The VeVe virtual marketplace will soon have official nonfungible tokens and digital comic books from Marvel.
In a Thursday announcement, Marvel Entertainment said it had partnered with Orbis Blockchain Technologies to release nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, and digital collectibles on the VeVe marketplace app starting later this year. According to the entertainment company, the NFTs will include digital collectibles and comic books which Marvel fans can trade as well as display in virtual showrooms.
“We hope to expand the limits of what Marvel fandom can be, starting with personal and interactive digital collectibles that, through NFTs, fans can truly collect, share, and enjoy in a way that they have not been able to do before,” said Marvel’s vice president of business development and strategy Daniel Fink.
All the Marvel digital collectibles will be minted on the blockchain and be available for users to buy and sell to others on VeVe’s secondary marketplace with the in-app token Gems (GEM). The VeVe app accepts credit card payments for the tokens, and already offers digital collectibles with characters from DC Comics, Star Trek, and other franchises. Some of the more well known characters from Marvel include Wolverine, Spiderman, Iron Man, and Captain America.
Though Marvel has largely not been directly involved with the crypto space, individual artists can still offer their work featuring known characters. In February, an NFT featuring a Spiderman drawing by Adam Kubert sold for more than $25,000 on Portion.io, a platform that allows users to create and auction rare art.
Related: Former DC comic book artist fetches $1.85M auctioning Wonder Woman NFTs
In addition, digital assets and aspects of the crypto space have found their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The third episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier series available on Disney+ had a reference to a $59 million Bitcoin (BTC) bounty.
The VeVe marketplace has reported it sold more than 580,000 NFTs since December 2020. Cointelegraph reported in May that NFT trading volume across the space could reach $175 million by October, with an industry market capitalization of $470 million.
