Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee, launched his flagship collection VeeFriends in May of 2021. Since then, Gary has continued to develop the collection’s intellectual property and release additional NFTs, including the release of VeeFriends Series 2 in April of 2022. Check out this Beginner’s Guide to learn more about the first two VeeFriends collections.
On February 15, 2023, VeeFriends announced a new gamified storyline called Burn Island. The volcanic island is an opportunity for VeeFriends holders to unlock rare NFTs, gain access to unique events, and earn physical or virtual rewards through burning events. Alongside the announcement, VeeFriends released a promotional video from Gary outlining the story. Check out the video on Twitter, Youtube, and other platforms that publish VeeFriends content.
How Does it Work?
What does it mean to “burn” an NFT? Burning an NFT is an irreversible event which permanently removes the token from circulation. This occurs by sending the NFT to an unowned address, which is why it can’t be recovered. It’s important to note that Burn Island is designed primarily for VeeFriends holders. According to a VeeFriends blog, Burn Island will primarily be used for those on the VeeFriends smart contracts, including Book Games and Mini Drops.
Burn Island is a deflationary platform that will offer users the opportunity to access unique rewards and encourage a variety of participation from VeeFriends holders. President Andy Krainak stated in an interview, “It’s set up so we can continually have a place to create deflationary tokenomics but also reward our holders. There’s going to be new ways we continue to innovate and storytell against Burn Island.” This deflationary experience will have two main special features:
- Burn-Swap: trade in NFTs for items during Burn Island eruption events
- Sweepstakes: low cost entries to win prizes by burning an NFT.
Burn Island is activated through “Eruption” events, where exclusive rewards can be earned. Each Eruption will be unique in experience, eligibility requirements, and rewards. Eruption events will have predetermined start and stop dates so there is no overlap. The first Eruption begins on February 21st, 2023, and will end on March 2nd, 2023.
How to Participate
To participate in Burn Island, participants will be required to register on the VeeFriends website, create a VeeFriends account, and meet certain eligibility requirements. The website will be updated with the rewards information and eligibility requirements, but have yet to be released at the time of this writing.
In addition, VeeFriends has made it easy to link your cold wallet to your VeeFriends profile without connecting to the website. In mid January, VeeFriends released a step-by-step guide in a VeeFriends blog. All it requires is a small trial deposit, which is yet another example of innovation by Gary Vee. Note that you can add or remove wallets associated with your profile at any time.
Market Response
How have VeeFriends holders and other market participants responded to the Burn Island announcement? On the day of the announcement, the floor of VeeFriends remained relatively unchanged with only 8 OpenSea sales since the announcement. However, VeeFriends Series 2 saw increased volume with 100+ sales.
A screenshot from the VeeFriends discord revealed there will likely be no burn requirements for Series 1, which may be why there has been little to no trade volume. However, there are rumors that certain burn mechanics will require holding a Series 1 VeeFriend.
At the time of this writing, VeeFriends floor sits at 4.99 eth and VeeFriends Series 2 floor sits at 0.290 eth. The VeeFriends Mini Drops collection saw major movement from 0.037 eth, reaching as high as 0.165 eth before settling at 0.1 eth. Other NFTs linked to VeeFriends storyline, such as Book Games, can be found via the VeeFriends website. It’s important to note that Series 1 has 10,300 NFTs, while Series 2 contains more than 5x that amount with 55,600 NFTs.
Note: data gathered via OpenSea
The Future of the VeeFriends
Gary Vee has generally been praised for his business mind and innovative thinking. VeeFriends introduction of Burn Island seems to be yet another display of forward-thinking and utilization of his intellectual property. Gary is attempting to deliver value to his holders and provide them with a unique storytelling experience along the way. “This is the beginning of something great. We have eruptions currently planned, but eruptions will continue to evolve,” stated President Krainak. “I think anyone who has been a part of the VeeFriends community knows that we continue to evolve and innovate against the announcements and releases we have put out.”
VeeCon is set for May 18-20th of 2023 in Indianapolis, IN. It’s yet to be determined if more information will be released at the event, but it is likely a can’t miss conference. The upcoming Eruption event may even grant limited access during VeeCon.
