20/05/2022 GameStop Jumps Into NFTs Just As The Market Collapses
'What the internet did for communication, blockchains do for value', says company that gives you $3 for an Xbox game
The NFT market, and other blockchain-associated grifts like cryptocurrency,are having a very bad month, as their perceived âvalueâ evaporates and whatever actual monetary value they had falls through the floor. To which GameStop says: lol.
Hereâs what we wrote about the marketâs troublesjustlast week:
âThe NFT market is collapsing.â Citing not only that 92 percent fall in sales, but also the extraordinary drop of âactive walletsâ by 88 percent since November.
This is partly due, it seems, to the rising interest rates that are strangling the poorest, but in turn is causing the richest to be far less risky in their speculation. And you canât get much more speculative than betting on mass delusion of jpeg ownership.
And yet! The company chose today of all days to officially unveil itâs GameStop NFT marketplace with this statement,along with an empty website:
What the internet did for communication, blockchains do for value. Now, global communities can connect, coordinate, and transact like never before.
Public, permissionless, credibly neutral value layers - > Power to the players.
None of which actually means anything, of course, but then what else would you expect from a company run in 2022 largely as a meme (and which still treats its workers like shit), and which is getting into NFTs now, long after it has become clear that nobody outside the laser-eyed technocult gives even a fraction of a shit about jpgs of apes.Speaking of memes,GameStop made all kinds of headlines last yearwhen hyper-capitalist stock kids started messing with the companyâs share prices, got a âReddit hero and former pet food tycoonâ made chairman of the board of directors and tried to turn the company into an Amazon-lite.
It worked,for a little while, thoughas other âmeme stocksâ collapse, GameStopâwhose share prices are down 40% on the yearâisnât looking too great either. Whilethings spiked briefly in April, leaping from $78 per share last month to over $185 in a single day, that hasnât been enough to stop the companyâs slow slide away from its 2021 heights.
Itâs tough to predict any kind of success for this, especially given the timing, but if anyone can figure out a way to make money off pre-owned jpegs, itâs these guys.
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https://kotaku.com/gamestop-nft-crypto-blockchain-bitcoin-marketplace-meme-1848952829
