E-commerce giant Rakuten launches its own NFT marketplace

Rakuten Group Inc, the firm behind the popular online shopping platform Rakuten, announced Friday that it has launched its own non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace. 

The Rakuten NFT marketplace will offer users digital collectibles of sports and entertainment — such as music and anime — the firm wrote in a release. In addition, Rakuten will offer minting services for intellectual property (IP) holders to create digital assets of their IP. The firm intends to provide peer-to-peer listing and sales in 2021 or later.  

Rakuten’s first NFT drop will occur on February 25 and will include digital assets from an anime called Ultraman as well as the horse-racing themed comic Kurogane Hiroshi G1 Gekitoshi (2010 Series). 

Rakuten is a Japanese e-commerce store that sells goods and services in books, fintech, cosmetics, digital content and more, and offers buyers cashback for making purchases on the platform. Rakuten earned over 26.9 trillion yen ($232.7 billion USD) in the fiscal year of 2021, the firm reported.