IOI
As part of a promotion for its streaming video service Disney+, Veve announced today that Disney will distribute non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of its characters. NFTs will be available for characters owned by Disney, including Marvel (SpiderMan), Pixar (Toy Story, Cars, Nemo, The Incredibles), Star Wars, and others. However, no details on which characters will be available have been provided.
The NFTs will be “Golden Moments,” which will include digital memorabilia of golden statues of the characters. They’ll start appearing on the VeVe app soon, leading up to Disney+ Day on November 12th. Some restricted memberships to Disney+ will be offered to specific NFT customers as part of the promotion, but not to existing subscribers. Details may be found on the webpage.
VeVe has previously launched Marvel digital comics and hosts NFTs for DC Comics characters like Superman. James Bond, Star Trek, Back to the Future, and Cartoon Network are among the other licenced properties.
We were curious as to how VeVe would be able to afford the substantial licence costs that these large companies would demand. We couldn’t discover any evidence of a venture capital raise. VeVe is a subsidiary of Ecomi, a Singapore-based blockchain startup that raised $10.65 million in an ICO in 2019. According to Coingecko, the token market capitalization is now $1.24 billion.
Veve has sold 1.9 million NFTs and has over 500,000 active users to date. It leverages the ImmutableX Layer 2 scaling protocol and pledged $7 million in donations to environmental NGOs in March to help them collect funds for their causes through NFT advertising.
What are NFTs?
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, are a brand-new sort of digital asset. These assets’ ownership is documented on a blockchain, which is a digital ledger similar to the networks that support bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
However, unlike other virtual currencies, one NFT could not be exchanged for another in the same way as dollars or gold bars could. Each NFT is one-of-a-kind and serves as a collectible object that cannot be replicated, making them extremely uncommon.
Imagine them as the crypto equivalent of rare Pokémon or baseball cards.
With the advent of the internet, anybody could see photographs, films, and songs for free. People are buying NFTs in the hopes of being able to verify ownership of a virtual thing using blockchain technology.
Users may purchase and sell short clips of match highlights from notable players on NBA Top Shot, an NFT platform centred on the United States basketball league. The NBA licences the reels to Dapper Labs, a start-up that digitises the video and produces a limited number of copies in order to create a sense of scarcity. According to the website CryptoSlam, NBA Top Shot has handled approximately $280 million in purchases to date. Each transaction pays Dapper Labs a portion, while the NBA receives royalty payments.
Basketball isn’t the only sport that is embracing cryptocurrency. a startup in France In fantasy games, Sorare allows players to acquire and play legally licenced soccer cards. Sorare’s marketplace has produced over $22 million in sales, according to NFT data tracker NonFungible. Last week, Sorare announced a $50 million funding round led by Benchmark, Accel, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.
“It is an obvious industry use case for NFTs,” said Lars Rensing, CEO of blockchain firm Protokol. “Trading cards and collectibles have always been a profitable revenue stream for clubs.”
Meanwhile, art dealers are getting in on the fun, with Christie’s auctioning off a virtual art work created by Beeple. Although the sale has not yet ended, the piece has already attracted bids of up to $3 million.
NFTs aren’t a novel concept. One of the early versions, CryptoKitties, was once so popular that it clogged the network of the digital currency ether. According to NonFungible, these colourful internet cats have earned over $40 million in sales to date.
