Its been a busy week in NFT-land, including lots of chatter around 0% royalties for NFT collections. However, this newsletter is not dedicated to hype. We remain steadily focused on projects that have proven that they are committed to building and are focused on delivering for their holder base. So without further ado, we give you Issue 2 - Alien Frens.
Why We Chose Alien Frens
Alien Frens has been around for some time and was one of the original projects that Gary Vee called out as notable - and this was when everyone in NFTs hung on Gary’s every word. They have had massive all time volume and significant hype with plenty of celebrities joining their ranks over the past year and half. (If you care, Justin Bieber owns an Alien Fren.)
It is a very robust project with a lot going on, so we will try to give you a general idea of its scope. We won’t be able to cover every corner of the project here, but if you want to get fully in the weeds, check out their Gitbook which is fully comprehensive and aptly named “the Mothership.”
Basic Numbers
Floor Price by collection:
OG: ~$550 USD
Alien Fren Evolution: ~$125 USD
UFO: ~$60 USD
Incubator: ~$200 USD
Twitter followers: 137,000
Discord members: 39,000
Unique Holders: ~7,000
Website: https://www.alienfrens.io/
An Intro To Alien Frens
Alien Frens is a project that has followed the traditional industry format of having a 10,000 piece collection in the profile picture style (often referred to as “pfp”). Launched in December 2021 and with with art by @masoncrowe, the core mission is to build “the largest group of frens in the metaverse.” Since inception, there has been the release of concurrent items and collections (Incubators, Alien Frens Evolution, UFOs) which we will dive into in this issue.
The community is known for being extremely kind and supportive, which is something that made the project stand apart from the rest when it was first launched (and also something that many projects have attempted to mimic since).
The project has tons of plans in the pipeline that are no longer organized in quarterly “roadmaps” but in missions that are expressed by a percentage that they are complete.
What Does Day 1 Look Like?
From the first day you purchase an Alien Fren or any of the child collections, you get access to 4 main perks:
Access to gated Discord channels including NFT alpha channels
You can leverage the #frenfollowfren hashtag to gain several more Twitter followers
You start accumulating Fren Coin which can be used to make purchases in the Alien Frens Marketplace (more on this later)
You gain access to the “holders only” merch store
Alien Frens has been the prime example of community building with the #frenfollowfren hashtag on Twitter, where owners will follow each other quickly and with numbers. This is a great example of how owning a specific NFT can get you certain internet “street cred” or status. If you are interested in boosting your Twitter following, this is something you can take advantage of immediately.
The Art
Mason has a quite prolific body of work with three different full collections. Let’s quickly go over the different collections to get a high level view.
Alien Frens OG
Current Floor: 0.42 ETH
This is the genesis collection of NFTs. There are 10,000 frens that are broken up into 4 different factions.
Holding an OG is your key to earning $FREN, the native token for the Alien Frens ecosystem. Holding different factions gets you different amounts of $FREN as well as allows for more entries into the Invasion raffles - both of these are discussed below.
Alien Frens Evolution (AFE) + Incubators
AFE Current Floor: 0.10 ETH
Incubator Current Floor: 0.145 ETH
AFEs are the secondary collection that introduced a ton of new traits. Incubators were airdropped to holders of the OG collection and could be burned to create AFEs. AFEs were also available for purchase without the use of an incubator, which is why you see a collection size today of 11,887 instead of 10,000.
Also, unburned incubators remain for sale on the secondary market. The floor price for those are higher because there is still possibility that burning will produce a rare or a 1/1 (a 1/1 means it is an NFT with entirely unique traits and is very desirable).
Alien Frens UFOs
Current Floor: 0.053 ETH
The UFO collection was a free mint to all OG holders. Mason created a landing page where you could choose the traits you wanted or click a randomization button. Then once you found the combination you liked, you could mint it for free. Holding a UFO does not grant you access to the alpha channels in the Discord, but they do provide a multiplier for earning $FREN.
Team
https://twitter.com/_masoncrowe
https://twitter.com/PapetheGreat
https://twitter.com/NotAnImpulseBuy
https://twitter.com/just_lobobeast
https://twitter.com/likecookies42
https://twitter.com/Lostsoldier23
The Alien Fren team is active enough. Mason pops into the Discord once in awhile, but stays generally active on Twitter and always shows up for big events in the Discord server as well as Twitter Spaces. Also, the team hosts the Weekly Beam Twitter Spaces where the team offers announcements and has general and chill conversation. Last week there were 1.9k listeners, which is quite impressive.
Fun fact about Mason, he is also a accomplished cinematographer and film editor with an impressive resume of work. Check out his personal website to see more.
High Level Community Features
There are so many initiatives and “missions” that it would be exhausting for you to read through all of them. We will touch on the major ones that we think are most important, so feel free to dive deeper through the website if you are interested in further exploration.
Invasions
One of the initial initiatives from the project that has stuck around is called “Invasions.” These are raffles where your entry ticket is dependent on which of the collections you own. There will be a certain number of prizes allocated to each faction of OGs as well as AFEs and UFOs. The more diverse your collection, the more chances you have to win. They have given away hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of prizes to date.
