Everyone knows Franalations. Even if you don’t know you do, you do.

Fran has been the world’s number one collector of everything for basically two decades. From streetwear brands like BAPE and Supreme and The Hundreds to all the most legendary sneakers–which he WEARS, for the record. Fran has collected it all. Pokemon and sports cards, watches, toys, collectibles, and everything else under the sun.

It all started with his self-titled Youtube channel, where he began his viral internet journey by doing extremely in-depth sneaker reviews, which caught the culture by storm and put Fran on the map. He also garnered a lot of attention for his insane collection, from Kobe Koston 1s to College Droput Bape Stas and Air Mags, people were living vicariously through Fran’s closet.

But it didn’t stop with sneakers. Fran was ahead of the curve on vinyl toys, sports cards, the resurgence of Pokemon, everything you can think of. Hell, he even had all the PS5s you were hunting down, and he was running raffles on IG Live that became appointment viewing just for the thrill of it all. One night I watched Young Corey from Circulate win one and I’ve never had such second-hand excitement.

Some people know Fran from memes, others from customizing sneakers, and others from watching his pack ripping streams. He’s Triple Eye status, an Iconic Internet Individual. Just made that up, Fran is the first one in the group. Congrats.

But in 2021, Franalations has become most known for something non-material, way outside his normal wheelhouse of physical collectibles. He’s become one of the most well-known figures in the NFT space, where his keen sense of what’s going to blow next has positioned him at the forefront of discussions around what’s got real value in the metaverse and which projects have staying power.

He only started collecting NFTs earlier this year, but he went all in. He was early on Punks, early on Apes. He minted a shit load of every project you kick yourself for being late on and he’s holding. Well, sometimes. We caught up with the legendary Franalations to discuss his love of JPEGs and why 42069 is the magic number. Oh, and his The Hundreds neck tattoo.

DUKE LONDON: Appreciate you taking the time, Fran, I know you have a lot going on. It’s great to talk with you, how have you been?
FRANALATIONS: Chilling man, just spending every day in NFT land, whether it’s trading, collecting, informing someone how it works, what they should be doing, and whatnot. So, yeah, it’s been a fun eight months or so in the space. But I’m just digging in.

Does it feel like it’s been eight years?
Yeah, it definitely feels like a longer time, that’s for sure. A lot of time spent with eyes glued to screens. I literally just woke up from a little bit of nap and the first thing I hear is this sound effect telling me I was next in line to get The Matrix NFT. So, I’m just always doing something NFT-related.

Before we dive in, you mentioned something just now about taking a nap. And with you looking at screens all day, I have to ask, how do you take a break? How do you make sure you don’t go blind? Like what do you do during the day to disconnect a little bit?
If anything, not much. I step outside for a little bit and just kind of reflect on the day, what’s been going on, stuff like this interview. But I do spend the majority of my time on the screen. I usually wake up around 6 AM and at that time, I’m checking crypto charts and stuff. I find that’s usually the best time to get in on dips, whether it’s NFTs or in crypto. So that’s usually the first thing I’m doing is picking up something in the morning. And soon after that, most of these Twitter spaces start around 7 AM. So I’m in there listening and learning. And after that, I’ll probably end up going back to sleep for a little bit. And then I’m back at it. I usually stay up to like 2 AM in Spaces talking with people, sharing links, seeing what’s minting. I’m really all in.

I’m guessing that you spend the vast majority of your time onboarding people, whether you’re explaining a certain project or even just the concept of NFTs. Is that slowing down at all as more and more people become conscious of it, or is it picking up?
It’s picking up more and more. Like today alone, besides this call, I had like three or four different calls, Twitter Spaces, or in-person meetings. So it’s just happening more and more, explaining it to brand owners or rappers or whoever it may be, especially recently. With people like Snoop Dogg being vocal about me providing my time or Future reposting me, a lot of brand owners and hip-hop people have been reaching out and just kind of trying to see what’s going on in the space.

Why do you think you’ve become the number one speed dial for people who are like, “alright, what is going on here, and how do I get in?”
I think people have seen the stories. And they’re seeing these cartoon monkeys and they’re unfollowing and they’re like, “What the hell is going on over here? This guy’s lost his mind.” And then they see Future repost and think he was on to something. Let me follow back. And so especially recently, I’ve seen multiple people I’ve met over the years kind of re-follow as I’ve been like invading their timeline with digital cartoons for seven months. For me, it’s been fun. I see what’s going on and I see potential there and that’s why I’ve been digging in so much. So, I can see why it’s been very confusing to a lot of people but I think people are starting to come around to the idea.

