Canon USA is preparing to launch a curated photography marketplace for NFTs called Cadabra that is expected to go live in the U.S. later this year and expand globally thereafter. Canon previewed Cadabra at the annual NFT.NYC show, revealing few details other than it will mint its NFT transactions on the Ethereum blockchain and allow participating photographers to offer physical prints along with their NFT drops, which Canon will fulfill. Although some NFT marketplaces require customers to make purchases with specific cryptocurrencies, Canon says Cadabra will support credit and debit cards along with cryptocurrency wallets.

Along with cryptocurrency, the non-fungible token (NFT) market took a severe hit in 2022 — falling 97 percent in trading volume, from $17 billion in Q1 to $466 million in Q3, according to Dune Analytics — January 2023 marked the highest trading volumes since June 2022, at $946 million, a 38.5 percent uptick from December.

PetaPixel explains that NFTs are a good medium for digital art because “the blockchain ensures there will always be a trace from the current owner to the original creator.” In order to sell their NFTs, “artists ‘tokenize’ a digital good, like a photograph, and upload it to an NFT marketplace for sale,” PetaPixel writes, adding that “artists have control over the sale of their goods without needing to make physical copies, while prospective owners become the verifiable possessor of a digital good via the blockchain.”

Despite the fact that social media sites are awash in photography, NFTs offer photographers something those platforms don’t: opportunities to monetize. “A lot of photographers are putting out incredible content and getting tons of likes but haven’t been able to convert that into paying rent,” said Donnie Dinch, CEO of NFT marketplace Bitski.

Last year, Canon launched its Legends program, partnering with Immutable Image to mint the works of some participating artists on the Solana blockchain for sale on OpenSea.

“The photo NFT space has been relatively niche compared to larger segments like profile pictures (PFPs) and generative art, but it has yielded photographers with highly valuable collections,” writes Decrypt, noting that “other dedicated photo NFT platforms include Quantum Art and Sloika.”

Interested photographers can sign up on Canon’s Cadabra website to receive news alerts.