- The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) has launched an officialNFT marketplace for fans to collect Olympic memorabilia digitally. - Britain’s Team GB has also launched its own NFT marketplace.
- In India, artists and influencers are making unique artworks themed around the games.
Over the past year,
In June, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) struck a deal with game developer nWay, to run an official marketplace for NFT memorabilia. The deal aims to make NFTs out of Olympic pins, perhaps one of the most popular collectibles coming out of each of the games.
“Olympic pins started as a way to identify athletes, judges and officials, but over the past
125 years it has become an Olympic Games tradition, where everyone from athletes to
event staff, journalists and spectators all take part to collect and trade pins in the Olympic
Village and beyond,” $4 Timo Lumme, Managing Director of IOC Television and Marketing Services. He added that the deal was a “natural evolution” of the tradition.
NFT sales of Olympic pins will work in three ways — through nWay.com, through other users who are selling items on the marketplace, and by playing an Olympic-themed game launched by nWay around the time the games started.
TeamGB, a name popularly used for the British Olympic team, announced their own plans to sell NFTs during the Olympics. It’s partnering with NFT marketplace Tokns to create a storefront of NFTs for fans to buy.
There will be new stuff up for sale every night and will remain live at least until the Beijing Winter Olympics next year.
“Following the announcement that there will be no fans or spectators present at the Games, we are delighted that we can provide moments digitally that will be available for fans and collectors,” $4 Tim Ellerton, Team GB commercial director.
It’s not just teams that are piling onto the NFT trend, but also artists and influencers. They are using the opportunity to mint their own NFTs around the games.
Indian cartoonist Satish Acharya sold an artwork called ‘A Billion Dreams’ themed around the Olympics on the country’s $4. Doodle artist Monika Paul also sold a digital card featuring Mirabai Chanu, who won the silver medal in weightlifting recently.
“The pandemic brought sports to a standstill for most of 2020. However, the Olympics this year have brought joy not just to the sports enthusiasts but also to our country as a whole. Not just a week into the event and women athletes are already making headlines with their wins. To salute and honour these athletes, artists have been creating NFTs which are now available on our platform, WazirX NFT Marketplace,” said Vishakha Singh, vice president, WazirX NFT marketplace.
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