With patent filings showing that it aims to build its cryptocurrency and NFT collection, it looks that retail behemoth Walmart Inc. is getting ready to enter the Metaverse.

On December 30, the multinational retailer registered many new trademarks with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Still, they went unreported until a CNBC article on January 16 shed additional light on Walmart’s plans.

At the time, Walmart had filed seven patent applications, three of which were under its current advertising subsidiary “Walmart Connect.”

Plans to develop and sell “virtual items,” such as electronics, toys, appliances, clothes, and home decor, were included in the applications. There’s also talk of “digital money” and a “digital token” and buying and selling NFTs.

In the meantime, a separate application reveals plans to trademark the Walmart brand name and logo in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), with the possibility of launching “physical fitness training services” in VR and AR.

This is the most recent in a series of incidents suggesting Walmart’s interest in the Metaverse. In August, the retail behemoth posted a job opening for a “digital currency and crypto product lead” to spearhead its digital currency strategy.

Although the job posting has since been taken down, it is unknown whether the position has been filled. A search on Linkedin for someone in the role at Walmart yields no results.

Walmart has teamed with Coinstar, a crypto ATM firm, and Coinme, a crypto-cash exchange, to deploy 200 Bitcoin ATMs in its shops across the United States in October.

Walmart has also been using blockchain technology since 2018 for supply chain management, customer markets, and intelligent products.

According to Morgan Stanley analysts, the Metaverse might provide retailers with an $8 trillion potential.

According to Digital Commerce 360, Walmart’s sales reached $11.1 billion in the third quarter of 2021. With a market valuation of over $406 billion, Walmart is the largest private employer in the United States. In addition, it owns a hypermarket, discount department store, and grocery store chain.

“80% of the investments that I make that are not on Shark Tank, are in or around cryptocurrencies.”

He went on to say,

“The investments I’m making now are not in traditional businesses.”

The television personality’s NBA team, the Dallas Mavericks, struck a deal with cryptocurrency platform Voyager last year. His brand also accepts Dogecoin for payment due to his numerous other crypto agreements. He also stated in this context,

“Put aside all the speculation you read about with Bitcoin and Dogecoin, all that. Set that aside, that’s just the gamesmanship that’s played with stocks and everything.”

However, he recently indicated in a podcast that he is now considering decentralized autonomous groups (DAOs).

“Every token holder in that application has a chance to set the direction of the network, not always equally, but typically equally. That is really where I look to invest.”

Cuban has previously predicted that DAOs could lead to “disruptive” business prospects.

Cuban is also optimistic about smart contracts, the lifeblood of DAOs, DeFi, and NFTs. Meanwhile, his NFT wallet appears to be filled with Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana items.

It’s worth mentioning that the serial investor recently participated in a capital round for Seattle-based fintech Seashell. An investment firm that aims to provide high yields through crypto-backed loans. Aside from that, Cuban has previously stated that his BTC, ETH, and alt portfolios are split 60 percent, 30 percent, and 10%, respectively.

On January 9th, investors in an NFT collection named Frosties were duped out of almost $1 million as the inventors of the digital tokens disappeared with their money.

Frosties NFT investors lost $1.3 million

According to published information, the collection had 8,888 NFTs, and the floor price was 0.04 ETH, which is nearly $120.

All of the NFTs were sold within an hour. Still, instead of receiving their coveted asset, investors discovered that the project developers had turned off all communication routes with the community.

According to Etherscan, the developers had shifted most of their funds out of the wallet associated with their OpenSea account and into another wallet.

The Frosties NFT project was thought to have significant intentions for its backers, promising “staking, metaverse [and] breeding functions.”

Aside from that, the idea offered “giveaways, airdrops, early access to the metaverse game, and unique mint passes to the following seasons” to those who invested.

Marcellus King, a first-time investor in the space, said he put $3000 into the fraud. He said he was initially wary of the project. Still, He was persuaded after seeing that it “had a flourishing community with a lot of activity, a roadmap, legitimate-looking site, OpenSea account, and artwork.”

Unfortunately, this was all a gimmick to get others to invest in the project.

Investors are trying to figure out how to get their money back

The project’s original developers may have vanished with the investors’ money, but it looks that they are not giving up on the idea.

The NFT’s original owners have started a Discord group chat where they’re now talking about “unrugging the Frosties.”

The organization is now working on a wrapped contract that would aid in the restitution of stolen funds to their proper owners.

One of the group’s approximately 1400 moderators revealed that they are “diligently working behind the scenes to gain control of the project in some way.”

NFT scams in recent times

While this may be the first documented NFT scam of the year, we reported on a number of them last year.

One of the scams we discovered involved “Iconics,” a Solana-based NFT project that cheated investors out of over $130,000 and instead sent them a random assortment of emojis.

Nervos Networks and Pastel have formed a new cooperation to fight concerns such as “rug pulls, NFT disappearances, data losses, and manipulation.”