On Thursday, the cryptocurrency trading and investment platform eToro announced plans for a $20 million fund to purchase non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and boost creators and brands.
The plan was announced at The Bass, a contemporary art museum in Miami. It is part of the platform’s new initiative eToro.art, aimed at supporting NFT creators and brands and expanding eToro’s NFT investment services.
The firm said the new fund was the beginning of a broader NFT strategy that would eventually offer a multitude of NFT services. Currently, eToro offers cryptocurrency trading, stocks and ETFs, and other investment services.
The firm also showcased its NFT collection which includes NFTs from classic collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and World of Women. NFTs from these collections regularly sell in the hundreds of thousands and even millions of dollars. They are considered historic in crypto art, and part of the fund will also go to purchasing more blue-chip NFTs for eToro’s collection.
According to the U.S. Managing Director Guy Hirsh, the company is excited about boosting new creators and giving more people the chance to invest in digital assets. And to back up the enthusiasm with action, the platform says $10 million of the fund will be committed this year to help emerging creators and brands bring NFT projects to the market.
eToro Isn’t the Only Believer in NFTs
At the conference in Miami, Hirsh also said that he believed “any and every brand” could be a participant in the NFT space. Whether that’s true or not, the flurry of major brands, companies, celebrities, and even countries rushing into the NFT and metaverse space recently signals he’s far from the only believer.
Here are a couple of headlines from the past couple of weeks about major brands that have ventured into NFTs:
- Lamborghini to auction supercar with NFT
- ESPN partners with Tom Brady’s NFT marketplace
- Paramount prepares to drop “StarTrek” NFTs
- iHeartMedia launches podcast NFT network
- The United Kingdom plans to mint NFTs this summer
Because NFT technology allows for digital assets to be verified and safely stored on a blockchain, digital items like video, photos, memes, digital art, virtual real estate, digital fashion, etc., can now be bought, sold, and traded using cryptocurrencies.
Artists and creators can also earn royalties off secondary sales of NFTs, incentivizing all sorts of artists to make the switch from Web2 to Web3.
There’s no doubt that NFTs have opened the door to a whole new realm of possibilities for artists and brands, so we can’t blame eToro, a firm with 27 million registered users, for believing it can make a splash in the NFT space.
We’ll be keeping our eye out to see how individual creators and brands will benefit from the eToro.art fund.