LOS ANGELES — Playboy has announced a partnership with NFT marketplace Nifty Gateway to create and sell non-fungible tokens based on the magazine’s art and archive.
The legacy adult company, which went public in February through a Chinese investor-backed SPAC (Special Acquisition Company), has seen its stock rise during the current NFT bubble, by 83% this month alone and 173% since the end of February, according to business news organization CNBC.
According to an in-depth CNBC report published today, parent company PLBY Group’s stock has “surged more than 80% this month due in large part to excitement over how it can take advantage of the hot NFT market.”
Last month, CEO Ben Kohn told investors on the company’s earnings call, “Look, we have an unbelievable archive, 68 years. It is the 5,000 pieces of art we have, it’s covers, it’s photography. It is so deep and rich in what’s in there.”
Shifting the Bunny Brand
Before the NFT hype took off among the general public last month, the report notes, Kohn had shifted the Bunny brand “away from magazine publishing and toward a brand centered on lifestyle and sexual wellness.”
The CNBC report highlights two recent deals: Playboy’s $25 million purchase of TLA Acquisition Corp, the company behind pleasure product retailer Lovers, and the Nifty Gateway NFT deal.
“We wholeheartedly believe in the future of a blockchain- and crypto-powered art world that ensures artist and collector protection, ongoing artist compensation, and the democratization of distribution and collecting,” Playboy’s Chief Brand Officer Rachel Webber said earlier this month.
According to CNBC, “the first project between Nifty Gateway and Playboy is slated to be original works from Boston-based collage artist Slimesunday in collaboration with the magazine’s editorial curators, followed by “a Pride-themed curation with digital artist Blake Kathryn” in June.
To read "Playboy Payoff: NFT Prospects Drive Stock Surge for Reinvented Nude Magazine Publisher," visit CNBC.