Japanese Online Retail Giant Rakuten Introduces NFT Marketplace
Based in Tokyo, Japanese online retail and electronic commerce company, Rakutenrecently announced the launch of its non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace they have named Rakuten NFT. According to the announcement, they will introduce new features in the future and they will also add a peer-to-peer service for selling and minting NFT content in 2023. The Japanese online retail giant has been slowly dipping its toes in the crypto and blockchain space in the last couple of years. Back in summer of 2019, the company had launched their own crypto exchange. In spring of last year, the company had decided to allow its customers to add crypto to their Rakuten Pay accounts.
Now, the company has decided to join the NFT bandwagon that has been garnering a lot of attention these days, and has decided to launch the Rakuten NFT platform in order to do so. According to the press announcement, people will be able to use the platform for purchasing NFTs and will also be able to engage in peer-to-peer buying and selling of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in a number of areas including anime, music and sports and entertainment. It also said that Rakuten NFT also has a one-stop platform that people will be able to use for building their own website that can sell and issue NFTs.
The press announcement further disclosed that people would be able to make purchases with their Rakuten ID and this would allow them to earn Rakuten points and spend them. Buyers will be allowed to purchase any NFT and add it to their own webpage and they would also be able to put it up for sale. Rakuten is the latest in a series of businesses that have introduced their own NFT marketplaces in the last year alone. A number of companies have ventured into this space, which include FTX, Coinbase, Crypto.com and plenty more.
Furthermore, Rakuten NFT will also have to deal with a lot of competition from other leading NFT market platforms, such as Magic Eden, Looksrare, Rarible and OpenSea. The press announcement from the company dictates that a minting and selling feature would become available in 2023. This will offer support to IP holders in Japan, along with other parts of the world, who will be able to issue NFTs. This would further the development of the global NFT market. The launch announcement from the company also said that they would also introduce a diverse range of payment methods.
The launch of the Rakuten NFT platform featured NFTs that showcased KuroganeHiroshi G1 Gekitoshi and Ultraman anime. In the future, some of the collectibles that are expected to be added to the Rakuten NFT marketplace include those from Daiki Sound Co., Under Beasty and TV Asahi Corporation shows. There will also be NFTs that feature characters from Tiger & Bunny 2. The announcement of the company about their NFT platform also revealed that they were planning on producing as well as selling the J.Leagueofficial NFT collection and J.LeagueNFT Collection Players Anthem.
