January 31, 2023
By Anjali Kochhar
Popular e-commerce platform Amazon will be launching a digital assets enterprise soon, as reports surfaced recently.
Amazon has been shopping the digital collectables effort to no shortage of power players in the industry, per multiple sources. Said to be among those entities are layer-1 blockchains, blockchain-based gaming startups and developers and digital asset exchanges. There’s a focus on blockchain-based gaming and related NFT applications, as per the sources quoted in the reports.
One example in the works, per one source: getting Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs in the process.
The effort is still developing, sources said. April appears to have been pencilled in for the e-commerce giant to make its bold crypto ambitions public.
Amazon “coming into the space” is “a big one” for crypto “for many different reasons, one source said.
“We knew it was possible,” the source said. “But now it seems like it’s really happening. That’s going to affect the existing players in the space — if they execute and do this right and are smart about it.”
It wasn’t immediately clear who in terms of personnel is leading Amazon’s NFT initiative. Details about the platform, which would include certain NFT gaming initiatives, are still unfolding, but two sources said the platform is set to run out of Amazon proper, rather than its popular web-hosting platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS).
An additional fifth source said Amazon has been exploring a number of other Web3 initiatives of late. When it comes to both the platform and Amazon’s additional crypto forays, a number of internal hires would likely be a prerequisite, one source said.
While Amazon Web Services has posted occasional roles for developers and engineers in the Web3 realm, the e-commerce site is not as well known for exploring the crypto or blockchain arenas.
An Amazon Coins program continues to exist, following an introduction in 2013, but it is more akin to a straightforward loyalty program than a crypto initiative.
Andy Jassy, the CEO of Amazon, has previously stated that he is open to the company selling NFTs — and that the company is not closing the door to cryptocurrencies generally.
About the author
Anjali Kochhar covers cryptocurrency stories in India as well as globally. Having been in the field of media and journalism for over three years now, she has developed a sharp news sense and works hard to present information that goes beyond the obvious. She is an avid reader and loves writing on a wide range of subjects.
