KPMG Canada follows Bitcoin buy with purchase of World of Women NFT

The Canadian branch of KPMG has purchased a non-fungible token (NFT) from the World of Women collection, marking the global accounting firm’s foray into digital collectibles, the company announced Monday.

The NFT, Woman #2681, was purchased on Feb. 13 for 25 ETH before being transferred to a separate wallet, a spokesperson told CoinDesk via email. The company also revealed it owns kpmgca.eth, the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) domain name meant for making wallet addresses easier to use.

The move follows the firm’s announcement that it had added ether (ETH) and bitcoin (BTC) to its balance sheet earlier in February.

The consulting giant said the impetus of the NFT purchase was to better inform how it advised clients looking to enter the space.

“NFTs unlock a new channel for organizations to engage with their customers, while also underpinning innovation through the secure digitization of assets,” Benjie Thomas, managing partner at KPMG in Canada, said in a press release. “Having now gone through the process, we are well-positioned to guide our clients around building a corporate NFT strategy, including acquiring and safeguarding NFTs.”

World of Women has seen a meteoric rise to the top of the NFT charts since its launch in November, touting an 8.5 ETH (roughly $24,000) floor price on secondary marketplace OpenSea.

The project has benefited heavily from promotion by actress Reese Witherspoon, whose media company Hello Sunshine partnered with the project in February.

KPMG isn’t the first corporate giant to ape into splashy NFT purchases. Last year, Visa made headlines by buying a CryptoPunk NFT for $150,000. The floor for the CryptoPunks collection now sits at $193,000.