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Amazon reportedly aims to dabble into NFTs and Web3 gaming with an upcoming initiative related to digital assets.
The world’s largest retailer is planning to launch a “digital assets enterprise” focused on non-fungible tokens and Web3 gaming this spring, Blockworks reported Thursday, citing four anonymous sources familiar with Amazon's intentions.
Per the report, Amazon’s initiative is in the relatively early stages of development and the firm is expecting to make an official announcement in April. Furthermore, the e-commerce giant has more than a dozen partners lined up for the project, including layer-1 blockchains, blockchain-based gaming startups and developers, and digital asset exchanges.
“One example in the works, per one source: getting Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs in the process,” the report said, adding that Amazon executives leading the initiative have reached out to at least one family office in recent months. They have also allegedly planned to conduct an NFT drop with an artist.
It is worth noting that Amazon has been posting roles for developers and engineers in the Web3 realm since 2021. Back then, the company posted a vacancy seeking a “Digital Currency and Blockchain Product Lead,” with a deep understanding of the digital, cryptocurrency ecosystem.
In April last year, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told CNBC that he is optimistic about the future of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. At the time, he said the e-commerce giant was not looking into adding crypto payments, but he claimed he "do believe over time that you’ll see crypto become bigger."
“You know, I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly,” Jassy said, adding that he could envision a future where the e-commerce giant sells NFTs.
More recently, it was revealed that Amazon, through AWS, entered into a “cooperation” with Ava Labs to speed up the adoption of blockchain technology across various industries. AWS intends to make available one-click node deployments to support Avalanche's infrastructure and decentralized applications (DApps) ecosystem.
Aside from Amazon, a number of other major mainstream companies have also announced plans to expand both into NFTs and other cryptocurrencies over the past year.
In November, a patent filing revealed Sony’s vision for a system that could be used to track the creation, use, and transfer of digital assets created within a game. The patent envisions a system for “creating, modifying, tracking, authenticating, and/or transferring unique digital assets” associated with video games.
Furthermore, investment giant Fidelity also hinted at an intent to push deeper into cryptocurrencies and Web3 with three new trademarks filed in December last year. The filings have a focus on NFTs and virtual worlds like the Metaverse.