- Napster is rebranding around cryptocurrencies and NFT's, according to Bloomberg.
- The company, which gained notoriety for giving away music, will launch its own native token under the ticker $NAPSTER.
- Users will be able to buy tickets and other products on Napster's new platform with the coin.
Napster, which gained notoriety two decades ago for giving away music, is planning a comeback centered on cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens, according to Bloomberg.
The new venture is part of Hivemind Capital Partner's private acquisition of Napster. Hivemind is former Citigroup executive Matt Zhang's cryptocurrency project. Napster will issue its own native token, $NAPSTER, for users to buy tickets and other products on the new platform.
Napster's latest revival comes as digital assets have plunged recently along with other risk assets as inflation worries and recession concerns rattle traditional markets. The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has fallen below $1 trillion from a high of $3 trillion, while bitcoin has plunged below $20,000 from its November high of $69,000.
"Despite the short term volatility in the market, personally, I remain very, very optimistic about how this actually will bring a real use case and enduring value, and actually bring a paradigm shift to many sectors," Zhang told Bloomberg.
Napster's rebirth into crypto's will bring the platform to the Algorand network blockchain. Algorand, alongside Brevan Howard Digital Assets, collectively aided Hivemind in its takeover of Napster for an undisclosed amount.
And Napster is staying true to its roots of keeping music lovers at the forefront. In its "lite paper" published on the Napster website Wednesday, the company touts itself as "centered on artists and empowering their creativity in the Web3 and the real world."
$NAPSTER is planned to be limited to 10 billion tokens, Zhang told Bloomberg, although he noted that the circulation supply metric is "meaningless" until the exact use of the coin on its blockchain is worked out.