Shopify Allows Merchants to Mint and Sell NFTs on its Platform

The multinational e-commerce company – Shopify – enabled its users to mint and trade non-fungible tokens on its platform. To provide this opportunity, the firm partnered with GigLabs – an organization that specializes in offering tools to operate with NFTs.

Shopify Enters The NFT Universe

Tobias Lütke – Chief Executive Officer at the company – revealed the new service on his Twitter account.

Use Shopify for your NFT dropshttps://t.co/sZwjLZetoU

— tobi.eth (@tobi) December 16, 2021

The initiative will come under the name – NFT Beta program. Initially, it will be available only for merchants based in the United States of America.

The collaboration with GigLabs allowed NFT enthusiasts to purchase digital collectibles by various settlement methods, including Shopify payments, Shop Pay, cryptocurrencies, credit or debit cards, the statement said.

“Plus, customers can easily claim their NFTs via email and add them directly to their wallets,” Shopify’s team added.

The company clarified that customers are able to mint non-fungible tokens on various platforms such as Ethereum, Polygon, Near, and Flow by teaming with its partner applications.

Paul Budnitz – Founder and CEO of the entertainment company Superplastic – described Shopify’s platform as “amazing.” He said it helped his firm and its associate Christie’s create a “massively successful NFT drop for Janky and Guggimon.”

Even though these are Shopify’s first steps in the NFT space, the company is already part of the cryptocurrency bandwagon. In 2020, after collaborating with BTCPay, it enabled its customers to pay in bitcoin instead of fiat currencies.

The Rise of The NFT Industry in 2021

Non-fungible tokens are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replaced. They can represent artworks and even track real-world assets, such as a house or a car.

Although NFTs were not invented this year, they managed to garner the attention of people and companies from all types of industries – from athletes and musicians to investors and politicians.

Not long ago, OpenSea – the leading NFT peer-to-peer marketplace – surpassed the mark of $10 billion in all-time trading volumes. Currently, this number stands at more than $13 billion as it was accumulated by over 1.2 million traders.

OpenSea’s success should be considered a significant one since its total volume trading for the entire 2020 was just $21 million.

Another statistic showing the progressive growth of the NFT sector is the Google searches of phrases like “NFT” and “Buy NFT.” Those reached a new all-time high nearly a month ago.

Featured Image Courtesy of FT