GameStop Announces Plans To Launch Its NFT Marketplace In Late Q2

Gaming merchandise firm GameStop said it would launch its NFT (non-fungible tokens) marketplace by the late second quarter, advancing its original plan to compete with OpenSea and Coinbase by the end of the year.

According to the company's Q1 report released Thursday, the marketplace would be powered by Immutable X, a Layer 2 protocol running on the Ethereum network that will allow NFT to be exchanged instantly with transaction scalability of 9,000 operations per second.

GameStop also announced the creation of a $150 million fund in IMX tokens —the official cryptocurrency of Immutable X— that will be delivered to the company upon reaching specific goals.

The report also noted that the company has hired "dozens of additional individuals with experience in areas such as blockchain gaming, eCommerce and technology, product refurbishment and operations," in order to perhaps launch the marketplace at an earlier date.

While the launch of NFT marketplace could excite many users, it is also true that GameStop will soon face big names in the cryptocurrency industry such as Binance, FTX, OpenSea, and Coinbase.

Meanwhile, the company generated net sales of $6.011 billion for the previous fiscal year, compared to $5.090 billion for fiscal year 2020.

Last month, the New York Stock Exchange ( NYSE) also indicated plans to step into the nonfungible token market and do for digital assets what it does for stocks.