As part of a deal with crypto investing firm Galaxy Digital to educate readers about the metaverse, TIME Magazine will hold ether (ETH) on its balance sheet for the first time.
TIME Magazine has become the first major news outlet to accept and keep ETH on its books. In April 2021, the corporation was paid in BTC for a deal with the crypto firm Grayscale, and it has been holding the leading cryptocurrency since then.
The magazine will publish a TIME 100 Companies list for the metaverse as part of the deal, as well as a weekly newsletter called Into the Metaverse.
According to the press announcement, the magazine will also feature educational resources on the metaverse on a new portal called TIME for Learning, which will debut in December as part of the arrangement.
Galaxy Digital provides digital asset, cryptocurrency, and blockchain technology advising services. Bloomberg has partnered with the American investment firm to develop product services.
The Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) was launched in May 2018 by Bloomberg and Galaxy Digital Capital Management LP. The index is designed to track the performance of the largest and most liquid section of the bitcoin market.
Galaxy Digital will provide insights from Galaxy Interactive General Partners Sam Englebardt and Richard Kim to assist in understanding the metaverse and its potential.
The metaverse aims to create an immersive, interactive, and shared digital world by combining mixed reality – augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) – with 3D holographic avatars, the Internet of Things (IoT), and digital twins.
It’s being heralded as the next big step forward in the internet’s growth, with businesses like Facebook (now Meta), Microsoft, and NVIDIA laying out their visions for an alternative universe.