Max Pain and Frens: dark and popular NFT skulls by XCOPY artist

03.29.2023

Max Pain and Frens is one of the most famous NFT collections by the cult crypto artist XCOPY. Its triumph began with a drop launched by XCOPY on March 24, 2022 on the Nifty Gateway marketplace. The drop consisted of:

Open issue,
Two rating auctions,
A raffle,
The burning of existing NFTs to acquire new works.

The highlight of the program was the open issue of the “jewel” of the collection, that is, Max Pain. In 10 minutes provided by the artist, 7,394 NFTs were minted at a cost of 1 ETH ($3,108) per piece! The profit from the sales of Max Pain was approximately $23 million.

2 Frens were put up for rating auctions that lasted half an hour each:

Waster (6 copies) with bids ranging from $101,000 to $91,000.
Damager Luxe (12 copies), which reached a maximum bid of $79,999.

Serious Nifty Gateway collectors (who had up to five NFTs from the artist) were allowed to take part in a raffle for 24 “Gourmet Spicy” Frens (priced at $1).

Owners of previously issued NFT “Traitors” also had some pleasant surprises. They were offered to burn their tokens in exchange for other limited-edition NFT items from XCOPY.

As a result of this cascade of fantastic offerings, the Max Pain and Frens NFT collection has attracted more than $24.5 million. What is its captivating power? What is so appealing about these grumpy-looking skulls? Should investors pay attention to them? Let’s give the floor to our experts.

Max Pain and Frens Official Links

Official website https://xcopy.art
Twitter @XCOPYART – over 228k followers;
Discord @XCOPY – over 18k members.

What is Max Pain and Frens?

Max Pain and Frens is an art collection of 7,469 NFTs (ERC-721) generated from several series of works by XCOPY:

Max Pain (7394);
Waster (6);
Damager Luxe (12);
Gourmet Spicy (24);
Traitors (33).

Max Pain and Frens nft Series — *Series of NFTs in the collection*

All 7,469 art tokens were created using a unique image generation algorithm, released on Nifty Gateway and stored on the Ethereum blockchain.

The collection contains both static images and GIFs created in the “glitch art” style (with the effect of flickering neon lights). Each of the NFT skulls makes a lasting impression thanks to the contrast technique used by the artist: bright images with glowing eye sockets are created against a deep dark background.

Max Pain and Frens in numbers

Mint of the collection that consists of 7,469 tokens took place on March 24, 2022.
The price of a mint differed depending on the type of NFT. Max Pain (7,394 pieces) cost 1 ETH ($3,108), the bids for Waster (6 pieces) ranged from $101,000 to $91,000, the max bid of Damager Luxe (12 pieces) reached $79,999, and Gourmet Spicy (24 pieces) were purchased by collectors who own other NFTs of the artist at a price of $1.
Total revenue from primary sales exceeded $24.4 million.
The total volume of secondary sales exceeded 9k ETH (over $16 million at the current exchange rate).
The floor price for the Max Pain series (the cheapest NFT in the collection) is 0.73 ETH (about $1,300) on OpenSea and 0.77 ETH (about $1,400) on Nifty Gateway.
Average sales range from 0.6 ETH to 1 ETH.
The most expensive DAMAGER LUXE #2 was sold on March 13, 2023 for 30 ETH (about $50k at the time of sale).
A total of 4,396 unique holders (59%). This shows the low chances of whales interconnection within the project. Thus, the risk of artificial project management from the inside is minimal.
Only about 2% of the collection (120 pieces out of 7,496) are for sale, among them the offers range from 0.73 ETH to 66.66 ETH. This shows that almost all holders see the project as a great investment prospect and are not in a hurry to part with their assets at a lower price.

Data (including exchange rates) are given at the time of publication (March 29, 2023)

Max Pain and Frens types and attributes

Max Pain and Frens NFTs vary in rarity level from 1 to 27 and have the following attributes:

Bubbles (Clean / Smiley / Toxic);
Mood (Heat / Hypnotise);
Order (Recycle);
Product (Threat / Low Radiation);
Prophecy (Fill Line).

Who created Max Pain and Frens?

The author of the Max Pain and Frens collection is the legendary anonymous crypto artist XCOPY. He is one of the leaders in digital art who began minting NFTs back in 2018.

