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Amazon May Allow Users to Sell NFTs
Summary: Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the e-commerce giant might offer the ability to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platform and expects NFTs to continue to grow “significantly,” in an interview with CNBC on Thursday. NFTs are digital art pieces that exist on a blockchain. They can take the form of traditional art, music, videos, ...
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the e-commerce giant might offer the ability to sell non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platform and expects NFTs to continue to grow “significantly,” in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
NFTs are digital art pieces that exist on a blockchain. They can take the form of traditional art, music, videos, sports highlights, etc. The NFT world is young, but quickly evolving and the possibilities are endless at this point for what can be considered an NFT. In addition, NFTs can have value outside of just digital art. For example, owning an NFT can give you access to join the Golden State Warriors’ championship parade if they win.
In short, NFTs have grown substantially over the past year with trading hitting $17.6 billion, which is a 21,000% increase from 2020, according to data from Nonfungible.com. There is certainly a reason Jassy expects NFTs to continue to grow.
In reference to the digital art form, he said ““I think it’s possible down the road on the platform.”
In addition to talking about NFTs, the CEO that followed Jeff Bezos said that he doesn’t hold Bitcoin and doesn’t believe that Amazon will start accepting the cryptocurrency as payment any time soon.
“We’re not probably close to adding crypto as a payment mechanism in our retail business, but I do believe over time that you’ll see crypto become bigger,” said Jassy.
If Amazon were to eventually accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment, they would join other retail and technology juggernauts like Microsoft, PayPal, Overstock, Etsy, Starbucks and Amazon’s own Whole Foods.
In 2019, Flexa, a digital payments network that Whole Foods already used, added a technology that easily converts Bitcoin into dollars, making it easy for customers to pay in Bitcoin.
Last year, eBay allowed the sale of NFTs on its platform, the first e-commerce company to offer this option. It’s clear that Amazon is eventually thinking of matching them on this endeavor.
Author: Tyler Irvin
