Coffee giant Starbucks is taking significant steps into Web3 with its Starbucks Odyssey rewards program on Ethereum sidechain network Polygon, which is currently open in beta to limited users. And after dropping a few free reward NFTs to early adopters, it’s set to launch its very first paid collectible this afternoon.
Starbucks Odyssey will launch the limited edition Siren Collection today at 3 p.m. ET for beta users of the platform, offering up 2,000 NFTs that will be sold for $100 apiece. Each unique piece of artwork 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 the culture,” the company said of the NFT drop. 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 may purchase up to two of the premium NFT stamps, and each comes with 1,500 bonus points that can be used to “level up” a user’s Odyssey account to earn future rewards.
Starbucks launched the Odyssey closed beta in December, with a representative telling Decrypt soon after that the company had seen “unprecedented interest” from users wishing to join what’s 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 drinks or gift cards.
Despite being a free giveaway, the first Starbucks NFT—the Holiday Cheer Edition 1 stamp—has since commanded considerable value on the secondary market. Dozens of editions have sold for more than $1,000 apiece, with the top sale at $1,900. Overall, the Nifty Gateway-powered marketplace has handled some $222,000 worth of secondary sales.
Starbucks has said that its NFT-based rewards program will ultimately offer users a wide array of potential benefits, including the ability to access exclusive digital content and live events in stores, as well as potential trips—such as a visit to 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 appears now to be picking up steam: overall sales surged above $2 billion in February, the highest total since before the market crash last May.
