VeeFriends is an NFT collection launched by entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk in 2021, based off his drawings of cartoon animals which embody traits that he values. Since its launch in May 2021, VeeFriends has expanded into other series, and grown a massive web3 community.
The core utility of holding a VeeFriends Series 1 NFT is to get access to VeeCon, a multi-day web3 conference held once a year. Some of the NFTs offer other creative and exclusive utilities, such as 1-on-1 meetings with Gary himself. Five hand-drawn VeeFriend NFTs were even auctioned at Christie’s for $1.2 million.
In 2023, Gary announced Burn Island, a deflationary mechanism to control the growing supply of VeeFriends-associated NFTs, while rewarding burners with valuable prizes.
Learn more about the VeeFriends ecosystem in our guide below.
VeeFriends Founder: Gary Vaynerchuk
Gary Vaynerchuk (“Gary Vee”) is an incredibly popular and engaged entrepreneur, speaker, and author. He is from Belarus and emigrated to the United States in the 1970s. He worked for his family’s liquor store, growing it into a massive multi-million dollar business, from $3 million to $60 million.
Around the year 2000, Gary started getting into digital marketing and social media. Eventually, he started VaynerMedia, a marketing agency, and has worked with some of the world’s biggest brands. VaynerX is the holding company that houses Gary’s companies across a variety of industries. This includes Vayner3, which is his web3 company.
Gary’s following on Twitter is in the millions, and his audience listens very closely to him. He has introduced NFTs to many people in mainstream culture through his NFT collection VeeFriends.
VeeFriends Series 1
VeeFriends launched in May 2021, but it was teased many months earlier by Gary on Twitter. It’s a collection of 10,255 cartoon animal character drawings, with 268 distinct characters. Gary drew these himself, and he has said that VeeFriends will be his life’s work.
The goal of VeeFriends is “to bring like-minded NFT collectors together and celebrate each of the uniquely human traits embodied in the collection.” Some of these traits include patience, ambition, loyalty, and many more.
VeeFriends Launch
The VeeFriends drop was in a Dutch auction format. The auctions began from 2.5 to 7 ETH, and ended from 0.5 to 3 ETH. About 3,000 tokens were sold in the first 24 hours, but it took 20 days for the project to sell out (on June 1, 2021).
This collection was highly anticipated as it was one of the first promises of “in-real-life” utility for an NFT. Some of these NFTs allow for calls or meetups with Gary Vee himself. All VeeFriends Series 1 holders are airdropped tickets to VeeCon, an annual web3 conference, for three years (starting in 2021). These NFT tickets are the only way to get into VeeCon.
VeeFriends Series 1 have 3 different levels: Admission (9,400), Gift (555), and Access (300). These buckets of NFTs each have their own rarity levels within them. There are also 1,242 Gary Original Owned (G.O.O.) tokens, which are valued highly by the VeeFriends community. The Series 1 NFTs are named after animals and values that matter to Gary Vee; for example: Just Jackal, Energetic Eel, Secure Sparrow, Peaceful Pelican.
The highest sale of a VeeFriend Series 1 is $503K (130 ETH) in January 2022 for a gold Admission G.O.O. 1/1 Empathy Elephant. The current floor price for Series 1 is 4.4 ETH.
VeeFriends Plush Toys
In October 2022, Gary announced that plush toys of 6 VeeFriends characters would be sold in Macy’s and Toys ‘R Us. These characters were: Be The Bigger Person, Common Sense Cow, Genuine Giraffe, Gratitude Gorilla, Practical Peacock, and Willful Wizard.
By scanning the QR code on the toy, you can learn their story and see across VeeFriends content channels through their respective animated short film or song. These toys are one example of how Gary Vee is strengthening the VeeFriends brand through IP licensing deals.
VeeCon
The first VeeCon was a two-day event in 2022 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It brought together web3 enthusiasts, collectors, and entrepreneurs. The speakers discussed web3 marketing, branding, business building, and more. VeeCon 2022 also featured musicians, comedians, and other interactive experiences for its attendees.
