For some time now, I’ve been writing about the rise of NFTs and how they are much more than just cartoonish pictures. I’ve been saying they’re going to play a role in our lives on a much broader, daily scale.
We’re now beginning to see that come to fruition.
A few examples:
- Ticketmaster has now developed systems to allow event organizers to sell tickets as NFTs. Plus, these NFTs can not only provide access to events, but can serve as digital collectibles.
- Starbucks has begun a loyalty program structured around an NFT instead of the ubiquitous plastic cards. The NFTs allow the coffee chain to create interactive experiences and games for members.
- A San Diego car-wash chain, Soapy Joes, has begun a scavenger hunt-style rewards program that allows customers to collect NFTs by visiting the chain’s various locations.
To that end, I bring you an opportunity in this corner of the NFT space: Hungry Robot Chicken Club, an NFT tied to a rewards program for a New York/New Jersey chain of 14 chicken-finger eateries called Sticky’s—The Finger Joint. The NFTs provide discounts on food for their holders.
But before I delve into this NFT, let’s back up for a second.
NFTs, are I’m sure you’re aware, are non-fungible tokens. These are one-off, one-of-a-kind cryptocurrencies that represent ownership of a digital asset. (Before reading this alert, I’d advise that you check out the two NFT reports I’ve prepared as part of Frontier Fortunes, if you haven’t already done so. These are: How to Invest in NFTs and The Frontier Fortunes Guide to NFT Wallets.)
Hungry Robot Chicken Club is tied to Visionary Studios, a well-respected group of builders on the Solana blockchain, and it’s still minting the 2,222 NFTs it aims to sell. (Full disclosure: I minted and own four of them).
This is a different opportunity than I typically tell you about. This is purely a long-term play (unless you live near one of the restaurants, which means you’d be able to make use of the food discounts now).
See, at present the Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFTs are little more than an over-engineered coupon. But as Sticky’s expands, which it’s doing, it raises an interesting question about the quantity of NFTs available for the customer base.
Right now, there are about 158 NFTs per store. As the chain adds more eateries, that number will continually decline, meaning there will not be enough NFTs for the base of customers who might want one.
At that point, Sticky’s and Visionary Studios will have to launch a second collection to give more customers an opportunity to own a Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFT and access the discounts and such that are available.
But that would sap value from the current generation of NFTs.
The Visionary Team clearly don’t want that. I talked to them and while they can’t confirm this yet, one of the ideas floating around is that just maybe owners of the first-generation collection of Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFTs will be eligible for free food, since Gen 1 owners are the ones who supported the project from its earliest days.
So, we’re talking about an NFT that potentially means access to free meals.
Maybe that’s once a week. Maybe that’s once a quarter. Maybe it’s every day for a week every quarter. Who knows? There are an untold number of possibilities.
The point is simply that a Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFT could morph into a very valuable NFT because it might provide ongoing access to free meals. On the secondary market, that will be worth a pretty penny.
Right now, minting a Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFT is just 1 Solana, or about $38, nothing really. In a future where these NFTs provide free food, they would most likely be worth 100x to, maybe, 500x that amount, depending on how the free-food component is structured.
Now, a few caveats I want to be clear about:
- There is no guarantee the free-food offer materializes. My analysis here is based on a conversation with the team, who at this point see free food as a potential path for first-generation NFTs, if and when a second-generation collection is released.
- There’s no way to know what any free-food offer will look like at this point, so any guess at the future value of the NFT is just that—a guess.
- There is no way to guarantee the success of Sticky’s, or that it will continue to grow, though management is in the process of franchising the chain right now.
Finally, this is a long-term hold. Do not expect Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFTs to soar in value anytime soon. They won’t.
As I noted, right now they’re essentially an over-engineered coupon marketed mainly to restaurant patrons who aren’t necessarily the traditional NFT crowd. They’re buying just for the discount on meals (and those discounts can be so substantial that they pay for the cost to mint an NFT after just three or four visits).
I minted my four NFTs because the cost is so cheap, and the payoff is potentially huge. I stuck all of mine into my Ledger hardware wallet, where they will just sit patiently.
I don’t mind risking $120 or so on a long-term investment that could pay off vast multiples of that amount. If I am wrong and the NFTs never do a thing…well, I’m out $120.
But if I am right and the Hungry Chicken Robot Club NFTs gain a free-food component at some point, then my $120 investment will likely pay off quite handsomely as demand for a free-food NFT drives the value of a Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFT sharply higher.
You can mint a Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFT here. All you need to do is connect your Phantom wallet and click “mint.”
There are about 456 NFTs left to mint. But don’t rush. This has been a very slow mint because, as I mentioned, it’s mainly being marketed in the restaurant to customers rather than to traditional NFT buyers.
If you don’t want to mint, you can actually find these NFTs cheaper—at least for the moment—on MagicEden.io, the largest Solana marketplace, where about 30 second-hand Hungry Robot Chicken Club NFTs are selling for between 0.55 SOL and 0.99 SOL. (You can find them here.)
Don’t be surprised when you see more of these types of NFT offerings emerge. A number of restaurants are now calling Visionary Studios to ask how they can launch a similar product.
Like I said: NFTs are going to become a much larger part of our daily lives, and very quickly.
