We have questions.

Employee of the Month

Jeff Bezos' Amazon is planning on launching a crypto gaming and NFT-focused web3 initiative, sources familiar with the matter told web3 outlet Blockworks.

No, you didn't go back in time to January 2021. It's 2023, the crypto market did in fact tank, and the NFT bubble has all but burst as well.

And yet, despite the collapsed price floors, lawsuits, and widely renewed skepticism of the expensive JPEGs, Amazon has decided that it's finally time to dive headfirst into the marketplace.

"We knew it was possible," said a source, according to Blockworks. "But now it seems like it's really happening."

Got Games?

Blockworks' sources claim that the e-retailer has left no stone unturned in courting an array of major industry power players, with a strong focus on web3 gaming startups and "related NFT applications."

"One example in the works, per one source," reads the report, is "getting Amazon customers to play crypto games and claim free NFTs in the process."

Oh, good. Games. Amazon has also allegedly reached out to several "digital asset exchanges," because things are going really well over there.

AmazonCasino

We have questions. Again, given the state of the broader cryptosphere as well as the NFT niche specifically, this is a very weird move on Amazon's behalf.

It's hard to blame them for wanting to expand on Prime Gaming, indeed the natural next progression to their Blob-like desire to expand on their very expensive digital media empire, but an attempt to subject customers to "crypto games" for NFT prizes — which reads a lot like encouraging users to gamble with unstable, unregulated assets in an effort to win similarly unstable, unregulated assets — feels like an unnecessary risk for a company that already faces a fair share of public and political scrutiny.

That said, Amazon CEO Andrew Jassy has voiced interest in blockchain initiatives in the past.

And in any case, while blockchain might be a turn for Amazon and its founder, we're not really sure what we expected. It's classic Bezos: always last to the party, and only ever with bizarre, half-baked, bordering-on-legality ideas to show for it. At the very least, he's reliable.

READ MORE: Amazon NFT Initiative Coming Soon: Exclusive [Blockworks]

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