In 2023, the conference takes place over three days in May in Indianapolis, Indiana. It will have a similar vibe as 2022, but with a bigger speaker lineup (over 140). Some of the speakers who are confirmed include Pop Wonder, Betty from Deadfellaz, Andy8052, Deeze, Jennifer Sutto, Gfunk, j1mmy, Snowfro, Carly Reilly, Deepak Chopra, and many more.
Tickets are only available as airdropped NFTs for VeeFriends Series 1 holders, or can be purchased on a secondary market like OpenSea.
Book Games
In August 2021, Gary announced that preordering at least 12 copies of his book “Twelve and a Half” would make that person eligible to claim one NFT a couple of months later. There wasn’t a limit; every 12 copies ordered would mean one NFT claim. In 24 hours, Gary presold 1 million copies of his book.
The books finally arrived during the holidays in 2021. It became a meme. Dozens and often hundreds of books would show up at people’s doorsteps.
There are 125,000 Book Games NFTs, which can be burned for other NFTs, prizes, and assets. They also were a chance to get on the allowlist for VeeFriends Series 2, once that came out. Book Games is on Immutable X’s platform.
VeeFriends Series 2
In Mar. 2022, VeeFriends Series 2 was announced. The 55,555 NFTs are cartoon personifications of Gary’s original doodles in VeeFriends Series 1. There are 251 characters all in all; 236 are from Series 1 and 15 are new to the VeeFriends universe.
A physical card game was also created for Series 2, called VeeFriends “Compete & Collect” Trading Cards. These were free to claim when minting a Series 2 NFT.
The top sale for a VeeFriends Series 2 was for the No. 1 rarest NFT, Adaptable Alien. It was sold in Apr. 2022 immediately after reveal for 40 ETH, or $121K at the time.
VeeFriends Mini Drops
Mini Drops are surprise drops for the VeeFriends ecosystem. The purpose of these is to surprise and delight the community on an ongoing basis. The first one of these was Spooky Vees, a limited collection that launched in October 2021. There were 31 NFTs that embodied 10 different VeeFriends characters coming to life during Halloween.
Anwar’s Self-Aware Hare was another mini drop. 50 holders of the Self-Aware Hare tokens got airdropped these 3D versions of the hares. This was to commemorate the Winter 2021 collaboration between VeeFriends and Anwar Carrots, the founder of an emerging streetwear brand.
Wolf Pack is a group of 2,552 NFTs featuring bespoke artwork from TerminatusX. They commemorate the journey of Gary’s two wolf packs in Wolf Game's Alpha Game. These Wolf Pack NFTs were mini drops to wallets that were staked in Gary’s wolf packs, and also to those who owned a sheep or wolf VeeFriend Series 1 or 2 NFT.
Burn Island and Eruptions
In February 2023, Burn Island was announced, which essentially helps control the large supply of the VeeFriends ecosystem. In the announcement, it says: “Burn Island lets VeeFriends NFT holders turn their NFTs into possible physical or virtual prizes through deflationary technology. Access to the island is granted through sequential ‘Eruptions,’ with unique rewards and NFT burn requirements.”
The first “Eruption” includes burning Book Games NFTs to have a chance at winning a Gary Originally Owned Series 1 Dynamic Dinosaur Spectacular Lava. This may be worth around 10 ETH or more at current valuations, so it’s definitely a valuable prize for the winner.
There will be additional “Eruption” events in the future with other NFTs from the VeeFriends collections.
Summary
In an interview with Hypemoon, Gary Vaynerchuk said that prior to VeeFriends, he gave a lot of thought to building a “very big universe” that he could play with as his canvas forever.
Throughout the past two years, he has created a massive brand around his homemade drawings. VeeFriends has brought together the community both virtually and physically, and the project has added a number of adjacent collections since Series 1 was created.
By utilizing VeeFriends IP on toys, games, and merchandise, Gary is aiming to make VeeFriends a worldwide brand, all started by the Series 1 NFTs. In the coming years, he wants the cute, aspirational VeeFriends characters to take on lives of their own, rather than have him be the focal point of the collection.
For more information about VeeFriends, check out the official links.
