OK Crypto

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OK Crypto was a Weezer marketing campaign by Crush Music announced on April 22, 2021 in promotion of OK Human. It involved the sale of a limited quantity of NFTs, a form of "digital collectible" briefly popularized during the early 2020s. Among the collectibles sold were 12 random "ultra rare" NFTs which could be destroyed in exchange for a one-of-one physical toy by Death by Toys.

The campaign was heavily criticized by fans, citing the environmental and social concerns associated with NFTs. Ultimately, although the collection sold out quickly, only nine of the available 12 "ultra rare" NFTs were unpacked and only two were burned to redeem the associated physical toys.

Announcement and release

On April 22, 2021, Weezer announced OK Crypto through a video posted to their social media accounts. 12 handmade, packaged toys based on each song from OK Human were produced by Death by Toys, a custom limited-run toy storefront run by Dan Polydoris. Photos of these toys were turned into digital "trading cards" of varying levels of rarity. These digitized trading cards were then minted into a limited number of NFTs (unique signifiers of ownership of digital goods) on the WAX blockchain (a system that allows for the storage and trading of NFTs). The trading card NFTs could be purchased in randomized "packs" of 10 (for US$20) or 25 (for US$40) beginning on April 28. Only 5,000 "standard" packs and 3,000 "mega" packs were available for purchase. The campaign was organized by Crush Music with assistance from the NFT platform Rarez (a subsidiary of Emanate), who specialized in creating NFT campaigns for musicians. The service Premint provided the randomized trading card unpacking mechanic.

The campaign's announcement recieved significant backlash from fans upon release. As of May 2021, the YouTube announcement had an approximately 45% dislike-to-like ratio.^[1] In addition, a large volume of replies and comments on YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter directly indicate opposition to the the campaign. NFTs were subject to widespread criticism and mockery during their peak in popularity around the time of the campaign's announcement; the benefits of owning "digital collectibles" were uncertain and largely speculative, and many NFT collections were likened to ponzi schemes.^[2] NFTs were additionally associated with disproportionally high energy use,^[3] and although the OK Crypto campaign advertised its usage of WAX — claiming in the announcement that it used "1% of the energy that etherium and others use"^[4] — the act of marketing NFTs was in and of itself environmentally damaging in the opinions of many commenters. Many comments noted the irony of the announcement being posted on Earth Day 2021.

On April 23, five days prior to the official sale of the NFTs, a quantity of free "preview" NFTs were given away for free to individuals who signed up for a WAX blockchain wallet.^[5] Although this was advertised as a limited release of exactly 1,000, the NFT marketplace Atomic Hub indicates that over 12,000 free "stress test packs" were issued.^[6] Each pack contained two "preview" trading cards featuring a golden flying =W= toy not found in the official collection.

The official packs became available for sale on August 18 at 10am PT. They sold out within 30 minutes. Under official social media posts announcing the end of the sale, many fans reported that their orders were canceled despite successful payment.^[7] After sales ended, the sale page displayed that "5045/5000" standard packs and "3038/3000" mega packs were sold.^[8] Despite the apparent extra sales, only 5000 standard packs and 3000 mega packs exist on the WAX blockchain.^[9]^[10]

Physical toys

Each NFT available from the OK Crypto collection features one of 12 packaged toy designs, each based off of a song from OK Human (e.g. a broken mirror toy for "Mirror Image", or a dead rose for "Dead Roses"). The appearance of the toy changes at each level of rarity; "common" cards are static with an uncolored package, "collectible" cards are animated to show color filling the package, "rare" cards are fully colored and have animated background elements, "delux"^[sic] cards rotate to show their silver backside design, and "ultra rare" cards are flattened to two dimensions, golden, and rotate to show redemption instructions on the back.

The toys were all designed by Dan Polydoris of Death By Toys, a Chicago-based toy store which sells limited handmade gag items. They were commissioned by Crush Music and were originally intended to be sold through the weezer.com storefront. However, after Polydoris sold the toys to Crush, they were chosen to be used as the basis for the OK Crypto campaign.^[4]^[11]

Any customer who recieved a one-of-one "ultra rare" NFT in their trading card pack was eligible to receive the physical toy corresponding to the card design. In order to receive the toy, however, it was necessary to "burn" the NFT, removing it from circulation and eliminating its speculative market value. Once the card was burned, winners could contact Rarez support to request the physical toy.

Incorrect "Aloo Gobi" card

To correlate with each individual handmade toy, only one redeemable "ultra rare" version of each design was intended to be available in the collection. However, due to an apparent error during the minting process, all copies of "Aloo Gobi" at every level of rarity were erroneously created with the incorrect "tracking" attribute — which listed "Dead Roses" instead of its own title. As the attributes of each NFT are immutable and cannot be altered after minting, a new full set of "Aloo Gobi" cards were created using a corrected template. The incorrect cards at all levels of rarity below "ultra rare" were held by Premint and evidently prevented from being unopened. However, the incorrect "ultra rare" "Aloo Gobi" NFT was allowed to be opened and entered circulation on the first day of the campaign. The corrected card is still in the Premint wallet, meaning either that it cannot be or has not been opened.

Redeemed toys

The period during which "ultra rare" cards could be burnt to redeem a toy spanned from June 1 to June 30, 2021.^[12] Four of these cards ("Here Comes the Rain", "Screens", "Mirror Image", and "All My Favorite Songs") were not opened before the end of the redemption period. Four were purchased on the aftermarket before the end of the redemption period by a single wallet with the ID "cmrbe.wam" and appear to have gone intentionally unredeemed ("La Brea Tar Pits", "Everything Happens for a Reason", "Numbers", and "Grapes of Wrath"); this wallet also holds a large number of unopened OK Crypto packs. Two others were purchased on the aftermarket by individual wallets before the end of the redemption period and also appear to have gone intentionally unredeemed ("Dead Roses" and "Playing My Piano"). All six of these unburnt cards have not been traded at all after the end of the redemption period (as of August 2024). The final two cards, "Aloo Gobi" and "Bird with a Broken Wing", were immediately burnt after being opened on the first day of the campaign, prior to the beginning of the redemption period.

No physical toys have been documented online to have been recieved, although it is likely that at least the "Aloo Gobi" and "Bird with a Broken Wing" toys were distributed. The unredeemed toys remain in the possession of Crush Music.