Getty Images to create 500 million NFTs?

A girl looks at photos in a virtual world
(Image credit: metamorworks / Getty Images)

Getty Images, the world-famous stock photo bank, has over 500 million photos, illustrations and video clips in its archive collection, and some of them could be released as NFTs. Potentially, that's a lot of non-fungible tokens.

Naturally, Getty Images won't be turning every photo or video into an NFT. These non-fungible tokens are digital files registered on a blockchain to create scarcity, see our What are NFTs? guide to more details. Instead the stock photo archive will pick unseen and iconic photos from its famous collection to turn into rare digital art, released as NFTs.

The image library is partnering with digital collectible company Candy Digital to support transactions, which will mint the NFTs onto the carbon-neutral Palm blockchain. You can find out more about this new NFT platform in our NFT crypto guide.

A photo of the Mona Lisa with the NFT logo over it

Getty Images has millions of images and will turn these and new photography into NFTs (Image credit: laurence soulez / Getty Images)

The new Getty Images NFT collection will not only include rare photography from its archive, but the collection will feature new modern photography that will cover key moments in world events, arts and culture.

“With the very best content at our core, innovation is woven into the fabric of Getty Images and this partnership speaks to our mission to connect people with our high quality, exclusive visual content,” said Craig Peters, CEO, Getty Images in a statement.

He added: “We are proud to work with Candy Digital to expand our offering to the fast-growing global audience of NFT collectors, representing significant opportunities for the company and our global photographer community.”

It looks like Getty Images is aiming to make its NFT collection easy to access, with collectors being able to make purchases using credit cards. Given the recent NFT crash and the need to open NFT collection to people beyond the core cryptocurrency fans, Getty Images’ collection could be a bold move.

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Ian Dean
Editor, Digital Arts & 3D

Ian Dean is Editor, Digital Arts & 3D at Creativebloq, and the former editor of many leading magazines. These titles included ImagineFX, 3D World and leading video game title Official PlayStation Magazine. In his early career he wrote for music and film magazines including Uncut and SFX. Ian launched Xbox magazine X360 and edited PlayStation World. For Creative Bloq, Ian combines his experiences to bring the latest news on AI, digital art and video game art and tech, and more to Creative Bloq, and in his spare time he doodles in Procreate, ArtRage, and Rebelle while finding time to play Xbox and PS5. He's also a keen Cricut user and laser cutter fan, and is currently crafting on Glowforge and xTools M1.