XCOPY does not disclose his real name, but some of the leaked information gives the following portrait of the artist:

Place of residence: England, London;
Age: approximately 40 years old (born presumably in the early 1980s);
Tumblr platform became a school of gamified art for the future NFT artist. Hence his predilection for animation, video files, and GIF images
He’s open for experiments (he is one of the pioneers of crypto art and one of the first to register on the SuperRare decentralized market);
He began to create public works of art since 2010;
He created about 150 unique 1:1 NFT series and 70 releases of identical digital items;
He explores the themes of “death, dystopia and apathy through distorted visual contours” in his creative work;
Some adherents of the artist associate his pseudonym XCOPY with the potential ability to copy and distribute art content using ERC-721 tokens on the ETH blockchain.

Why is Max Pain and Frens popular?

There are several reasons why NFT art fans consider XCOPY the holy grail and his Max Pain and Frens a blue-chip:

XCOPY is one of the most revered artists among wealthy NFT collectors who shell out millions of dollars in cryptocurrency for his unique 1:1 works.
A longtime fan of the artist is the legendary rapper Snoop Dogg (Cozomo de’ Medici). Previously, the rapper bought his work Some Asshole for almost $4 million.

Welcome "Some Asshole" to the Medici villa. Let's hope he's polite at Nonna's Sunday dinner 🙂

Honored to acquire @XCOPYART's 1st published character piece & #7 mint on @SuperRare.

Grazie to maestro @2Yeahyeah for a smooth transaction & @Anonymoux2311 for sage guidance🍷⚔️ ~CdM https://t.co/lDFgHLqVrk

— Cozomo de’ Medici (@CozomoMedici) September 27, 2021

Open editions of digital artworks practiced by the artist are a rare chance for many people, especially newcomers, to become the owners of XCOPY NFTs.
Rating auctions, raffles, and burnings, allowing to purchase valuable pieces of digital art or simply to update collection, attract true connoisseurs of NFTs.
The artist’s signature “glitch” style has inspired countless followers. In terms of influence on the art community he can be put on a par with such influencers as Beeple and FEWOCiOUS.
The social orientation of Max Pain and Frens, the dystopian nature of the NFT collection, make many people think about the meaning of life, help get rid of vanity, and acquire immunity to the obsession with IT technology.

Max Pain and Frens Idea

I like to keep the art open to interpretation. Leaving some space for imagination makes it more fun. The author of the project said evasively in an interview with rapper Snoop Dogg (known in the crypto world as Cozomo de’ Medici)

However, in an earlier interview, the artist was more specific:

I like contrasting everyday problems with death, it takes away their power for a moment. Dystopia creeps in further every day, it’s hard not to talk about it. XCOPY commented

These words could well be applied to the concept of Max Pain and Frens. By depicting skulls, symbols of death, the artist makes us think about the meaning of the life we live, our preoccupation with routine, our enslavement to the Internet, our susceptibility to emotional burnout.

Max Pain and Frens Roadmap

The author’s official website does not provide a roadmap for the project. We can only guess whether this is a conscious choice of the artist or whether he intends to continue to delight his admirers with surprises.

Max Pain and Frens Ecosystem

Since the project is still quite young, its ecosystem is not large, but it impresses with two noteworthy implementations:

Frens and Max Pain by not XCOPY NFT collection,
MAX PAIN AND FRENS BY XCOPY (MAXPAIN) cryptocurrency.

Frens and Max Pain by not XCOPY

Frens and Max Pain by not XCOPY is an NFT collection of robot skulls created in January 2023 that commemorates the iconic Max Pain and Frens series. In it, the anonymous author introduced three of the most famous Frens from the original collection, but did it in his own way:

WASTER is the embodiment of the dashed hopes of those who spent all their crypto assets at the time of the hype and have not shown any signs of activity since then;
DAMAGER LUXE is the embodiment of those who released creative digital items for which there is no demand;
GOURMET SPICY is the symbol of those whose names have been forgotten in the crypto market.

Frens and Max Pain by not XCOPY nfts — *Frens and Max Pain by not XCOPY*

Each of the three Frens is a vivid illustration of the expression “bag holding to zero”.

MAX PAIN AND FRENS BY XCOPY (MAXPAIN) cryptocurrency

MAX PAIN AND FRENS BY XCOPY (MAXPAIN) cryptocurrency was launched on the ETH blockchain (ERC-20) on March 26, 2022. The coin was listed on 5 crypto exchanges:

ParaSwap Ethereum,
Uniswap (V2),
Uniswap (V3),
Saddle,
Pionex.

A few more words about this cryptocurrency:

Capitalization of the asset amounts to $20,863.537;
The price of MAXPAIN is $907.110308115525.
MAXPAIN has $1,913,683 in liquidity pools.
The 22 MAXPAIN holders include two 2 large crypto investors (with more than 12M MAXPAIN in their wallet).

