Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, the world’s largest online retailer, stated that he expects NFTs to grow and that the company will begin to sell them in the future. However, in the near future, Amazon doesn’t plan to accept crypto as payment for its retail business.
Possibility of NFTs sales on Amazon
In a Squawkbox interview on CNBC today, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy stated that the largest online retailer and cloud computing giant is not close to supporting cryptocurrency payments, but that the company may sell NFTs in the future.
“I think NFTs have really started to take off,” Jassy said, adding that despite not owning any, he expects to see the non-fungibles grow:
“I expect that NFTs will continue to grow very significantly. We’re not probably close to adding crypto as a payment mechanism in our retail business, but I do believe over time that you’ll see crypto become bigger and—it’s possible [that Amazon ingrates crypto payments].”
When asked if he thought Amazon would sell NFTs, Jessy said, “Yeah, I think it’s down the road.”
Amazon posted a job listing for a digital currency and blockchain product lead in July, sparking speculation that the company was planning to integrate cryptocurrency into its platform. The London business newspaper City A.M. then reported, citing an anonymous company insider, that Amazon was looking to accept Bitcoin “by the end of the year” and was planning to issue its own token in 2022, causing a small market rally in crypto prices. However, Amazon quickly denied the newspaper’s unsubstantiated claims.
Amazon, which is worth $1.6 trillion, is one of the few large tech companies that hasn’t made any significant moves in the crypto space. Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, is considering the launch of new Web3 and blockchain products, as well as integrating NFTs into its streaming service. Meta, the parent company of leading social media platforms Facebook and Instagram, on the other hand, has completely changed course and is now building its Horizon Worlds Metaverse in an attempt to find an alternative revenue source to its declining ad-based business model.
