The Associated Press will launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace built by blockchain technology provider Xooa, where collectors can purchase the news agency’s award-winning contemporary and historic photojournalism.
The initial collection will feature photography by current and former AP photojournalists and a selection of digitally enhanced depictions of their work. Pulitzer Prize-winning AP images will be included. Each NFT will include a rich set of original metadata offering collectors awareness of the time, date, location, equipment and technical settings used for the shot.
NFT price points will vary. As a not-for-profit news cooperative, proceeds go back into funding factual, unbiased AP journalism.
Collectors of all levels will be able to seamlessly buy, sell and trade official AP digital collectibles through the marketplace. It will support secondary market transactions and purchases using credit card payments as well as crypto wallets, including MetaMask, with support for Fortmatic, Binance, and Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) to come.
The NFTs will be minted on the Polygon blockchain, which is an environmentally friendly, Ethereum-compatible layer two solution.
The marketplace and first NFTs are set to debut on Monday, Jan. 31.