All data is given at the time of writing (March 29, 2023).

How much do Max Pain and Frens NFTs cost?

The NFT collection was issued on March 24, 2022. At that time the following tokens were minted:

Max Pain: 7,394 copies at a minting price of 1 ETH ($3,108) apiece. Max Pain earned approximately $23 million from sales.
Waster (6 copies) with bids ranging from $101,000 to $91,000.
Damager Luxe (12 copies), with a max bid of $79,999.

In total, the initial sales brought over $24.4 million to XCOPY. That same month, the collection began trading on secondary markets, where there was great demand for it.

At the moment, on March 29, 2023, the floor price for the Max Pain series (the cheapest token in the collection) is 0.73 ETH on OpenSea and 0.77 ETH on Nifty Gateway. On average, the latest sales range from 0.6 to 1 ETH. And the total volume of secondary sales amounted to more than 9k ETH (more than $16 million). Taking into account the initial sales, the total profit from the project today is more than $40 million.

The Most Expensive Sales of Max Pain and Frens

The most expensive sales are led by the following NFTs from the Max Pain and Frens NFT collection:

DAMAGER LUXE #2 was sold on March 13, 2023 for 30 ETH (about $50k at the time of sale);
WASTER #4 was sold on May 6, 2022 for 25 ETH (about $69k at the time of sale);
DAMAGER LUXE #11 was sold on April 18, 2022 for 23.25 ETH (about $69k at the time of sale);
GOURMET SPICY #11/24 was sold on May 26, 2022 for 22 ETH (about $69k at the time of sale).

Most Expensive Sales NFT Max Pain and Frens — *The Most Expensive Sales of Max Pain and Frens*

Where to buy Max Pain and Frens?

Currently, Max Pain and Frens can only be purchased on the secondary market, on NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea, Nifty Gateway, X2Y2 and LooksRare.

How to buy Max Pain and Frens?

Remember that initially you need to connect your crypto wallet with self-storage to the marketplace of your choice.
Next, find the official collection using the search bar on the marketplace.
Analyze and choose the NFT you want to buy; click on it and then on the “Buy” button.
Or you can bet on the token you like. Make sure you leave enough ETH for gas or transaction fees. If the seller approves your bid, the deal goes through.

Should you invest in Max Pain and Frens?

Before investing in an NFT project, it is important to conduct a thorough research and listen to the opinions of experts. As for the Max Pain and Frens NFT project, we recommend paying attention to the following points:

Decentralization of the project. NFTs are spread over the wallets of more than 4,300 NFT collectors (more than 60% of unique owners).
Practice shows that XCOPY open edition digital assets (OE NFTs) become more valuable over time.
According to SuperRare, the starting price of XCOPY NFT “Some Asshole”, which was purchased in September 2021 by rapper Snoop Dogg for 1,300 ETH ($3.9 million), was 0.25 ETH (about $8,200) in September 2020.
According to DappRadar, XCOPY’s “All Time High in the City,” which sold in September 2021 for 1,000 ETH ($2.92 million), had been bought two years earlier for 10 ETH, and even earlier, three years ago, for 0.5 ETH.
The most astute owners of Max Pain and Frens by XCOPY NFT are already seeing a return on their investment. The minimum price of the collection on OpenSea is currently 0.76 ETH ($1,332), and the total trading volume is 7,424 ETH ($13,014,940).

But remember: when investing in an artist’s name, it is important to rationally and analytically select NFTs in the collection so that your investment yields more X`s.

Opinion of NFTmetria

XCOPY undoubtedly belongs to the galaxy of NFT superstars. His signature art style of “glitch” and profound prophetic messages conveyed through the creepy Max Pain and Frens characters force us to think about social norms and attitudes in life.

The talented artist’s anonymity only increases the public visibility of his multi-million dollar projects, including Max Pain and Frens. By reaching the pinnacles of success without revealing his identity, the author seems to be paying tribute to the very nature of privacy-oriented cryptocurrency.

It is worth noting that with the open edition of Max Pain and Frens, XCOPY has made quite a few detractors who believe that the NFT ecosystem should thrive on rare copies and limited circulations. But XCOPY seems to have succeeded in changing the rules of the game, as evidenced by the many tweets from its supporters who have advocated NFT art minting simply for the sake of art.

.@XCOPYART just sold 7400 of the same jpeg for $3100 each. maybe art isn't dead?

also allow me to proclaim: LET THE UNDERCUTTING BEGIN pic.twitter.com/hxSpkO2T9w

— tropoFarmer 🐧 (@tropoFarmer) March 24, 2022