All Nippon Airways (ANA), Japan’s largest airline group holding company, has established a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain, where users can buy and sell aviation photos, digital collectibles, and more. At its debut, the market will accept crypto and fiat currency payments through the MetaMask wallet and credit card.
ANA Launches NFT Marketplace
The company’s subsidiary ANA NEO, which focuses on developing immersive digital experiences throughout the All Nippon Airways ecosystem, launched the marketplace under the name ANA GranWhale NFT Marketplace. Aviation photographer Luke Ozawa, who has been documenting aircraft for fifty years, will have work featured in the first NFT collection on the website.
NFTs of two digital 3D aircraft, including a modified Boeing 787 that the airline debuted in 2011, and a series of generative art called Airbits, which includes pixelated airline pilots, are included in other collections.
Other collections include NFTs of two digital 3D airplanes, one of which is a modified Boeing 787 that the airline debuted in 2011, and a generative art collection called Airbits that shows pixelated airline pilots.
In a press statement, the company stated that it intends to “apply NFT to the aviation industry and promote the business to develop new connections with customers.”
All Nippon Airways Holdings was founded in 2013 and asserts that it is Japan’s largest airline group holding company. Its portfolio of 69 firms includes both ANA and Peach Aviation, among others. ANA NEO is also working on a metaverse travel experience that will be named ANA Gran Whale. This experience will merge the travel history of passengers into their digital avatars.
Centralized and traditional entities venture into DeFi
All Nippon Airways is the latest airline to join a growing group of companies investigating ways to incorporate crypto-related ideas into their commercial products. The low-cost Argentinean airline expanded its collaboration with the NFT ticketing startup TravelX in March so that it could provide all e-tickets as NFTs on the Algorand blockchain.
ANA announced in a separate statement on May 30 that the first NFT goods containing the works of aviation photographer Luke Ozawa were made available for bidding on Tuesday and that other collections, including those showing Boeing 787 aircraft, will be available beginning on June 7.
According to the website for the new marketplace, artists and producers can sell their works on the marketplace in the form of NFTs, and select NFTs will be available for trading.
Through this initiative, we aim to unlock the potential of NFTs in the aviation industry […] By bringing together the digital and physical realms to create experiences that are one-of-a-kind and unforgettable.
Mitsuo Tomita, president of ANA NEO
In November, ANA NEO entered into a partnership with the government of Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, to “digitally construct” particular sections of Hokkaido to exhibit the island’s nature, cuisine, and culture via the company’s metaverse platform known as ANA GranWhale.
ANA NEO stated in October 2022 that it had completed a second round of financing, increasing the total amount of money raised to 5.8 billion yen (US$9.4 million) since the company’s creation.
As a key component of Japan’s economy in the years to come, the Japanese government is showing a growing willingness to back developing technologies related to the metaverse. A whitepaper with ties to the government that was published in April provided extensive insight regarding the nation’s aspirations to adopt Web3 technologies.
