Major League Baseball partners with Candy Digital for digital collectibles

Major League Baseball will release new 2023 season digital collectibles through a partnership with Candy Digital. Candy Digital is a non-fungible token (NFT) startup founded in 2021, and it is now entering its third season as an official partner for the MLB.

MLB partners with Candy Digital

Candy Digital was launched when the NFT market was at its peak, and it enjoyed notable success in its early years. However, in late 2022, the NFT startup faced challenges because of the turbulence witnessed across the crypto industry.

In November 2021, Candy Digital laid off over a third of its employees. Earlier this year, Fanatics announced that it would sell around 60% of its majority stake in Candy Digital to a group led by Galaxy Digital.

At the time that Fanatics was selling its stake at the startup, the company had said that in the last year, it was clear that NFTs were likely unsustainable and profitable as a single business operation, according to the CEO of Candy Digital, Scott Lawin, Fanatics has entirely pulled its investment from the startup.

“Fanatics was a fantastic partner and investor to get started with – they’re still an investor in Candy, although at a smaller lever. We still believe there will be opportunities to work together in the future,” the executive said.

Lawin also said Fanatics was a physical-first business that makes physical sports activities memorable. The company purchased a classic trading card brand, Topps, that also supports an NFT initiative. According to Lawin, Candy continued to operate as a digital-first business.

Candy Digital came to the limelight in June 2021. The founding board members of this company include Gary Vaynerchuk, and the CEO of Fanatics, Michael Rubin. The CEO of Galaxy Digital, Mike Novogratz, was also among the founding members.

Interest from investors

The firm reached a $1.5 billion valuation after securing $100 million in October 2021 in a funding round spearheaded by Insight Partners and the Softbank Vision Fund. The other participants in the funding round include Connect Ventures, former NFL star Peyton Manning and Will Ventures.

After Fanatics pulled out its investment in Candy Digital, other firms, such as Galaxy Digital and ConsenSys Mesh, increased their investment after participating in a Series A1 funding round. Lawin attributed the shift in investors to volatility, which usually impacts opinions.

The executive admitted that the company had reduced the number of employees in the industry at the end of last year. He attributed the change to the drop in money flowing into the sector and the entry of people who wanted to make quick money from the space and then exit.

The commemorative game tickets for the MLB by Candy Digital will still be available this season after around 200,000 NFT collectible tickets were redeemed by those who attended games during the last MLB season. Candy Digital’s MLB collectibles are minted on the Palm network, an Ethereum sidechain supporting NFTs.