The9 Limited (Nasdaq: NCTY) (“The9”), an established internet company, Polygon, an Ethereum scaling platform, and Protocol Labs, Inc. (“Protocol Labs”), a major contributor of open-source projects including InterPlanetary File System, or IPFS, and Filecoin, today announced that they have established a strategic partnership to form an ecosystem collaboration on The9’s Non-Fungible Token (NFT) platform NFTSTAR and GameFi Play-to-Earn projects.
The9 announced NFTSTAR as one of its core businesses in August 2021. NFTSTAR is a NFT trading and community platform that provides users with purchase, trade, and interactive activities. The platform will feature NFT collections created by global stars’ licensed IPs. Users can purchase and own stars’ limited NFT collections. Each NFT collectible has a unique record on the blockchain, and the users will obtain the ownership of the unique NFT collectibles through purchase on the platform, or through trading on NFTSTAR’s marketplace. NFTSTAR will accept general payment methods, such as credit cards, to make it easy for mainstream consumers to participate. NFTSTAR (www.nftstar.com) is expected to be officially launched in the fourth quarter of this year.
The three parties have formed a strategic partnership on NFTSTAR and GameFi Projects including but not limited to the following areas:
1. The9’s NFTSTAR platform and the GameFi projects developed by The9 will consider Polygon as the first priority of public blockchain to support the technical operation and maintenance.
2. NFT collectibles on NFTSTAR platform will be stored on IPFS and Filecoin network through leveraging the decentralized systems to enhance NFT products’ security.
3. The three parties will initiate discussions to form a GameFi fund, which will seek promising GameFi projects to invest in and provide financial and technical support to them. The three parties will also collaborate to identify new partners for the fund and continue to explore potential investment opportunities globally.
Seeking to contribute resources and experience to stimulate the development of NFT and GameFi businesses, The9 welcomes relevant project teams or organizations to join this alliance, for a better growth of the NFT and GameFi ecosystem.
About The9 Limited
The9 Limited (The9) is an Internet company listed on Nasdaq in 2004. The9 aims to become a global diversified high-tech Internet company.
About Polygon
Polygon is the leading platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development. Its growing suite of products offers developers easy access to all major scaling and infrastructure solutions: L2 solutions (ZK Rollups and Optimistic Rollups), sidechains, hybrid solutions, stand-alone and enterprise chains, data availability solutions, and more. Polygon’s scaling solutions have seen widespread adoption with 500+ applications hosted, ~600M total transactions processed, ~60M unique user addresses, and $5B+ in assets secured.
If you’re an Ethereum Developer, you’re already a Polygon developer! Leverage Polygon’s fast and secure txns for your Dapp, get started here.
About Protocol Labs
Protocol Labs is an open-source research, development, and deployment laboratory. Our projects include IPFS, Filecoin, libp2p, and many more. We aim to make human existence orders of magnitude better through technology.
We are a fully distributed company. Our team of more than 100 members works remotely and in the open to improve the internet — humanity’s most important technology — as we explore new advances in computing and related fields.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the “safe harbor” provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as “will,” “expects,” “anticipates,” “future,” “intends,” “plans,” “believes,” “estimates” and similar statements. Such statements are based upon management’s current expectations and current market and operating conditions and relate to events that involve known or unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond The9’s control. The9 may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its periodic reports to the SEC, in its annual report to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about The9’s beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement, including but not limited to the following: The9’s goal and strategies; The9’s expansion plans; The9’s future business development, financial condition and results of operations; The9’s expectations regarding demand for, and market acceptance of, its products and services; The9’s expectations regarding keeping and strengthening its relationships with business partners it collaborates with; general economic and business conditions; and assumptions underlying or related to any of the foregoing. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in The9’s filings with the SEC. All information provided in this press release and in the attachments is as of the date of this press release, and The9 does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement, except as required under applicable law.