GameStop, an American chain of stores selling video game consoles and computer games, has hired more than 20 people in a new division to develop an NFT marketplace. Writes about it The wall street journal with reference to sources.
One of the interlocutors said that the company’s plans are to create a platform that will allow you to buy, sell and exchange non-fungible tokens based on in-game items. The launch of the marketplace is supposedly scheduled for the end of 2022.
According to the magazine, the GameStop initiative aims to “improve overall financial performance in light of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its retail outlets.”
The WSJ also claims the retailer is close to reaching agreements with the two crypto companies “to leverage their technology and jointly invest in blockchain and NFT games.”
GameStop shares reacted to the news with a rise of more than 20% on the postmarket.
On the subreddit r / Supertonk Reddit one of the users doubtedthat the WSJ article had a strong impact on GME quotes. He also pointed to a lack of comment from GameStop.
“I think something else is going on and this article was published to make the NFT market the scapegoat for price hikes,” wrote the author of the post.
Former hedge fund manager Cramer & Co. and the host of CNBC’s Mad Money show Jim Kramer recalled that he suggested to GameStop “to switch completely to cryptocurrency.”
“It took a little less than a year, but they are doing what I said they should have done,” said Kramer.
Twitter users criticized his statement and recalled that the host took a negative stance towards GameStop.
Well… actually .. you said that after #GME hired the blockchain experts and if I’m not mistaken you actually said “Ryan Cohen has no plan and #GME is a dying company ”(I believe that’s word for word, and if not it’s the most accurate summary of what you said) @jimcramer = 🤡
– Space Monkey (@d_davidb) January 7, 2022
In January 2021, the value of GameStop shares on the New York Stock Exchange reached $ 347. This was preceded by a call on the r / WallStreetBets subreddit to prevent the big players from sinking the company.
Amid a pump of stocks, crypto-friendly platform Robinhood has limited trading to a few assets. This angered the authorities and investors, who suspected the service of collusion with Melvin Capital and market maker Citadel.
Later, the co-founder of the platform, Vlad Tenev, in a conversation with Elon Musk, explained such a decision with an “unprecedented load” and a desire to protect users. He also denied information about collusion with major players.
In May, GameStop announced the launch of the NFT platform and the native GME token. The company also announced the recruitment of developers, designers, gamers, marketers and community leaders.
Recall that in December, the company resumed accepting cryptocurrency payments through the Spedn application from Flexa Network.
