Quick take:
- Majid Al Futtaim has partnered with Binance to launch Web3 services across its shopping malls.
- The partnership will allow customers to buy using virtual assets at MAF businesses.
- The Emirati retail and leisure conglomerate is the latest Middle East-based company to venture into the trendy world of NFTs.
Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) has teamed up with Binance to bring virtual assets to its businesses. The United Arab Emirates-based shopping mall operator is foraying into the Web3 craze with NFTs and a series of blockchain projects planned on the Binance NFT marketplace.
The UAE has been one of the leading early adopters of Web3 products in the middle east, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs), NFT art, and the metaverse. The Emirati retail conglomerate is the latest in a long list of enterprises from the region that have already announced various Web3 projects.
Saudi’s Neom City launched a Cognitive metaverse project in February this year to revolutionise the tourism and travel industry, while the UAE’s health ministry launched a metaverse-based customer service centre called MetaHealth.
MAF and Binance’s partnership will allow the retail company to harness the properties of Web3 technology as part of a long-term strategy of future-proofing its business and onboarding its customers to the exciting world of NFTs and the metaverse.
According to the agreement, MAF will roll out several blockchain and NFT projects on the BNB chain, including the creation of a digital wallet infrastructure to hold virtual assets from multiple platforms, and the integration of Binance Pay. This will allow MAF customers to make purchases using virtual assets across all its businesses.
Commenting on the partnership, Majid Al Futtaim CEO Alain Bejjani said: “The exponential rate of technology development today is matched only by consumers’ voracious appetite for exceptional customer experiences in both the physical and digital world.”
On the other hand, Changpeng Zhao, CEO and co-founder of Binance, commented: “Integrating Web3 technologies will give its customers access to innovative new ways to engage with its brands and provide new ways to pay.”
Zhao believes that it is partnerships like the one forged with Majid Al Futtaim that will usher in the next digital era. “Majid Al Futtaim is positioned to become a trailblazer in bridging the gap between physical and Web3 experiences,” he added.
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