Puma is the latest big sportswear brand to jump feet first into crypto and blockchain tech, buying a decentralised .eth URL from the Ethereum Name Service (ENS).

The German company follows rivals Nike and Adidas into the wide world of crypto but is taking things a step further on Twitter – rebranding to Puma.eth.

According to its account on NFT marketplace OpenSea Puma has also recently purchased a cluster of cat-related NFTs. These include: Cool Cat #32 (bought for 14 ETH, roughly US$38,000 at time of writing); a Gutter Cat worth about US$20k; a couple from the CatBlox Genesis collection and a Lazy Lion.

Is this the real life? Is this just metaverse? Judging by various “The cat’s out of the bag” tweets in the past couple of days, Puma has formed partnerships with those three NFT collections, too.

https://twitter.com/CatBloxStudios/status/1495820786988244995?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1495820786988244995%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcointelegraph.com%2Fnews%2Fpuma-rebrands-to-puma-eth-on-twitter

As for the metaverse, yeah, there’s an angle. Pretty much any time NFTs are associated with a major brand, that other big crypto buzzword isn’t too far away.

According to Puma’s website, the company is seeking to hire a “Digital Culture Manager” and an associate creative director – both requiring  metaversal knowledge.

In fact, the positions need candidates to have an “understanding of web3 including NFTs, gaming, metaverse, cryptocurrencies, and DAOs.”

In December last year, Puma’s rivals Nike and Adidas both made big entrances into the NFT and metaverse sectors of crypto. Nike acquired the virtual sneakers and collectibles brand RTFKT, while Adidas launched an NFT collaboration with Bored Ape Yacht Club, PUNKS Comic and gmoney.

 

Puma ranks below ‘shitty’ on the .eth leaderboard

At the time of writing, Puma is ranking 13th spot on the .eth Leaderboard, which lists the most followed Twitter accounts with .eth names.

Leading the pack is parishilton.eth, owned by, yep, you guessed it celebrity socialite and NFT fan Paris Hilton, followed by shaq.eth, owned by former NBA star Shaquille O’Neal.

Among other notable names ahead of Puma on that list are Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin and a Bored Ape-holding influencer with more than three million Twitter followers who goes by the handle “shitty.eth”.

Puma might want to up its Twitter game if it wants to get ahead of the shitty account. Just sayin’.

 

 

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