Key takeaways:
- eBay has bought KnowOrigin, an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace, for an undisclosed amount
- The acquisition of KnowOrigin comes roughly a month after eBay launched its first NFT collection in collaboration with Web3 firm OneOf
- NFT trading volume has seen a significant reduction in recent months
The acquisition pits eBay against the likes of OpenSea, Magic Eden
E-commerce giant eBay has announced last week that it is acquiring an Ethereum native non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace KnowOrigin for an undisclosed amount. KnowOrigin is home to rare digital collectibles featuring abstract art and a lively community of creators and collectors. At press time, the marketplace lists more than 23,000 NFTs.
The purchase of KnowOrigin comes roughly a month after eBay entered a strategic partnership with Web3 technology company OneOf. As a part of the deal, eBay and OneOf have agreed to collaborate on a number of sports-inspired NFT collections, with the first one featuring blockchain-encoded moments from the illustrious career of Wayne Gretzky, who is widely considered the greatest hockey player of all time.
According to the press release, the purchase of the Manchester-founded KnowOrigin is an important milestone in eBay’s “tech-led reimagination” of “digital collecting”, which started last May when the e-commerce company first began allowing users to buy and sell NFTs on the platform. Earlier this year, the company revealed that the integration of crypto payments might be in the pipeline, as a business restructuring move designed to attract more Gen-Z and millennials to the platform.
eBay CEO Jamie Iannone had this to say about the KnowOrigin acquisition:
“eBay is the first stop for people across the globe who are searching for that perfect, hard-to-find, or unique addition to their collection and, with this acquisition, we will remain a leading site as our community is increasingly adding digital collectibles.”
The NFT space has seen a considerable reduction in trading activity in recent weeks, most likely as a byproduct of the broader cryptocurrency downturn. Case in point, the world’s largest marketplace OpenSea saw a 57% month-over-month (MoM) decrease in trading volume. Despite the non-encouraging user activity metrics, the largest Solana-based NFT trading platform Magic Eden raised $130 million in its recently concluded Series B funding round, indicating that institutional investors still see NFTs as a hot commodity.