You said when you wake up, you’re looking at charts and watching for dips. Would you say you’re mostly looking for new projects with a lot of potential or existing projects that might be valued lower than you think they should be right now?
A combination, it gets harder and harder because I have my toes in so many different projects, but I tend to focus on like a handful at a time, and then maybe a month or two later, I’ll check back. “Oh, nice, that did well,” or “Oh, nice, another one that went to zero” or whatever it may be. The other thing that’s helpful is that I’m in a lot of group chats. If I’m not vocal in it, I’m always listening in and kind of getting an idea of what’s going on. And every now and then I’ll share some information in there. But yeah, I’m just getting info from a mixture of different sources.

I’m newer to the NFT space than you are, but one thing I’ve noticed right away is that I get a little bit stressed out trying to make sure I maintain a strong presence in the Discords I care about. I’m a member in a lot of them. Do you get stressed out at all trying to stay up on all the different Discords? I can’t even imagine how many you’re in.
So, I’m always in 100. And I have to choose some to leave every now and then. I don’t really spend a lot of time in most Discords, and there have been very few that I’ve like gone back to for multiple days. The one I’ve been spending a lot of time in recently is the Dormant Dragons. So every now and then, there’s a Discord that I’ll really be into, I’ve probably popped into Adam Bomb Squad’s like five, six, seven times and compared to most Discords, that’s more than I usually do. Most Discords, I’m in there right around the drop and not too active or whatever. But every now and then I’ll find one that I’m extremely active in. Early on it was like the VV Discords, I was always in those and CryptoPunks. And I spent a lot of time in the Bored Apes Discord, that’s for sure. But for the most part, not too much time in the majority of them. The other thing I really avoid is I have like thousands and thousands of DMs and with so many scams and stuff on Discord, I don’t answer any just because the possibilities are always there.

For people that don’t know, you also have your own NFT project, the SneakerPunkz. At what point in your NFT journey did you decide you wanted to do your own project? And how’s it been going?
The first month I was in NFTs, I was exclusively on Veve, which is like a closed platform that has its own ecosystem with like Batman and Cartoon Network licensed NFTs. A month later, literally to the day, I got my first NFT on OpenSea. And three days later, I was creating in the space, I didn’t waste any time to start creating. I just enjoyed it so much. I was already spending so much time, like pretty much my whole day, in that space. And so one of the first collections I ever bought, ElvenPunks, the owner was really, really hands-on on Twitter and thanked me, I guess found me from the same username and whatnot. And by the next day, I told her she inspired me to start creating and she sent me links to programs that she was using. I don’t really have an art background at all. So I kind of watched videos for a weekend and just figured out how to do it and made an 8-bit sneaker and clipped each little square until it was perfectly placed and redid it and then decided to make it into a GIF to animate it. So basically copy that template over and slightly edit it for five layers and I started making my first animated sneakers. And so I taught myself over a couple of days and I started putting them out and at first actually pretty much instantly the first couple sold but after that, it was pretty slow for a few months. And it was really not until my CryptoPunks sold that my personal project blew up. Once people saw, you know, a six-figure sale on my end, now they’re really willing to jump in. And my project was kind of like a starting point to a lot of people.

A lot of NFTs people know about are way out of their price range, so it’s cool you have something that’s accessible to people new to the space, especially as you’re onboarding a lot of them.
Yeah, that was definitely the idea. At 0.0225, I tried to make it something very affordable. You know, when I started, it was about $60 and gas was maybe $10. And that’s not the case anymore. It’s more like $98. And gas is more like $200. But I definitely try to keep it affordable, the gas I can’t avoid. And so it’s maybe lost on newcomers, they may not see it as a starting point, they might be confused and wondering why it’s so expensive. But the goal remains the same there. And, you know, at least for those few months, seeing those messages of people saying, “I spent 60 bucks in the space, and I turned it into 1000 In two weeks thanks to your project,” you know, messages like that were awesome. And so hopefully, somehow gas gets worked out on the network and we can go back to that same ecosystem it was a few months ago.

