Caviar with your crypto? World’s ‘first NFT restaurant’ planned for New York

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It’s been said there can’t be romance without finance, but at an upcoming New York seafood restaurant, there won’t be fish without fintech. Flyfish Club, a restaurant that restaurant group VCR plans to open in early 2023 in an unannounced location that “offers iconic views of New York City”, according to a promotional video, will require customers to show proof of identity. membership in the form of an NFT (non-fungible token) to enter. Although billed as the world’s “first NFT restaurant”, once inside members will have to pay US dollars to consume fungible fish.

Memberships come in two tiers, with standard membership tokens sporting an (uncredited) artistic rendering of a beautiful yellowfin tuna, while the more exclusive tier giving the member access to the private omakase room of the club includes tokens with renderings of various sushi and sashimi dishes that will presumably be offered there. The first drop of 1,151 memberships sold out within hours, while another 350 were gobbled up in a private sale in December, according to Nation’s Restaurant News. Standard subscriptions were initially sold for ETH2.5 Ether (around $7,900), while omakase subscriptions were priced at ETH4.25 (around $13,485).

Flyfish Club memberships now trade like hot crab cakes on OpenSea, which is fitting enough. An omakase membership token resold on January 7 for 10.49 ETH (about $35,980), the highest secondary market price for a Flyfish Club membership to date.

Unfortunately, the enormous energy consumption required by each transaction using Ethereum – the cryptocurrency of choice in the NFT market – means that the token-buying frenzy of Flyfish Club members could eventually leave them with a fairly limited menu. The world’s oceans have absorbed around 93% of the excess heat generated by greenhouse gas emissions over the past half-century, contributing to rising sea temperatures and an increase in heat waves oceans, posing great threats to the world’s fish stocks – according to one estimate, potential catches in tropical waters could drop 40% by 2050. Seafood-loving crypto investors who want to keep eating yellowfin tuna for decades may want to skip this NFT feast.

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