Exclusive: WISeKey CEO On NFT Opportunity, Business Model For The Internet Of Things

The CEO of WISeKey International Holdings WKEY joined Benzinga’s “Power Hour” Friday to discuss details of the company and its NFT opportunity.

NFT Opportunity: CEO Carlos Moreira told Benzinga the back end of technology for non-fungible tokens has been present for many years and is now becoming monetizable. WISeKey is working on connecting physical and digital goods together with unique NFTs.

The company announced the first-ever secure luxury NFT watch auction happening on March 31 on OpenSea. The NFT watch will be embedded with a digital certificate.

“Establishing a relation between the object and NFT is essential,” Moreira said.

WISeKey has been certifying physical items for years with over 1.6 billion physical items already tagged.

“This is becoming the business model for the Internet of Things that we have been doing for many years.”

Moreira said that with this technology, people can keep the original physical asset and monetize the twin of the item as an NFT. WISeKey allows expensive items to have a business model.

“This is a breakthrough, brings a business model to the crypto world," Moreira said, noting that WISeKey has a patent on part of the process.

What’s Next: Moreira told Benzinga an announcement will be coming next week discussing additional expensive watch NFTs.

WISeKey is the first cybersecurity company to enter the NFT space, Moreira said, and the company wants to become the Amazon.com AMZN of the NFT market: “Everything is going to be connected to the internet.”

The Internet of Things is one of the fastest-growing technologies around and WISeKey is helping to provide solutions for businesses in the NFT space and also in cybersecurity.

Growth Ahead: WISeKey did an acquisition at the beginning of the year to help fuel growth, the CEO said. Shares of WISeKey trade as ADRs in the U.S., which could give the company an opportunity to do a larger listing in the U.S. in the future.

Moreira told Benzinga WISeKey is not just an NFT company and has some joint ventures in place to help grow its cybersecurity and Internet of Things businesses.

A joint venture in Saudi Arabia could be huge as plans call for the building of smart cities in 2030, which will need a lot of chips and the company’s technology.

“Cybersecurity not global, need to work with joint ventures,” Moreira said, adding the company has a strong joint venture in India.

WKEY Price Action: Shares of WISeKey closed up more 6% at $15.19. The stock hit a daily high of $20.95 prior to the interview.