The marketplace is now running in an open beta.
Last week, video game retailer chain and frequent meme stock GameStop announced a large-scale layoff of its employees. The company is still in an unstable financial situation due to a combination of their own less-than-optimal business decisions and the general decline of brick-and-mortar game retailers. However, today, the company launched something new that it hopes will reinvigorate its image.
Today, GameStop officially launched a new marketplace for the trade of cryptocurrency and NFTs in an open beta. The marketplace allows users to connect digital wallets in order to buy, sell, and trade blockchain commodities.
“As noted last week, our leadership team is committed to profitably growing our commerce business and launching new products, including those developed by our blockchain team,” CEO Matt Furlong said in a company email obtained by Kotaku. “GameStop of the future has a unique opportunity to anticipate and meet an expanding range of customer demands and merging interest across our stores, web properties, and the virtual world.”
To connect your GameStop Wallet to GameStop NFT, click the Connect button in the top right corner, & approve the connection. The button will be replaced with your profile icon. From there you can copy your wallet address to the clipboard, add funds, & access your profile page. pic.twitter.com/8OMbtWj9YL
— GameStopNFT (@GameStopNFT) July 12, 2022
“With that context in mind, I’m pleased to announce the launch of our NFT marketplace. Today’s launch reflects months of hard work on the part of our blockchain group and many individuals across the organization. It’s also the result of our ability to form new partnerships with artists and creators, as well as technology partners including Loopring and Immutable. Although we have a lot of work ahead of us, this launch demonstrates the degree to which GameStop is transforming as we embrace change and pursue new areas of opportunity.”
Whether or not this venture will actually pan out remains to be seen, especially considering that, compared to just a few months ago, cryptocurrency values and interest in NFTs are at an all-time low.
