From Free NFT Mint to Drinks at 7-Eleven: Rekt Is Reaching the Masses

Rektguy didn’t mint out its free NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain in 2022—however three years later, the model has change into extremely conversant in the phrase “offered out,” with the Rekt Drinks model clearing out successive drops and reaching increasingly customers alongside the best way.

The model, which weathered a brutal crypto bear market thanks partially to the power of its fervent neighborhood, has now offered greater than 600,000 cans of Rekt Drinks, a non-alcoholic, flavored glowing water that is available in a wide range of completely different flavors. And this week, the model earned placement at 7-Eleven, beginning with a trio of shops in Southern California. 

Rekt Manufacturers co-founder Ovie Faruq (aka OSF) instructed Decrypt that it’s “sort of humorous” that the unique Rektguy NFT providing didn’t mint out. The mission, which began as an artwork assortment and a “facet quest” for Faruq, has since morphed its method into a number one Web3 model, with drinks serving to it increase past the blockchain.

(Disclosure: Ovie Faruq’s Canary Labs is an investor in DASTAN, the dad or mum firm of Rug Radio and Decrypt.)

“We kind of had a choice to make. We did not actually promise something, there was no roadmap, no guarantees made—it was actually simply meant to be an artwork assortment,” he mentioned of Rektguy. “However over the subsequent two years, we appeared to only have this actually tremendous sticky, tight-knit neighborhood that caught round.” 

It was in the course of the summer time of 2023 when concepts began to blossom about potential expansions.

“We spoke some time about Rektguy versus Rekt as an idea. We had put the brand on a couple of issues, and it kind of felt like this Rekt factor could possibly be a model,” Faruq mentioned, including that the aim grew to become getting the brand in as many locations as potential. 

Drinks felt like a pure connection, in keeping with Faruq, thanks partially to the flexibility to fabricate them cheaply—plus the connection to Rektguy’s imagery, which includes a hooded skeleton holding a consuming bottle.

With no expertise in drinks, the staff introduced on an advisor who had began a drinks firm within the UK. Via trial and error, they acquired cans of Rekt into the palms of attendees at NFT Paris in 2024—they usually favored it. 

“The suggestions was actually good. It was surprisingly good,” mentioned Faruq. “Contemplating we had no expertise in drinks, we simply sort of like made up this drink to fuck round and discover out, so to talk. It was actually, actually good suggestions.” 

From there, the staff determined to attempt to manufacture a much bigger batch and promote them, resulting in its first main sale of Liquidated Lime drinks final October—a group of 222,000 drinks that it offered out in 48 hours.

Previous to the sale, Rekt constructed out a rewards program to incentivize customers to interact with the model, rewarding Drank Factors to those that participated in social quests and drink purchasers as properly. By incomes factors, customers had been later eligible to say Rekt Coin (REKT), an Ethereum-based token tied to the model. 

“I used to be actually impressed by the Solana cellphone,” mentioned Faruq in regards to the Solana Saga, an Android smartphone that originally confronted weak demand, however then offered out as soon as the Bonk meme coin provided to patrons surged in worth. “Nobody touched it, tons of provide left—however as quickly as individuals might declare a $500 BONK airdrop, the cellphone offered out in like 24 hours.” 

After its preliminary success, the model teamed up with Ethereum layer-2 community Summary for a drop of Summary Apple, a brand new taste of its glowing water, promoting out even sooner than earlier than.



“After that, we simply had tons of individuals reaching out to us for collaborations,” mentioned Faruq, whose model additionally dropped drinks by way of collabs with NFT market OpenSea and Solana decentralized trade aggregator, Jupiter. 

However past the crypto partitions, the connections didn’t all the time come simply.

“Nobody’s actually heard of us exterior of crypto. We did the primary sale, and individuals are kind of questioning if this can be a one-hit surprise kind of factor,” he mentioned, including that the model’s crypto origins initially led to some skepticism, as properly. “You inform individuals the story, they expressed some curiosity, however there wasn’t actually a ton of motion,” he added.

However after the Summary and OpenSea drops, the model began to select up some momentum that has carried into its placements in 7-Eleven shops, putting Rekt alongside giants of the beverage business.

“With 7-Eleven, I simply suppose we had a really robust pitch to them,” mentioned Faruq. “That is the proper product for a 7-Eleven retailer, and we will get a ton of individuals out to the shops after we launch it and make it some actually large factor and a extremely good launch. They had been onboard.” 

The model carried out its first 7-Eleven activation on Thursday, overselling its preliminary deliberate provide of 600 cans within the course of. The cans had been priced at $2.80 a pop, or $10 for a 4-pack. One other occasion occurred Friday, with the final set for Saturday. And early 4-pack patrons every day will earn an allotment of REKT tokens, as properly.

“​​[You] by no means actually know if individuals will flip as much as stuff when it’s not a crypto occasion,” Faruq instructed Decrypt of the preliminary Thursday occasion. “However we had a great turnout, and all of the drinks promoting out was clearly good.”

Edited by Andrew Hayward