A reality star who says she made $200K from selling her farts in Mason jars is pivoting to selling them as NFTs

• Stephanie Matto said she made $200,000 by selling her farts in Mason jars.
• After a hospital visit, doctors told her that the excessive wind-breaking was taking a toll on her body.
• She has since pivoted to selling the fart jars as NFTs. They sell for 0.05 Ethereum.

Stephanie Matto, 31, made headlines around the world when she announced that she'd have to retire from selling her farts in jars after she says she was hospitalized while trying to keep up with the skyrocketing demand.

The former star of TLC's "90 Day Fiancé" said she made around $200,000 from selling her bottled farts to her fans, but doctors advised her that her excessive wind-breaking was taking a toll on her body.

Instead of abandoning the business venture entirely, Matto told Insider that she decided to pivot to selling her farts as non-fungible tokens.

Now, Matto is hoping to carve out a space in the NFT world with her "unique" fart art. "There's space for everybody," she said during a phone call with Insider.

She started selling her farts as an 'experiment'

Matto explained that while she was running an 18-and-over fan subscription platform, similar to OnlyFans, she received a lot of requests for her farts. "I always thought that was a complete joke," she said.

But last year, she said, she decided to sell her farts as an "experiment" to see if anybody would actually purchase them.

Her first batch of 97, each selling for $500, ended up selling out instantly, she said. The second shipment, selling for $1,000, also sold out, she said. Matto said she made approximately $200,000 total.

A customer of hers, who asked to only be referred to as John, told Insider why the product was so appealing to him. The 43-year-old financier, who said he spent $1,000 on two fart jars, explained that it helped him feel a sense of "closeness" to Matto. "I have a lot of fetishes and one of them is that I like the smell of a woman," he said. "I like all of the smells."

Matto said that over the holiday season this year, orders from devoted customers, like John, flooded in. "I knew I wasn't going to fulfill them but I tried anyway," she added.

One morning, she had three "large servings" of protein shakes and "several bowls" of black bean soup to help meet the demand. But she started to feel unwell, with sharp shooting pain in her chest and heart, and decided to go to ER.

Doctors diagnosed her with severe gas pain, Matto explained, and advised her that her wind-breaking was harming her body. "I had to rethink my business model because I knew that selling my farts in this way was just not something that was physically sustainable for me," she said.

Pivoting toward NFTs

A digital artist reached out to her and suggested they make a collection of unique artwork, based on her bottled farts, to sell as NFTs. An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a unique identifier that can cryptographically assign and prove ownership of digital goods. 

Matto said she jumped on the idea because she has a "very creative mind" when it comes to making money.

Fart Jars NFT launched on Wednesday and are now selling for 0.05 Ethereum ($186).

"We teamed up and made jars with really cute animations," she said.  "And we made them super custom and personal, and some even come with unlockable traits."

Some of the NFTs come with redeemable gifts, which include signed lingerie and "very rare" physical fart jars. 

"The more and more I worked on it, the more I realized how cool it is learning more about crypto and just the whole entire concept of NFT is really amazing and cool to me," Matto said. "So I kind of felt like this was the direction I wanted to go in."

Matto said she is confident that this latest venture will be a success. "I'm very good at turning shit into gold."