People walk past the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) the morning the music streaming service Spotify begins trading stocks on the NYSE on April 3, 2018 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
The New York Stock Exchange announced Monday that it would launch “First Trade” NTs to commemorate the true first trade of six stocks in the public markets.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are a type of digital asset created to track ownership of a virtual object using blockchain technology. Such unique items can be works of art or sports cards.
During a company’s public debut, the exchange handles over 350 billion order, quotation, and trade messages in its markets on its busiest days, NYSE President Stacey Cunningham said in a LinkedIn post.
Each message is recorded in the central office’s digital ledger.
“Only one of these messages marks the NYSE First Trade: the very moment a company goes public and allows others to share in its success,” said Cunningham. “The NYSE First Trade NFT is a reminder of that unique moment in a company’s history.”
The NYSE’s first class of NFTs represent the first trading of Spotify, which made its first direct listing on the exchange.
With a direct listing, a company makes its debut by selling existing shares directly to the public rather than using intermediaries.
The exchange’s NFT offerings also include Snowflake, the largest software IPO of all time, as well as Unity, DoorDash, Roblox and Coupang, the largest IPO of 2021 to date.
NFTs are enjoying growing popularity this year, along with a surge in the values of digital currencies like bitcoin and ether. The market is growing rapidly and some digital collectibles are selling for millions of dollars.
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, sold the first tweet for over 2.9 billion US dollars on the “Valuables” platform of the blockchain company Cent. Meanwhile, Christie’s auction house was looking for offers for a virtual work by artist Beeple, which eventually sold for $ 69 million.
Investors can access NYSE NFTs at crypto.com
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– with reports from CNBC’s Ryan Browne.