One thing you said is that you’re dipping your toes in a lot of projects. I’m interested in your take on public wallets. You’re obviously someone who is well versed in the streetwear world and the concept of hype, whether it’s sneakers or clothes or toys. Do you look at your public wallet as like a public display of the things that you fuck with? And do you think eventually that’s how people will show off their collection of what they own? Their public closet.
Yeah, I’ve been a collector my whole life. And, you know, I’ve always wanted to have a space where I can share like, you know, maybe this BAPE hoodie from 2007, or this Supreme shirt from the early 2000s, or just all these things that have been really cool to me. I still have a lot of The Hundreds shirts with the tags on them, like original stuff from certain drops. And so yeah, as a collector, the idea of sharing and showing and having a place where people can see the entire collection has always been a goal. NFTs basically do that, and it’s kind of crazy. There was even a point in time, I don’t know, maybe four months ago, where across three days, one guy, I don’t know who it was, copied my entire wallet. He went in one by one and bought one of each thing.

Woah.
I’m talking even the CryptoPunk. He went through one by one and copy-bought everything. And so there were people that gifted me their NFTs and now they were getting their first sales from this wallet who literally copied everything I owned, which was pretty insane.

How much do you think he spent overall?
A lot of money because he got in after me and he’s buying things that I didn’t even buy so I don’t have an answer. [Laughs]

It’s incredible. And to be honest, that makes complete sense because you are like a professional collector, and you’re like an influencer in every category that you collect. When I was doing some research for this, I asked like five different people how they first came to know Franalations and they all had different answers. Some people are like, “Oh, from customizing sneakers back in the day” or “I saw a video with his sneaker collection” or “from seeing his streetwear collection and Supreme stuff” and all that. And then there are people who got into your content last year when you were ahead of the wave on sports cards coming back and doing pack rips. And then I literally talked to somebody who was like, “Oh, I started following him when he was doing PS5 raffles.”
Yeah, I hear those responses all the time, it’s really varied. Or I’ll hear they found me through toys or the old meme that was on Vine. There are just so many different eras where people came in and started watching. And it’s awesome that the majority of them have stuck around.

In hindsight, it’s kind of funny that posting cartoon apes was the breaking point for some of them to leave.
I lost a lot of followers for the first couple of months I was posting NFTs. And there’s been a period of slow decline in my followers, but it was barely noticeable. But once I started the NFTs, hundreds, if not thousands a day, were unfollowing. And I just kept posting them, I didn’t care. I was just doing what I liked and sharing them. And at some point, that all changed. Across the board, my socials are higher than they’ve ever been whether it was from sneaker reviews or whatever. And even my Twitter has been an amazing place to network and meet people and so on. My Twitter’s really seen the brunt of that growth, but even Instagram’s grown. And so I just kept up with it, even though people didn’t understand what was going on. I was hoping that the information was useful so I was sharing it.

I think that’s what is so interesting about you as a collector is that you’ve been before the wave and you’re ahead on all this stuff, whereas a lot of the big collectors we see get in a little bit late but throw money around and just have a lot of the most valuable stuff. It seems like at every point, you get in when it’s not that expensive, relatively and you hold on to the top. It kind of begs the question, how are you figuring out your new hobbies and what you want to collect next? And what do you have your eye on now?
I don’t have an exact answer as to how or why I’m in these places early. I just go after what I like and stuff, but one thing I can say is even as a kid, being the first to the theater for the movie showings at midnight, or like the first to releases, I’ve just always enjoyed experiencing stuff first, across the board. With the collectibles, I’ve definitely learned a lot of lessons from sneakers. I thought the prices I was selling at in 2014 were the ceiling and I was very wrong, they went even crazier. And with Pokemon I was like, okay these boxes are 4000, this has to be the top. And then just six months later, the top was six figures instead. And so I kind of saw that whatever I thought the top was, I was wrong. And I was able to use that as a better idea of what to do with these digital collectibles. I’ve always seen digital win, whether that’s Blockbuster to Netflix or Walmart to Amazon, and just the market caps completely exploding over their analog counterparts. And so I was able to see CryptoPunks at $30,000 and know that it was a good buy and have a target price of 100,000 to exit and do so. So it’s really just looking at past trends and translating them in my mind to what I think is going to happen next.

