Disney has joined the crypto craze and is set to release NFT of their most loved characters including Iron Man, C-3PO and Wall-E.
Similar to a one-of-a-kind piece of art, NFTs are unique and non-interchangeable – making them more valuable and giving the holders full ownership of their online items. Disney has produced rare and limited products in the past, however the announcements of the NFTs marks the first time the it has ventured into the crypto space.
Disney released works featuring characters from Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and The Simpsons on November 7. The second NFT release was Elsa from Frozen the following day. They will close the sale with an “ultra-rare digital collectible” to be released on November 12.
As part of a promotion for its streaming video channel Disney+, Disney is offering NFTs of its characters via digital marketplace VeVe – also sometimes called VV – a platform for buying digital collectibles.
The NFTs for sale form part of the Golden Moments collection. They are digital golden statues of iconic Disney (and other) characters. The NFT “event” culminates in Disney+ Day on November 12 – Friday of this week. VeVe shared that buyers will also have the option to buy “blind boxes”. With these purchases buyers will only know the collectible they have received after a successful purchase.
The Simpsons’ Homer and Bart and Frozen’s Elsa have already been made available with Wall E and the Pizza Planet Truck to be released today. Later this week Iron Man, the Avengers symbol, R2-D2 and C-3PO will be made available alongside an NFT of founder Walt Disney holding the hand of Micky Mouse.
NFTs have continued to grow throughout 2021 racking up more than $2.5bn (£1.47bn) sales in the second quarter of this year, up from sales in 2020 of $13.7m (£11.7m).
Disney may trade more like Netflix now, with streaming subscriber growth the all-important stock catalyst, but as the Disney+ adds went down in the third quarter, costs in the real world keep going up. And that means that, at least in the short term, even Disney has an inflation problem weighing on its margins.
