Taylor Swift was set to partner with FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange that has now filed for bankruptcy, which would have included an arrangement to have concert tickets minted as NFTs (non-fungible tokens), it has been reported.
According to the Financial Times, founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried was negotiating with Swift over a deal worth more than $100m (£82m/€95m).
FTX was set up in 2019 by Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. By July 2021, it had become the world’s third-largest crypto exchange. However, the company started to suffer at the beginning of last month and declared bankruptcy by November 11.
Following the collapse of FTX, many users reported that they were unable to access their crypto holdings – including NFTs like the Coachella Keys, which were launched earlier this year.
These passes equalled lifetime entry to Coachella and were valued at a total of $1.4m, but as of November, were frozen on the now-defunct FTX blockchain.
Despite skipping a disaster with an FTX NFT ticketing partnership, the Taylor Swift pre-sale still suffered major issues.
Ticketmaster witnessed unprecedented demand for The Eras Tour, causing several problems for the ticketing platform. The general sale was subsequently cancelled, and both Ticketmaster and owner Live Nation are currently facing lawsuits and questions from US lawmakers.