Rareible is like buying an original Picasso. Even if you're friend finds a copy-cat taco floating around, like a cheap postcard Picasso print, it's nothing compared to yours (via The Guardian). Your Taco Bell NFT would be valuable, and with time, potentially, very valuable. To give you an idea, CNN reported that another NFT (a video of a LeBron James in action) recently sold for more than $200,000. Business Insider says that in February 2021, platforms like Rareible sold nearly $500 million worth of them. That's a lot of chalupas.

If you urgently need a digital taco gif for your digital wallet, we'd advise you hurry up. Unless Taco Bell cooks up another batch in its virtual kitchen, you'll have to buy them off their original buyers. According to what the Mexican-inspired chain told The Verge, the 25 limited edition NFTs Taco Bell had available sold out within a half hour of going on the market. The fast food chain isn't pocketing the proceeds from these sales. Rather, it promises on the Taco Bell Rareible page that profits earned from the sale of their digital tacos will go to Taco Bell Foundation "to empower youth to discover and pursue their career and educational pathways." 

The original buyers of Taco Bell's NFTs aren't going to go hungry IRL, either. A company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge that buyers of this batch got a $500 Taco Bill gif card, too. That's a lot of cash back for something that originally cost its customers around $1.00. But resales of the limited edition taco gifs have been going for up to $3,646 real world dollars, according to Insider ($500 Taco Bell gift cards, we're assuming, not included). Though this may seem like a bad deal for the chain, Taco Bell does get 0.01 percent of each subsequent sale.