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By Todd Spangler
NY Digital Editor
WWE stands to pin down some extra cash — and hopes to whip up fan enthusiasm — in its first sale of NFTs featuring the wrestling entertainment company’s top stars.
WWE, together with Fox Entertainment’s Blockchain Creative Labs, on Friday, June 3, plans to launch its its first NFT (nonfungible token) sale on Moonsault, WWE’s official NFT marketplace. The limited-edition collection will comprise more than 10,000 “NFT Flips,” each featuring a WWE Superstar tied to the Hell in a Cell event, which in the U.S. will stream live this Sunday, June 5, on NBCUniversal’s Peacock.
The NFT Flips will be sold on WWE Moonsault in “Cases” of three, randomized at minting, for $30 per Case, meaning the sale could generate upwards of $100,000. In the days after Hell in a Cell, each NFT Flip will transform to reveal a 10- to 20-second video highlight of the featured WWE star.
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The hope is that WWE’s ardent fanbase will buy into the digital-collectibles hype. The craze behind NFTs, which verify ownership of unique pieces of digital content using distributed blockchain technology, caught fire in early 2021. Entertainment and media companies have embraced NFTs as a way to generate incremental revenue, as well as stoke fans’ engagement with their brands — by letting them literally invest in content tied to popular franchises.
WWE and Fox, which announced their NFT partnership last year, debuted Moonsault on May 27 during “SmackDown” on Fox. They promoted the launch across WWE and Fox media platforms, as well as on WWE’s Discord channel. The first 10,000 fans to create a wallet on the platform received a free Moonsault Genesis NFT, all of which were claimed within only a few hours. As of June 2, those NFTs had an active listing value of $1.47 million on the Moonsault platform.
In the future, WWE plans to release more limited-edition packs of NFT Flips and other video highlights and digital collectibles centered on WWE Superstars and iconic moments from the company’s history, timed to premium live events throughout the year.
To participate in the WWE NFT marketplace, fans will need to create a digital media wallet through Eluvio — the blockchain-infrastructure provider in which Fox Corp. is an investor — that will let collectors purchase NFTs via credit cards or cryptocurrencies, as well as trade and sell them.
Fox and its Bento Box Entertainment animation studio last year launched Blockchain Creative Labs (BCL), which provides an end-to-end blockchain ecosystem solutions to build, launch, manage and sell NFT content and experiences. BCL also manages a $100 million creator fund to tap into growth opportunities in the NFT space.
Last year, BCL and Fox launched “The MaskVerse,” an NFT platform with digital collectibles for hit singing competition show “The Masked Singer.”
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