Japanese watch giant Casio enters the NFT space: details

Japanese watch brand Casio has decided to target the younger generation of customers. Casio Astar has released an NFT series featuring eight digital images developed in collaboration with zkEVM.

Based on Japanese gaming culture, Casio NFTs will be available in Astar’s Yogi Origins. Japan has increasingly expressed its support for the Web3 sector in recent years, especially under the leadership of tech-friendly Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.

Astar zkEVM, a layer 2 blockchain for Ethereum, uses zero-knowledge proofs to improve scalability and reduce transaction costs. Astar zkEVM, which announced a partnership with Casio at X, told community members that these NFTs will be available on the Yoki Origins game’s YoPort tab. It is important to note that Casio has not released its NFT series to the traditional NFT markets such as OpenSea and Magic Eden.

“To celebrate 50 years of Casio’s watch heritage, we are delighted to present exclusive commemorative NFTs inspired by iconic Casio watches. Mind Mode: Discover the thrill of the game with raw and exposed mechanics,” the blockchain platform said in a statement.

These NFTs provide certain benefits to the owners. Ten NFT owners will receive a limited edition original G-Shock watch. In addition, holders of these NFTs can also receive ASTR tokens equivalent to 10,000 yen. At the time of writing, the ASTR token was trading at ¥16.40, according to crypto exchange Kraken.

“Please note that the number of winners and content may vary. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winners,” Astar Network added.

This is not the first time that Casio has entered the Web3 arena. In 2023, the watch brand partnered with Polygon to release a set of 15,000 free NFT G-Shock Creator Passes. Around the same time, Casio launched its G-Shock NFTs on the Metaverse.