Alibaba rolls out NFTs for Olympic Winter Games

Alibaba Group has launched limited non-fungible tokens (NFT) for the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, preserving competition highlights as ink-painted digital badges. The NFTs cover four winter sports, short-track speed skating, figure skating, freestyle skiing and snowboard slopestyle, and incorporate traditional cultural elements ranging from Yin-yang to seal carving.

Each collection is limited to 8,888 pieces and is available to members of Alibaba’s paid customer-loyalty programme, 88VIP. According to Alibaba, collecting and trading pins and badges is a long-standing Olympic tradition. Starting with cardboard badges used to identify athletes, judges and officials, they have evolved into colorful enamel pins.

The latest iterations are adapting to the digital age. Alibaba unveiled cloud-powered digital pins for the Olympics Games Tokyo 2020 last year. The virtual tokens enabled media professionals to interact in a contactless way during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Olympics pins are changing in format over the years, but what remains unchanged is the Olympic spirit,” said a spokesperson for 88VIP in a media release.

While there has been growing interest in NFTs among young people in China, Alibaba said it hopes that the digital collectibles can cultivate curiosity about the virtual world.

Each collectible is a uniquely identifiable item that can be authenticated and permanently preserved, according to the company.

The launch of the four collections coincides with the Olympics schedule of events at Beijing 2022. 88VIP members can log into Taobao, Alibaba’s online marketplace, to redeem their digital collectibles with their loyalty points at 10 pm Beijing time on Feb. 5, 10, 14 and 19 during finals for the four sports events.

Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and nWay, a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, also announced the launch of a new Olympic-themed digital entertainment experience consisting of NFT Olympic pins and cross-play multiplayer video games developed by nWay as part of a new licensing agreement with the IOC.

The NFT Olympic Pins will launch with an inaugural set that forms part of the Olympic Heritage Collection, which celebrates the art and design of the past Olympic Games and reflects the graphic legacy of the world’s largest sporting event, such as posters, emblems, pictograms and mascots from 125 years of modern Olympic Games.

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