By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — Shares of meme stock GameStop Corp (NYSE:GME) continued to rally on Friday after reports said the company plans to launch an NFT
marketplace for gamers by the end of 2022.
GameStop shares touched a high of $160.29 in early Friday trading. They are currently up 8%, to around $141.70. They also rose Thursday night after the news.
A report from the Wall Street Journal on Thursday evening said the company would start a division to develop a marketplace for non-fungible tokens and establish cryptocurrency partnerships.
According to the article, the retailer has hired over 20 people to steer the division, with the marketplace being an online hub for buying, selling and trading NFTs of videogame goods.
In addition, GameStop is said to be asking certain game developers and publishers to list NFTs on its marketplace when it launches.
Bloomberg quoted Tokyo-based games industry analyst Serkan Toto saying he is "very skeptical if GameStop can make it on its own. The company definitely needs partners to compete with the likes of OpenSea and get video game companies to cooperate.” OpenSea, an NFT marketplace, recently raised $300 million in venture funding, for a valuation of $13.3 billion, according to CoinDesk.