McDonald’s Offers Exclusive Grimace NFTs: Collectible, But No Trading Option

McDonald’s Singapore has teamed up with crypto infrastructure startup Bandwagon Labs and local non-fungible token (NFT) artist ‘The Hidden Walls’ to launch Grimace digital collectibles – soulbound tokens and keepsakes that can be minted for free, but not traded or transferred. 

“Introducing the Grimace Digital Collectible – a collection of 2,000 unique Grimaces minted via the McDonald’s app! He’s cool, cute and totally purple,” McDonald’s Singapore said in their Instagram and Facebook posts, announcing the end of an early access minting spots giveaway.

The collection will be free and available from August 31 via the McDonald’s Singapore app only, according to Bandwagon.

To mint the NFTs, users need to connect their Digital Collectibles wallet via crypto wallet MetaMask or web3auth, and click ‘mint now’.

According to Decrypt, citing a McDonald’s representative, the NFTs will be minted on Polygon. 

NFTevening reported that this collection of NFT profile pictures (PFPs) are soulbound tokens. 

While they are free for all, these NFTs can’t be transferred or traded on the secondary markets. They are also limited to one redemption per account. 

Drina Chee, McDonald’s Singapore’s senior director of Marketing & Digital Customer Experience, was quoted as saying that the chain is “excited to bring Grimace closer to our fans through these unique digital collectibles,” evolving the popular character “from nostalgic memories to love for all generations.”

Grimace TikTok 

Grimace is a well-known character in the McDonald’s universe – it’s a cuddly, muppet-like mascot revealed in 1972. 

Recently, the Grimace Shake has gone viral on TikTok: people pretended to suffer horrific endings to their lives after drinking the berry-flavored milkshake, often involving the supernatural and/or demonic. Imagine ‘The Conjuring’ meats ‘The Blair Witch Project’ meats ‘Bird Box’ – though some also go into the crime genre. 

It is safe to say that this meme served as free marketing for the birthday-celebrating mascot, albeit portraying the character in an unforeseen way. 

Per Marketing-Interactive, citing McDonald’s, the fast food’s NFT initiative “aims to serve as a testament to McDonald’s Singapore’s dedication to staying at the forefront of innovation.”

Meanwhile, in July, McDonald’s Hong Kong collaborated with the Ethereum metaverse game The Sandbox to create McNuggets Land and commemorate the 40th anniversary of Chicken McNuggets. 

In 2021, McDonald’s France launched digital art pieces showcasing some of their most popular menu items, with the hashtag ‘McDoNFT’.

Several months later, the chain released an NFT collection for its 31st anniversary in the Chinese market, while McDonald’s US created NFTs to celebrate the McRib’s 40th anniversary. 

____

Learn more:

– McDonald’s Happily Trolls Crypto Twitter – and the Responses Are (Darkly) Hilarious
– McDonald’s Metaverse Moves: 11 Trademark Applications for ‘Virtual Restaurant’ & Virtual Goods

– McDonald’s Starts Accepting Bitcoin and Tether in Lugano, Switzerland
– A Beginner’s Guide to NFTs: What You Should Know