So far, NFTs have blown up in the art and collectibles worlds but the technology really opens doors for all sorts of other utilization. What are you most excited for NFTs to become in the next few years?
Blockchain technology is the real leap forward here. And I think NFTs in general, that’s just how we’re going to be doing transactions. They’re just going to show that Steve sold to Joey on February 2 for $500 at 5 pm. You know, it’s just that information being stored on the blockchain. And that’s how we’re going to see most transactions happen. Now, there are more layers to it. When you add in stuff like the whole ownership of IP that the Bored Apes give, it’s almost limitless. But the main factor there is the public ledger documenting each transaction and that has a lot of use cases moving forward, whether it’s for housing or even new artists trying to launch their stuff without needing a label. And their fans could buy it, and then they end up being some multi-Grammy-winning artist and their fans have that original NFT, which now they can profit from, too. And it’s not just the artist. There are a lot of layers there. People come up with new uses for NFT technology every day.

I know you own a few Bombs, did you mint them pre-reveal, or were there specific ones you were hunting, being a long-time The Hundreds fan?
I played it like I would any other mint and minted 10. And pre-reveal, I was selling on the way up. I got down to two, I bought one more just before the reveal. And the three that I got were all like the rarest. And in fact, the one that I bought was like the rarest one that I got. So I don’t know how I got that lucky. But that’s just how everything turned out. And so that one that I bought pre-reveal was a pineapple. I sold it for 4.2069. And I’m still holding on to a few. I played it perfectly there as far as holding on to the pieces I liked most and being able to profit from that whole run-up. So I got lucky there. They don’t all work out like that. But that’s how the Adam Bomb mint worked out for me.

We see this novelty pricing of 4.2069 or 420.69 or .42069 in every project everywhere. And it makes you wonder, like, okay, how is the funny element of that affecting the true value? Would that person who bought the Pineapple Bomb from you for 4.2069 have bought it for more? Or would you have sold it for less? Like, what is it about that sweet spot where people are like, yeah, fuck it, I gotta do that price for the sheer meme factor?
I think people are just having fun, right? If you’re going to be buying cartoons, you’re just like having fun while you’re doing it. To be honest, I almost didn’t even list it when it got revealed. Me and my girlfriend were gonna go eat some lunch. And I was like, let me just list it before I go eat. And by the time we sat down at the restaurant like 15 minutes later, it happened so quickly. So crazy. But as far as the price, at the end of the day, we’re trading images online. And images, as we’ve seen them being shared, have always been memes. That’s what travels the fastest. And now we can own those memes and it kind of adds another layer of just randomness and funniness to it.

As someone who has such a vast collection of sneakers and clothes and toys and cars and really everything, is there something refreshing about your NFT collection taking up absolutely zero space in your house?
Oh, it’s so good. There’s still so much stuff. A couple of years ago, I started selling everything off and putting it into crypto. And so I did that to a large majority of my collections. But there are still a lot of collectibles. I’ve been collecting for, I don’t know, close to 20 years at this point. And so, yes, the idea that it’s in a wallet, and I’m not tripping over it to go to the bathroom is amazing. So yeah, I love the digital wallet. I just saw the future. I knew that the metaverse was the thing that was coming. And I understood what it means to own digital goods. I spent 15 years playing World of Warcraft and I saw these digital mounts and armor sets go up exponentially with no real deterrence because there’s no damage that can be done to it. And with World of Warcraft, you don’t really own those items, they are just tied to your account, which could be banned at any moment. And maybe the game stops, and they shut it down and you don’t have access to those items. And that’s not the same with NFTs. It’s in your wallet. It’s held on the blockchain and not at the whims of some other company saying you don’t have access to this. It changed everything. Very quickly, I sold my video game collection and just saw this NFT collection as the video game collection of the next 20 years. That’s what I see happening. You’ll plug into different games, and you’ll be using these avatars.

Alright, last question. How did your new The Hundreds X BAYC neck tattoo come about? We’re obsessed.
I’ve always wanted a The Hundreds tattoo. And my last tattoo was years ago thanks to Covid and all. I also wanted a BAYC tattoo since that brand was a huge factor in most of my success last year. So what better way than using the collab logo to get both brands with one stone. Was originally gonna get it on my wrist on the opposite arm as my BAPE tattoo. But they said my wrist was too tiny for the detail of the teeth. It was an exciting update because I’ve been wanting another neck tattoo! And shout out bae the tattoo was a gift from her.