New reports indicate that GameStop has taken steps to develop a marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NTFs), marking the latest development in its ongoing effort to transform its core business.
A source familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal that the video game retailer has hired over twenty people to facilitate the creation of “an online hub for buying, selling, and trading NFTs of virtual videogame goods such as avatar outfits and weapons.”
The once-ridiculed company has become a subject of much discussion in the past year as GameStop stock became the center of a widely reported short squeeze, driven and catalyzed in part by the r/wallstreetbets community of the social media site Reddit.
The surge of cash from the short squeeze has given the company something of a lifeline, allowing GameStop to expand its online operations and creating new opportunities to transition from a brick and mortar retailer to an online-oriented company.
The NFT market is just the latest of the company’s efforts to make inroads in the digital economy, which could be key to the long-term viability of GameStop as a company. If the gaming retailer is successful in transitioning to the digital economy, it will stand as one of the most incredible and unlikely business turnarounds in recent history.