Starbucks is serving up its first premium NFTs at $100 a pop

The coffee giant Starbucks is taking significant steps into Web3 with its Starbucks Odyssey Rewards Program on Ethereum side chain network Polygon, which is currently open in beta for limited users. And after losing some free rewards NFTs for early adopters, it is set to launch its very first paid collectible this afternoon.

Starbucks Odyssey will launch limited edition Sirene Collection today at 3 PM ET for beta users of the platform, offering up to 2,000 NFTs that will be sold for $100 each. Each unique piece of art is inspired by the brand’s iconic logo—a “super mermaid”, as the company once described it.

“As Starbucks has grown over the years, the siren has been right there with us, adapting and evolving to reflect the brand and culture,” the company said of the NFT case. The 2,000 pieces will collectively be based on five different Siren “expressions” that follow her “journey from local Seattle celebrity to revered global icon.”

Each user can purchase up to two of the premium NFT stamps, and each comes with 1,500 bonus points that can be used to “upgrade” a user’s Odyssey account to earn future rewards.

Starbucks launched the Odyssey closed beta in December, with a representative telling Decrypt shortly after the company had set “outstanding interest” from users looking to join what has been billed as a next-generation evolution of the existing Starbucks Rewards program.

Since then, Starbucks has given away four free polygon-based NFTs to users for completing certain in-app challenges. The NFTs were rewarded for doing things like completing trivia challenges about the company, or ordering Starbucks food and drink or gift cards.

Despite being a free giveaway, the first Starbucks NFT – the Holiday Cheer Edition 1 stamp – has since had considerable value on the secondary market. Dozens of editions have sold for more than $1,000 apiece, with the top selling at $1,900. Overall, the Nifty Gateway-powered marketplace has handled about $222,000 worth of secondary sales.

Starbucks has said that its NFT-based rewards program will eventually offer users a wide range of potential benefitsincluding the ability to access exclusive digital content and live in-store events, as well as potential trips – such as a visit to a Starbucks coffee farm in Costa Rica.

The NFT market took a beating in the latter half of 2022, along with the rest of the crypto space, but now appears to be picking up steam: total sales topped $2 billion in February, the highest total since before the market crash last May. .