eBay Acquires NFT Marketplace

American e-commerce company eBay has acquired KnownOrigin, one of the top NFT marketplaces, according to a Wednesday announcement.

The acquisition is part of the company's "tech-led reimagination," the press release says. The financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, says that the e-commerce giant is looking forward to welcoming a passionate community of artists and collectors.

KnownOrigin was launched back in 2018, which makes it one of the oldest markets worldwide. The Manchester-based start-up, which was started out of a basement, secured £3.5 million worth of funding after completing its Series A round this February.

As reported by U.Today, eBay launched its first collection of NFTs last month in partnership with OneOf, another NFT platform.

The company updated its policy to facilitate NFT sales last May.

Iannone has repeatedly mentioned that the company was exploring cryptocurrency payments, but the San Jose, California-based company is yet to adopt them.

The e-commerce giant, which came into prominence at the peak of the dot-com craze in the late 1990s, has been toying with the idea of embracing Bitcoin since 2013.

Shares of eBay are up roughly 0.54%, peaking at $42.41. They have so far declined more than 36% since the start of the year.