The King of beers is pouring into the crypto NFT craze. In the old days when the internet was new, say the 1990s and the early 2000s, online advertising/marketing was pretty much relegated to purchasing a new domain name by a reputable domain brokerage, having a stunning website created, then setting it and forgetting it. 

But the 2020s has ushered in a brand new type of Digi-sphere that has not only taken the financial world by storm, but also the world of fine digital collectables. It’s called the Blockchain, and like the internet, you can run software on it like cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH), and more recently, NFTs. 

What are NFTs? They are nonfungible tokens that act as collector’s items. Some of them, like photos of basketball players and odd looking guerillas, go for a hefty sum. The point of the NFTs are that they are one of kind, even though they are digitally created. This allows them to be collected and sold much like baseball or basketball cards. They can also be used to promote a product brand. 

Big Corporations Getting in on the Action

Now, big corporations are getting in on the lucrative NFT act and, in the process, buying up domain names. Says a recent article, the King of Beers, Budweiser Beer, just purchased a title run on the ETH chain called, “beer.eth” for 30 Ethereum or about $100,000. 

The crypto domain was brought along with a bottle rocket NFT created by Tom Sachs Rocket Manufacturing. In turn the Twitter handle @budweiserusa announced the purchase, taking the cryptosphere by storm since this is the first time a major mega-beer manufacturing firm has taken the leap by investing in NFTs and crypto domains directly connected the ETH.  

That said, Budweiser’s NFT purchase comes on the heels of Visa, another big money corporation, announcing they have purchased a $150,000 CryptoPunk NFT via an ENS domain.  

ENS

ENS is the acronym for Ethereum Name Service. This app allows anyone to register a pockets title and/or customized website in the ETH digital blockchain area. In the same way traditional domains are purchased on the internet, ENS domains are actually offered and purchased as unique NFTs.  

Adding to their unique “beer.eth” domain, Bud is said to have also purchased “beyondbeer.eth” in the ENS community. The buying didn’t stop there since they also invested in a Tom Sachs Rocket Manufacturing unit piece which cost about 8 Ethereum. The digital collectible will be used to enhance the Bud brand.  

Bud Rockets

Despite now officially owning at least two NFTs, the Bud Twitter account has made no announcement regarding the actual shopping and trading of the digital collectables. The company did offer up a tantalizing hint however, as they tweeted three “rocket emojis” as the purchases were said to be in progress.  

Rocket Fever

First launched (no pun) in August of 2021, the Tom Sachs Rocket Factory allows collectors to engineer bottle-shaped rockets that use various branded names and parts. For instance, Bud bottle rockets can be utilized along side other rockets like Nissin Cup Noodles, McDonalds, Good Day Kitty, 7-Eleven, Jameson Irish Whiskey, and so much more. 

The rocket is a popular symbol among crypto investors and enthusiasts who believe the prices of cryptocurrencies like BTC and ETH, along with NFTs, are “going to the moon.” The two richest men in the world, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, along with their recent “space adventures,” have only added to the “rocket fever.” Both entrepreneurs are said to have Bitcoin and other cryptos on their balance sheets.  

NFT Rocketing Growth

With the NFT OpenSea platform approaching $2 billion in selling and buying over the past 30 days, it’s safe to say that nonfungible collectibles have experienced “exponential growth” in August alone. But are NFTs a fad or a bubble that is about to burst? 

While no one knows the answer to that question, Crypto buyers and traders are nonetheless describing this as the 2021 “NFT Summer” making non-fungible popularity not a trend necessarily, but a “phenomenon.” Because the NFT transactions are occurring on the ETH chain, this hot period of time has also become known as the decentralized or “DeFi Summer.” 

With NFTs and their ETH based domains gaining far reaching adoption, more and more cash rich corporations are likely to purchase more of both, not as a means of simply having fun and making a few extra bucks, but as a way of enhancing their advertising and marketing efforts in the 2020s and beyond. 

The business times, they are changing rapidly.