News UK explores cashing in on crypto boom with NFTs

theguardian.com:

Rupert Murdoch’s publishing arm is considering making a move into the frothy market of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, by turning the Times and the Sun’s extensive archive of photos, cartoons and classic front pages into unique digital versions.

News UK is in the early stages of evaluating whether the crown jewels among its tens of thousands of physical images, such as exclusive pictures of the Queen, to front pages such as “It’s The Sun Wot Won it!”, to Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster, could be given a lucrative second life as exclusive digital collectibles the public could buy and trade.

Its interest comes as the market for the controversial trading of NFTs, which is viewed by sceptics as a speculative bubble akin to the cryptocurrency craze, grew to an estimated $22bn (£16bn) last year.

The possible entry into the world of NFTs, a market that has been questioned by News UK’s own titles, is understood to be driven from the top, with the chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and the chief operating officer, David Dinsmore, said to be involved.

The Times unwittingly played an important role in the rise of crypto-assets. Satoshi Nakamoto, the presumed pseudonym for the person or persons who created bitcoin, embedded and quoted the 3 January 2009 front page, which led with “Chancellor on Brink of Second Bailout of Banks”, in the first ever bitcoin block chain transaction in what is now known as the Genesis Block.

The move, a nod to Nakamoto’s hope that cryptocurrencies may change the global financial system for the better, led to the edition being referred to as “the most rare, and most valuable crypto-collectible in existence” – in the newspaper industry, at least.

One of the areas News UK is understood to be looking at is how to