All Nippon Airways is the largest air carrier in Japan, and it was reported to have expanded its non-fungible token business by launching its own NFT marketplace. The new platform for trading digital assets is said to be part of the company’s ongoing foray into the Web3 industry.

According to CoinTelegraph, All Nippon Airways officially unveiled an aeronautical-themed nonfungible tokens marketplace. It was established together with its ANA Neo subsidiary, which is a digital lifestyle and mobile gaming platform that provides a virtual entertainment experience.

The airline named its new blockchain platform the “ANA GranWhale NFT Marketplace," and the first collection to be featured in it are images created by popular Japanese aerial photographer, Luke Ozawa. His works will be the inaugural collection, and they will be sold via auction.

“Starting May 30, aerial photographer Luke Ozawa’s first digital photo will be converted to NFTs and one of them will be sold with a positive film which is the source of photo development,” the airline explained. “The price is 100,000 yen and the NFT with the positive film will be sold at auction."

In any case, it was revealed that the creation of ANA Neo’s GranWhale NFT Marketplace began in August 2022. At first, it was only a virtual travel platform that uses modern technology, such as virtual reality (VR), to recreate various destinations and cultures through the setting up of metaverse parks.

“The arrow in the symbol logo represents the virtual and the real, respectively, and the fusion of the two symbolizes the ANA GranWhale flying straight into the future with stability and growth, where Web 3.0 and metaverse travel will become more commonplace," Mitsuo Tomita, the president of ANA Neo, said as he explains the platform’s name and symbol.

Meanwhile, Yahoo Finance reported that All Nippon Airways is set to drop its second NFT. The company announced that the release is happening on June 7, and the NFTs to be featured here are converted images of the first Boeing 787 that ANA operated.

Photo by: Vincent Genevay/Unsplash