NFTs exploded in popularity during the first two years of the pandemic, and it doesn’t look like they’re going away anytime soon. One of the latest organizations to jump into the craze is the Associated Press (AP), which will start selling its “award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism” as non-fungible tokens on January 31st. The news agency teamed up with blockchain technology provider Xooa to develop a marketplace for its NFTs, which will debut with an initial collection that will be released over the coming weeks after its launch.
AP’s initial collection includes digitally enhanced Pulitzer Prize-winning images across categories, such as space, climate and war. Each one will include the image’s original metadata that shows the time and date it was taken, its location, and the equipment and settings the photographer used for the shot. They agency says the marketplace will allow people to buy, sell and trade the tokens, which can be purchased using credit cards and crypto wallets. The proceeds it will earn from the sales will then be used to fund its operations. One of the biggest controversies surrounding NFTs is that they have a huge environmental impact. AP says its NFTs will be minted on the Polygon blockchain that was designed to consume less energy than its counterparts.
Whether AP successfully sells its photos for the kind of money it’s hoping to earn remains to be seen. Adidas made $23 million for its first NFT drop, but Ubisoft barely sold any when it launched its own tokens. Another company that’s reportedly looking to open its own marketplace is GameStop, which (according to The Wall Street Journal) recently formed a cryptocurrency division to work on the project.
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