The world's largest retailer, Amazon, has been long planning a major NFT-related endeavor. Firstly, the news about the e-commerce giant's intentions to launch a "digital asset enterprise" leaked into the web in January 2023. Then, according to four trusted insiders who preferred to stay anonymous, Amazon was going to focus on web3 gaming that rewards players with NFTs.
In recent days, the updates on Benzinga, and Conigape crypto news portals have been posted, saying that the Amazon NFT platform named either Amazon NFT Marketplace or Amazon Digital Marketplace will be launched on April 24th.
According to the same sources, the marketplace launch will proceed with 15 initial NFT collections available for purchase through a user’s Amazon account via credit card. Thus, it means that Amazon has no plans to integrate crypto payments so far.
The Amazon Digital Marketplace will firstly be available for US-based users upon clicking a tab on the retailer's website. Additionally, Amazon is planning to expand its presence to other regions, including Europe and other world parts.
The giant retailer itself has not yet confirmed the launch or the release date. But, reports from trusted sources as well as the company’s NFT and web3 initiatives are the best proof of everything above stated.
Firstly, the news arrived via a post by the Blockworks crypto and blockchain news portal on January 26th. According to the report, the NFT platform would likely be built for Amazon itself but not Amazon Web Services (AWS). But, for now, the details, such as the managing board, are still shady.
The highlight concerning Amazon's NFT campaign followed the news about AWS’ partnership with the Avalanche chain developers — Ava Labs. This joint effort is aimed at adding Subnet deployment to the AWS Marketplace, which would allow users to create and set off custom Subnets at a click.
“It has been a huge boon for both individual and enterprise developers to be able to spin up nodes and test networks on the fly with AWS in whatever legal jurisdiction makes the most sense for them,” Emin Gün Sirer, Founder and CEO of Ava Labs, commented on the deal.
Amazon's NFT marketplace's launch could just be the key to other web3 possibilities for the retail giant. The first major opportunity might include gaming offerings through its live-streaming platform Twitch. Another no less ambitious initiative, concerns Amazon Prime, while it has already invested millions into the high-profile web3 brand SuperPlastic for an upcoming animated series.
All these and multiple other web3-forwarded actions of Amazon signaled to the community of the e-commerce titan's upcoming NFT campaign. That's why the recent news didn't come out of the blue.
Moreover, in April of 2022, Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, sounded out that the retailer is likely to sell NFTs one day. “I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly. 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,” Jessy said. Also, when asked a direct question about his thoughts on Amazon selling NFTs, Jessy replied, “Yeah, I think it’s down the road.”
On top of that, having previously partnered with major NFT artists, collectors, and global industry professionals for the launch of a series dubbed NFTMe, Amazon had clearly indicated its NFT-forwarded vector.
For now, it's not clear whether the retailer intends to compete with the mastodons in the NFT trading space like OpenSea and Rarible. However, one thing is as clear as day: with a multi-million community of daily users, Amazon has all the chances to make a huge splash in the NFT space.
