• The Flying Kangaroo to become one of the first large ASX-listed companies to embrace digital collectibles.
• Deloitte has forecasted that NFTs will generate more than US$2 billion in 2022 alone.
• US$85m of NFT sales were completed last week with 16,000 digital collective pieces sold.

Qantas is about to take off to a whole new destination when it enters the fledgling digital assets sector later this year.

In mid-2022 the airline will sell a set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) featuring its aircraft and liveries (insignia comprising colour, graphic, and typographical identifiers).

The Flying Kangaroo will become one of the first big ASX-listed companies to embrace NFTs when it offers tokens classified into four variants and price points named after its cabin classes – first, business, premium economy, and economy.

While Qantas is reportedly unsure whether it will operate the sale as an auction or just as a storefront, the airline will offer frequent-flyer points to buyers and bonuses who purchase the full set of the NFT classes.

NFTs have rocketed in popularity over the past two years, with large conglomerates and celebrities alike releasing non-interchangeable units of data that are trackable and tradable, and cannot be altered.

The tokens, which are considered the cryptocurrency of art, are backed by blockchain technology, allowing digital images and files to have scarcity.

Deloitte has predicted NFTs will generate more than US$2 billion in 2022 alone, reducing fears that NFTs are an ephemeral bubble. Some US$85 million of NFT sales were completed last week alone with 16,000 NFT pieces sold, according to market tracker NonFungible.

Last year pushed NFTs well onto the tarmac. In August 2021 there was a hive of activity when more than 172,000 were sold for a total of US$411 million.

According to learning solutions firm Martech Alliance, at its peak in September 2021, the floor price of any type of NFT trading was about 10x higher than it was in early June 2021, indicating the popularity of NFT trading over that period.

This move by Qantas now makes it one of the first major ASX-listed companies to launch into Web3 and blockchain-enabled digital assets.

NFTs have become a popular way of engaging audiences, particularly in the sports arena with the AFL, Cricket Australia, NBL, and Tennis Australia organising strategies around crypto and digital collectibles.

Just recently, Rario, the world’s first officially licensed cricket digital collectibles platform announced it was launching Polygon-minted NFTs of Aussie white-ball captain Aaron Finch.

And Nick Kyrgios served his fans after winning the Australian Open 2022 men’s doubles title by releasing a set of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with one named ‘The Final Win No.1’ priced at A$9999.99.