Football star Tom Brady to launch his own NFT platform

Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady is backing a new major development in the nonfungible token industry by launching his own NFT platform.

The new NFT platform, dubbed Autograph, will target some of the biggest figures in sports, entertainment, fashion and pop culture, and provide a tool for unique digital collectibles, a Brady representative told CNN on Tuesday. The platform is expected to launch this spring.

Autograph CEO Dillon Rosenblatt said that the platform will bring together “some of the world’s most iconic names and brands with best in class digital artists” in order to create and launch NFT pieces to a community of fans and collectors. Autograph will also have interactive offerings like live auctions and physical product drops, as well as in-person experiences.

According to CNN, Brady and entrepreneur Richard Rosenblatt will serve as co-chairs of Autograph. According to the company’s website, the board of advisors and chairs also includes Lionsgate CEO Jon Feltheimer, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino, and DraftKings co-founders Jason Robins and Paul Liberman, as well as Dawn Ostroff, advertising business officer at Spotify. 

NFTs are unique pieces of digital content brought online using blockchain, the underlying technology of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). The new digital assets are seen by many as a way of guaranteeing digital scarcity.

There are a wide number of NFT platforms and marketplaces that allow creators and fans to sell and buy NFTs, including the Winklevoss brothers’ Nifty platform. As NFTs grow more and more popular — with a standalone piece recently selling for nearly $70 million — global crypto firms have been scrambling to make their own NFT platforms and divisions to meet increasing demand.

Some of the latest firms to move into the NFT space include India’s largest crypto exchange, WazirX; French crypto hardware wallet supplier Ledger; and cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com.