Former NHL Champ Darren McCarty Explores Cannabis NFT Marketplace with NFTrogs

Former Detroit Red Wing and NHL star Darren McCarty is getting involved with NFTs, which are sweeping the cannabis community. Perhaps out of curiosity, the former enforcer recently bought an NFT from Australian artist TROG, “your favorite cannabis culture artist,” who is launching NFTrogs with McCarty as an early buyer.

The initial NFT release was launched publicly January 10 on the Ethereum ERC-20 platform, with intentions to expand to other chains such as Binance Chain and others in the near future. Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH) blockchain and its token Ether—the second most valuable cryptocurrency—trails behind only Bitcoin in value.

The team is currently minting and offering NFTrogs on OpenSea. So, for novices who don’t have an OpenSea account, it would be a good time to go sign up, and they also need to choose a wallet.

TROG‘s characters are reminiscent of his extensive work drawing posters for cannabis events. You may recognize his trippy characters from his Killer Weed Coloring Book or Deadlines, a collectible book featuring his endless portfolio of cannabis event posters. He is proud to announce one of four NFT drops that make up the first 100 characters. The first round went public and on sale on January 10. The characters are individual NFTs of TROG, but he is building digital contracts so each NFT has its own added bonus.

Meanwhile, McCarty has been busy in the cannabis industry—launching cannabis flower and hemp products under The Darren McCarty Brand in collaboration with Pincanna about two years ago, and he also recently unveiled its collection of THC, CBD + CBN gummies.

McCarty bought NFT TROG #25, one of the earliest characters available on an NFT. “Four-time Stanley Cup Champion Darren McCarty here,” the former enforcer told High Times in a video message. “Now, NFTs and all this stuff—I’m just starting to learn about it. But all I heard was […] ‘TROG.’ The eyeballs, man! I’m in! TROG NFTs. You should be too.”

If you don’t understand NFTs—you’re not alone. NFTs—or non-fungible tokens—are commonly part of the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum is a cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Dogecoin, but its blockchain also supports these NFTs. “Non-fungible” more or less means that it’s unique and can’t be replaced with something else. They only exist online, sometimes as a JPEG, but have real value.

How NFTs Work

People getting into NFTs hope to see their money grow. “Let’s say you get NFT TROG #26,” TROG told High Times. “You buy that NFT,  it sits in your digital wallet, then in three days you get a message from us with a QR code. You scan that QR code to get your reveal.”

The system allows money to grow. “Or a seed drops out of your NFT, that seed appears in your digital wallet,” TROG said. “In five days it sprouts… in five more days it turns into a little plant, then in two weeks the plant turns into a bigger plant. Then in 30 days bags of buds start appearing in your digital wallet. These bags of buds are actual new NFTs that have contracts attached to them—you can sell these buds as a NFT sale if you choose, or you can hang onto them.”

Each NFTrogs is also the key to unlocking a canvas series of 10 artworks—if you own the NFT it gives that holder the chance to purchase the number one canvas in that series. 

“You may get a QR code—and when scanned, it may send you a pic of your character with a broken bong and a code to redeem. You contact us directly and we redeem your code and send that person a new TROG GLASS bong. Or you may get a message saying your grinder broke,  and code to redeem to get a new grinder, etc.”

TROG GLASS features beautiful glass pieces—beakers, bongs and more—featuring the cartoon characters of TROG.

TROG said that he may airdrop collector artworks that include free tickets to cannabis events or festivals he’s involved with, for holders of NFTrogs.