Pepsi shall be dropping its first-ever NFT collection to celebrate 1893 years since the original Pepsi drink was invented, becoming the largest beverage company globally to join the NFT ecosystem.
The drop which is expected to go live next week will contain a generative-style collection of Unique NFTs and shall be exhibited using nearly 50 unique art pieces distributed across six categories including accessories, stages, microphones among others.
According to the notice, 1893 genesis tokens shall be put up for minting on Tuesday to individuals who make it to the watchlist this Friday.
Successful applicants will have 48 hours to mint their NFTs starting on Tuesday. Minted NFTs will be viewable on Opensea or other Ethereum based NFT market places with their new owners at liberty to sell them.
Pepsi further noted that apart from celebrating the drink’s 108 years of existence, the drop would also mark a celebration for the firms’ deep connection to music.
Pepsi and music have been intertwined for decades,” the announcement further reads, “ and our genesis NFT collection pays homage to our love of pop stars and music legends while setting the stage for what’s to come in the world of Pepsi NFTs”.
Although the Mic drop is expected to be a moment of epic proportions to the Pepsi community, the announcement did not appeal to some netizens due to the choice of network on which the NFTs would be transacted.
According to the announcement, while the Pepsi Mic Drop will be free, collectors will have to pay gas fees to the Ethereum network to mint their selected NFTs. In essence, they will be required to either deposit their transaction fees to a meta mask wallet or acquire the required Ethereum fees by purchasing ETH from centralized exchanges such as Binance, Coinbase, or services such as moon pay.
“Typically 0.1 ETH will be more than sufficient for gas, but gas can vary depending on how busy the network is,” Pepsi said.
With current market prices, 0.1 ETH would typically mean parting with around 409 USDT gas fees for an NFT which is quite high considering Pepsi says that the NFTs are free.
“No .eth, NGMI ( Not Gonna Make It)”, replied Evan Van Ness, founder of WeekinEthnews, citing the insanely high gas fees
Another tweep decried, “kinda disgusting, right? hey, gotta get the homies paid! eth. gas fees are a joke!”
With NFT minting fees going over the roof on the Ethereum network, most creators are opting to mint and transact on cheaper L2 protocols which would have been a great choice for Pepsi.