Mogo Inc. (NASDAQ: MOGO), digital payments and financial technology company, announced today a strategic investment in NFT Trader, a Canadian firm that operates a secure peer-to-peer OTC trading protocol for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. In the premarket, MOGO shares rose 1.45% on the news. In the last trading session, the stocks closed trading at $2.75, declining 5.8%.
Mogo’s initial investment is in the form of a convertible note, which, if converted, will represent a 25% stake in NFT Trader. Mogo also can acquire an additional 25% stake in NFT Trader by purchasing common shares from the founders within six months of the initial investment. Mogo has the authority to appoint one director to NFT Trader’s board of directors and has been granted a pro-rata right to any future securities offerings by NFT Trader, as well as a right of first refusal over any transfers of securities by NFT Trader’s founders.
In addition to assisting the company’s continued growth, Mogo expects to work with NFT Trader to navigate the Canadian regulatory landscape and explore a strategic partnership to bring NFT Trader to Mogo’s Canadian members.
“The world of finance is rapidly changing and nowhere is that more apparent than what we are seeing with the emergence of Web3, the Metaverse and NFTs. Trading volume for NFTs in 2020 was estimated at less than $100M and that grew an estimated 230 times last year to over $23 billion USD. This is also clearly just the beginning as we’re just starting to see a whole new crop of play to earn video games where players are rewarded in native crypto currency and where their characters are NFTs that can be traded. Gaming will become a key way millions onboard into crypto, and the ability for consumers to easily trade NFTs alongside crypto will become increasingly important. We believe that a next-gen financial platform will not only bridge the gap between traditional finance and DeFi, but the merging of the digital and physical worlds will become one of the biggest growth opportunities ever.”
David Feller, CEO of Mogo
Mogo’s investment in NFT Trader adds to the company’s growing portfolio of digital assets and investments, which totaled approximately $150 million 1 at the end of the third quarter of 2021 (including Mogo’s book value in Coinsquare).
NFTs, which are one-of-a-kind digital items that users buy and sell online, use blockchain technology, similar to cryptocurrencies to keep a digital record of ownership. NFT Trader is a well-known trading platform for NFTs, collaborating with several well-known projects such as Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, Gutter Cat Gang, and CyberKongz. NFT Trader is based on a decentralized Web3 ecosystem for securely trading digital assets and provides extensive support for the interoperability of many tokens.
