A reality TV star who sells her farts in jars has decided to stop selling them, despite making $1,000 per jar. But fans of her work shouldn’t worry too much. She’s still going to sell her farts as non-fungible tokens, more commonly known as NFTs.
Stephanie Matto, who appeared on the reality TV show “90-Day Fiance” and gained a huge following on TikTok, says she had to go to the hospital recently with gastric complications because she was eating so many high-fiber foods to produce more and more farts.
“I thought I was having a stroke and that these were my final moments,” Matto told the UK’s Jam Press about her unexpected trip to the hospital near her home in Connecticut. “I was overdoing it.”
Matto, who refers to herself as a fartrepreneur, started farting in jars and selling them online in November and documented the foods she was eating on TikTok to keep up her flatulence, like beans, protein muffins, and eggs. Matto was reportedly taking in roughly $50,000 per week through her highly profitable endeavor but it wasn’t long before the strain became too much.
“I didn’t tell my doctors about the farting in the jar but I did tell them about my diet. It was made clear that what I was experiencing wasn’t a stroke or heart attack but very intense gas pains,” Matto told Jam Press.
“I was advised to change my diet and to take a gas suppressant medication, which has effectively ended my business,” Matto continued.
But while Matto has semi-retired from the real-world fart jar business, she’s still pursuing the world of NFTs, where she sells cartoon images of her fart jars. Non-fungible tokens are most often associated with jpeg images, but they’re essentially a decentralized receipt on the blockchain that can be any kind of hyperlink.
Matto has launched a website selling 5,000 fart jar NFTs for .05 ether, which at the current exchange rate works out to about $191, not including ethereum’s notoriously high gas fees. In this case, ether’s gas fees, which are just transaction fees for the blockchain, are rather appropriately named.
Matto’s new website claims that 100 of the virtual fart jars will be redeemable for real-world fart jars, so it doesn’t seem like Matto is completely giving up the fart game just yet. Another 70 tokens will be redeemable for used panties and 30 of the fart jar tokens will be redeemable for some of Matto’s used lingerie.
“These NFTs are just as beautiful, unique, and rare as my actual poots! You can practically smell how delightful they are through the screen. Just use your imagination!” Matto said in a statement on her website.
“Fart jars are the true sign of going against the grain, being a trailblazer, and not caring about the opinions of others. Being the first ever fart jar mogul has put me on the map, and now it’s your turn to be a part of my fart empire,” Matto continued.
The fart-based businesswoman is also offering Zoom meetings and even mentorship for anyone who wants to create a business like hers.
From Matto’s NFT website:
Become a Girlboss with access to a private group with Steph where you can be mentored on how to ‘build a brand,’ ‘become a content creator’ & ‘become a fartrepreneur.’
Matto sees her business venture as an empowering move, even if she’s received some negative attention from trolls online.
“I have even received death threats, people telling me I should end my life, and so on. I try my best to not react to these people and give them what they want, which is attention,” Matto told Jam Press.
“In this day and age, we need to stop tearing people down for their choices. Especially if their choices are literally hurting no one,” Matto continued.
“I think there is a lot of jealousy and a lot of anti-feminism. Everyone is a feminist until a woman starts farting in jars and selling it. But I think my family is relieved [about my retirement], and honestly so is my colon.”
Whatever you think of selling farts in a jar, Matto seems to be doing well for herself financially. And we can’t think of a better way to describe how NFTs—a perfectly decent smart contract technology when it’s not just used to shill jpeg links—are being monetized on the internet right now. Fart in a jar, indeed.