22/07/2021 GameStop Stock: Why NFT Could Be Big For The Company

In recent days, news that GameStop would enter the NTF arena gained traction among apes and Reddit traders. Wall Street Memes discusses why this could be good news for the stock.

 

GameStop  (GME) - Get Report shares have been heading lower week after week since June 9. But the meme mania pioneer remains one of the most debated stocks among Redditors. Last week, on July 14, news of GameStop's NFT release bumped the stock’s popularity on WallStreetBets. See below.

 

Latest news

Recently, news has surfaced that a GameStop NFT (non-fungible token) project was underway. Some investors and traders saw the development as a potential catalyst for the stock.

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Tim Berners-Lee’s NFT of world wide web source code sold for $5.4m

NFT is a single asset usually embedded in an object (like a video game skin, for example) and registered in a blockchain network. It is an encrypted digital record of a piece of art that can be bought, sold, and collected.

The news gained relevance after GameStop launched a website about NFT in the past few weeks. However, not much more information has been shared by the company so far.

Why NFT is relevant

NFT is a form of CryptoArt. The art pieces can take the form of a logo, a phrase, a song, and are published directly into the blockchain.

Although the CryptoArt market has been around for a while, it has gained more attention in 2021. The chart below shows that the CryptoArt market is already valued at $594 million, as more than 800,000 artwork pieces have been sold so far.

 

Below are some fun facts about CryptoArt:

  1. the co-creator of the famous cartoon Ricky and Morty auctioned off a hand-drawn black and white piece of CryptoArt for $150,000;
  2. the most expensive CryptoArt on record was sold for $69 million: Everydays, by artist Beeple;
  3. viral video “Charlie bit my finger” was turned into an NFT and sold for over $760,000 in June;
  4. the CEO of Twitter sold his first tweet artwork for $2.9 million.

Can GME benefit from NFTs?

GameStop has not yet offered details about the launch of its NFT or its strategy around it. It is safe to say that the company would benefit from diversifying its business model, expanding further beyond gaming and the brick-and-mortar channel – and that it is probably looking to do so with digital art.

The company is currently pushing to turn its fortunes around. CEO George Sherman left the company after failing to meet his goals – not before cashing insome of his GME shares at meme prices.

On the e-commerce front, GameStop has recently hired several former Amazon employees to improve the digital strategy. Billionaire Chewy co-founder and GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen seems to have the credentials to help overhaul GameStop’s operations, which has helped to keep meme mania alive.

Will GameStop succeed at turning its business around? Only time will tell. In the meantime, the Reddit crowd seems to be paying close attention, in hopes that the stock can surge once again.

Twitter speaks

GameStop shares have been well off their June 9 levels, and about 50% below the late January top. How confident are you that GME will revisit its previous highs?

 

 

 

Arts

https://www.thestreet.com/memestocks/gme/gamestop-stock-why-nft-could-be-big-for-the-company

Interesting NFTs
Cerulian
Ugh! I'm Cerulian. I'm a Aerobics Athlete by day, and I like playing chess by night. I was voted school jock in college. Purrhaps this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship.
taNNa
conceptual art. drawing and digitally processed.
Stay Free (Edward Snowden, 2021)
This unique, signed work combines the entirety of a landmark court decision ruling the National Security Agency's mass surveillance violated the law, with the iconic portrait of the whistleblower by Platon (used with permission). It is the only known NFT produced by Snowden. Produced using open source software. This auction is on behalf of Freedom of the Press Foundation. https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/appeals-court-strikes-down-nsa-phone-spying-program-aclu-lawsuit
Right Place & Right Time (bitcoin hourly price offset)
Each day, a new composition for the Master is generated autonomously using a data feed of Bitcoin's last 24 hours of price action. Each hour's price programmatically controls rotation, scale, and position of a correlating layer. Astute viewers will surmise the day's price volatility simply by examining the artwork. While the daily image generation is the result of autonomous API calls, utilizing an algorithm the artist wrote, the artist has chosen to retain a control token. This token allows him to fine-tune variables associated with his algorithm, in addition to addressing aesthetic concerns within the life-cycle of the artwork. Layer state, alpha, hue, saturation, and brightness are elements the artist has retained control of in order that this artwork remain a living work-in-progress. An earlier iteration of this artwork was featured as a nightly projection mapping video on the face of the Daniels Fisher Clocktower, as part of ETH Denver 2020. Access to this and additional exclusive content awaits the master token owner at the artist's NFT Portal: https://collect.mattkane.com/minted-works/right-place-right-time-bitcoin-hourly-price-offset/
Genesis
José Delbo sent me his striking pencil sketch and powerful inked work, which I then interpreted in oil on canvas. I wanted to create a very painterly piece with obvious brush marks etc, but I was also aiming for a nostalgic feel, a kind of 1980’s superhero comic book look, the kind I grew up with. My goal with this animation was to try to recreate, in part, the creative process that both artists went through with the visual information I had. I was able to showcase my painting process more accurately as I could take photographs of my progress throughout. Consecutive images could then be layered like brush strokes over José’s drawing to create the impression that this was one continuous artwork from pencil, to ink, to completed painting. The representation of the line sketch at the beginning, then pencil/ink and lastly the paint layers being applied demonstrate both artists’ struggle for the right lines, tone, form, and colour until the work is finally completed. As the oil was still wet with each photograph the glare of my studio lights can be seen in the brush strokes. Eventually, the figure emerges and as it does, our hero comes to life, looking directly at the viewer -- but is he grimacing in approval or disgust? We will never know for sure as just before he can say anything, white paint is brushed across the canvas entirely and the process begins again. Only the bat is quick enough to escape.