NFT is a much talked about topic and the number of marketplaces that are getting launched this year is pretty much on the upside. Many companies are creating their own marketplace that allows easy buying and selling of NFT using cryptocurrency.
The latest launch is by Rakuten, the e-commerce giant from Japan. Recently, Rakuten announced that they will be launching their dedicated NFT marketplace this year in February.
On February 25th, they launched the marketplace and launched several digital assets. Some of the assets included Kurogane Gekitoshi and Ultraman. Kurogane of 2010 series is a comic based on horse racing, and Ultraman is an anime. Other than this, many other similarly themed assets were put up on auction at the marketplace.
Before launch, Rakuten announced that the marketplace will be open for buying NFTs in the year 2022. However, from 2023 the platform will allow easy selling and buying of NFTs through a peer-to-peer exchange. This is enabled by the marketplace by allowing the buyers and sellers to build their own websites for peer-to-peer exchanges.
The company press release also mentioned that the marketplace will have some of the best curated digital assets. The assets will be from the entertainment industry like anime, music, movies, etc., and from sports and athletics.
Rakuten Group is a retailing group and commerce company. It was founded in the year 1997 by Hiroshi Mikitani. One of the businesses under the Rakuten group is Rakuten e-commerce as part of their technology hub of theirs. The company has diversified into different industries like technology, cosmetics, books, etc. And one of the most recent diversification is the NFT marketplace.
This has come after the boom that Japan has seen in the cryptocurrency market. NFT or non-fungible tokens have seen rapidly growing popularity in the last year. Many celebrities, businessmen, and investors are buying these arts and creations as NFTs with the help of ETH.
Just like the global popularity of NFT, Japan is seeing its share of NFT popularity. Mai fujitomo or Miss Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency evangelist collaborated with Enjin to create an NFT based charity program in the country.
As many investors from the country are trading NFTs, many companies are building their dedicated marketplace. One of the most notable NFT marketplaces in Japan was launched last year by the Japan-based Coincheck, a cryptocurrency exchange. All, this paved way for many companies in the technology industry to try and launch their own marketplace for buying and selling NFTs.
