South Korea’s Lotte Group partners with Polygon for global NFT drive

Lotte Group, South Korea’s fifth-largest conglomerate with operations in manufacturing, hotels and e-commerce, plans to expand its non-fungible token (NFT) business onto the global market through a partnership with the Polygon blockchain, Lotte’s marketing and NFT hub Daehong Communications said on Monday.

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Fast facts

• The partnership will start with rebranding BellyGom NFTs, or Lotte Homeshopping’s profile picture (PFP) digital collection centered around a pink bear character of the same name.

• BellyGom NFTs, first minted in August 2022 on the Klaytn network, gives holders benefits related to Lotte’s products and services, such as hotel vouchers or discount coupons for shopping.

• The rebranded collection will be called “BellyGom NFT Season 2,” Daehong said in a press release. The company is still working on the project and doesn’t have a date for the release of the collection, a Daehong spokesperson said.

• “Polygon and Daehong are 1677488495 technical partners and counterparties that provide marketing support as needed,” a Polygon spokesperson told Forkast via direct message, outlining the partnership. “The actual operation of the [BellyGom] NFT project will not be run by the Polygon Foundation, but existing NFTs will be migrated to Polygon.”

• Polygon is the third largest blockchain in NFT sales over the last 30 days, surging 260.33% to US$36.5 million during the period according to data from Cryptoslam.io. The Polygon platform is compatible with Ethereum, the second-largest blockchain, and enables other blockchain networks to connect and expand.

• Polygon has signed partnerships with global brands such as Starbucks, Adidas and Prada.

• Lotte Group has more than 121 trillion Korean won (US$92.3 billion) in assets, according to April 2022 figures from South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission.

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