Fren Coin + Marketplace
One of the largest initiatives of Alien Frens comes in the form of Fren Coin ($FREN) which can be used in the custom marketplace. The gist is that you must own at least 1 OG to earn $FREN. Depending on how many AFEs, OGs, and UFOs you own plus the faction of OGs that you have, the daily output of $FREN multiplies at different rates. If that confuses you, you’re not alone. The formula for accumulating can seem a bit complicated and you often see questions pop up in the server. The breakdown of the formula can be found in the Gitbook and there is a link to a Google Sheet with a $FREN calculator to see how much you would earn depending what you are holding.
The marketplace is chock full of merch, whitelist spots, NFTs, and IRL experiences, as well as raffles for each of those categories. Many of the higher ticket items are out of reach for the average collector, but the raffles are very affordable for anyone. The marketplace is regularly restocked.
IRL Events
Alien Frens have hosted several IRL (in real life) events since the inception of the project. There have been official meetups at NFT.NYC, an LA Meetup, Alien Frens Games in Las Vegas and there has been more talk about prioritizing “micro meetups” for smaller communities around the world.
We quickly want to highlight the Alien Frens Games in Las Vegas because it was quite unique. This event was the result of a raffle where 20 winners were flown to Las Vegas at the expense of the project. The participants played fun games through the day and the last person standing at the end of the day won a Tesla Model 3. Yes - an actual car. Check this video for an idea of what it was like.
$200k Investment Fund
As one of the “Missions,” the project will be investing $200,000 into companies that use Alien Frens IP to promote their brands. By owning an Alien Fren, you are granted IP rights for the image you own, meaning you are allowed to use it for commercial purposes. This could look like putting your favorite fren on a beer can or sneaker or any kind of product you want. For entrepreneurs, this could be an exciting initiative. Applications are now open.
Free Drops
There have been multiple free airdrops or claims that have gone to holders.
Incubators: airdropped to holders for free and when burned turn into an AFE
UFOs: free claim where you can customize the the traits before minting.
$FREN: an off-chain eco-system token that accumulates for free without staking
Photography
There is a relatively new initiative called Alien Frens Photo. Every month photographers submit their work to be chosen for commission. Whichever photographer is chosen is given a $1,000 USD commission fee and their photography NFTs are sold in the Fren Marketplace where holders can buy them using $FREN. The purchasers will get a physical print of that photo which will be shipped to them no matter where they are in the world. You can follow the progress and announcements on the photo specific Twitter account.
Discord/Twitter - Community Creations
The AF community is extremely active and the Discord is almost always buzzing. Here is a list of some of the community activities:
Alpha chat channel for investment alpha is pretty active and there is one for AFE, making certain alpha very accessible given the lower entry price for the AFE collection.
Weekly community run spaces called Frens Radio. This is hosted by a community member King Combat who also coincidentally got an Alien Fren tattoo on his wrist (see Tweet below). Pure dedication.
Recently started the Fren Slam group for members that hold all 4 factions of OGs
Comic book project initiated by community members
Crazy amounts of fan art and community building (see Tweets below)
Why One Might Buy
Getting into Alien Frens won’t break the bank. It is currently a tried and true project that has affordable entry points, especially with AFEs and UFOs. At just over $500 for an OG, it can still be a solid entry point for a new or seasoned NFT investor. You might consider buying in for any of the following reasons:
You like communities that put an emphasis on being nice to each other and helping (not everyone is into this).
You want your NFT purchase to give you some quick returns. The combo of “invasions,” the marketplace and the instant social media boosts are ways that the holders can get pretty quick value.
You like the idea of entering a community at a lower price point to test it out (with an AFE). Once you get a feel for what the community is like, then you can decide if you want to commit more funds to buying an OG.
You are interested in using the IP and investment program to build a company of your own
They are cute.
Unrefined Opinions from the Authors
Bry:
Alien Frens as a project is many things. As a prospective collector the brand development has been impressive and what they’ve been able to do over the past 10 months is no small feat.
The project as a whole is pretty complex and part of the onboarding experience is going through their docs which would be an exciting experience for someone who really wants to get into a project and be active. However, this can also be seen as friction for others as one would need to understand different pieces of the ecosystem to fully take advantage of the offerings of the project.
The team is good and has shown to give back to the community quite often, they have a system that incentivizes and rewards long term commitment to the project and are going to help fund businesses that leverage their brand.
It is also the perfect project for fans of the cartoon style space theme with a very friendly community. What you get from making an OG purchase is pretty good at a $500 entry point for a solid online community, in person meetups for Americans, and a way to claim future merch for free.
n00ble:
If you look at my Twitter pfp, you will know that my opinion is biased. And you are right. I love Alien Frens and own an OG, 2 AFEs and of course a UFO. I think the art is cute as hell, the community is solid and consistent, and the team continues to deliver with tons of amazing utility. I have personally won a couple whitelist spots and got $50 in merch from cashing in my Fren Coin on the marketplace. Although it takes some time and monetary investment to get to this point, there are tangible benefits that I am receiving. With that said, I have a couple thoughts:
In my opinion, the IRL events sound really great, but feel out of reach for the average holder.
If you are in this for the art, I think that the art in the AFE collection is noticeably better than the OGs.
Not everything associated with the project is up my alley (cough the original music cough)
But what makes me excited is that Mason is extremely active in the NFT and art world, the team continues to deliver results, and the community is seemingly relentlessly inspired. This trifecta is not seen many places within NFTs and deserves a decent look.
Like I said, I’m biased - but I think Alien Frens is one of the most solid projects out there.
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