OpenSea-Backed Americana Offers Public Access to Unique ‘Phygital’ Vaulting System

Vaulting platform Americana, backed by the popular OpenSea NFT marketplace, has launched its concierge vaulting, allowing collectors to store, showcase, and sell both physical and digital assets.

On July 21, Americana announced that its vaulting is now open to the public.

According to the website, the platform is now accepting applications with up to three of “your favorite collectables.”

The first year of vaulting, said Americana, is free.

In a podcast, Founder and CEO Jake Frey described this “opening of the gates” from beta to the other collectors as a “huge” step the company has been working on for a long time.

Frey explained that,

“You will work directly with a fine art handler – we’ve partnered with some of the best fine art handlers in the world – regardless of what your item is, you’ll get white-glove service. And then we bring it to our vault: high-security, temperature-controlled, tax-free-state vault where we store the thing, but first digitize it.”

Launched last year, the company has its own platform that digitized items and provides a detailed, “in-depth” view of each of those items.

The valuables, regardless of their size, can then be kept in a vault or listed for sale. “The offers will certainly be rolling in, so you can always browse and contemplate selling something,” Frey stated.

Even if sold, the physical item does not need to be moved – it can remain vaulted, while the ownership changes hands.

Therefore, the platform now serves as a single stop for various related services: it offers its users a physical vault, transportation process of the goods to the facility, digitization of every piece, owner authentication via the blockchain, condition reporting, and an online marketplace for buying and selling these blockchain-verified physical assets.

Digital and physical works will be secured with a single Americana Digital Title. That way, “collectors can acquire them as the creator intended, together.”

Americana says that its vaults are monitored 24/7 by state-of-the-art security under storage experts Crozier Fine Arts management.

Collectors will have a consultation with the team to create a plan and complete the authentication process before a digital certificate of authenticity can be issued.

The company is also backed by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six VC firm, raising $6.9 million in seed funding in early May 2022.

In collaboration with OpenSea and rapper Future, Americana released 10,000 non-fungible tokens (NFTs), called ‘Something Token’, each serving as “membership to Americana” and offering holders exclusive access and discounts.

Americana also says that it is “committed to creator royalties: 10% on every sale.”