Unionbank of the Philippines has also jumped into the non-fungible token (NFT) business by introducing a trading platform for digital assets and collectibles. The bank’s NFT platform has been named “Artifract” and is said to be the very first tokenized NFT site in the country.

It was created by the fintech unit of Unionbank called UBX in partnership with Unit 256 Ventures art-tech startup. It will feature a first-of-its-kind token factory technology that will allow the tokenization of digital or real-world assets on distributed ledgers.

As per CoinGeek, Unionbank’s NFT trading platform’s fractionalization of collectibles feature will be its key offering to users, including beginners, as this will let them join activities and trading deals in the NFT markets. Moreover, with the fractionalization function, it is possible for multiple people to own one NFT item. The bank said that this was designed to make more cost-effective purchases.

It was noted that the NFT adoption in the Philippines is now reaching higher levels where many people want to own at least one digital token. In this stage, both retail and corporate players getting are taking action to get into this business as well, thus, Unionbank’s introduction of its NFT trading platform is timely.

“We will still see more platforms where people build their NFTs and put them out to the market,” Erica Dizon-Go, Unionbank’s head of business fintech unit, said in a statement. “At the same time, we also recognize that cryptocurrency has been one of the services that a lot of customers are already looking for, especially the younger generation, and this demand was accelerated by the pandemic.”

Meanwhile, UnionBank is also working on entering the Metaverse, and this was revealed earlier this month, before the NFT platform project. The financial company teamed up with Sandbox to create its own space in the digital world.

Inquirer.Net reported that the bank is launching its branch outlet in the Metaverse soon. It said that its goal for this scheme is to empower the Filipino Web 3.0 community. Unionbank said it is expecting the virtual banking to transform the lives of its customers as they need to keep up with the changing times and trends.

“We joined The Sandbox because we want to be able to interact and engage with the growing Filipino community in the NFT and metaverse space,” the bank’s Center of Excellence’s NFT head, Migui Planas, said regarding the Metaverse project. “Metaverse services could range from crypto transactions to the creation of NFTs, hosting events, and connecting with new clients.”