E-commerce giant eBay has extended its drive into digital collectibles by purchasing U.K.-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace KnownOrigin, according to a press statement. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed, as of now. However, eBay claims the firms have signed and finalized the agreement as of June 22nd.

KnownOrigin was formed in 2018 by David Moore, Andy Gray and James Morgan. All three co-founders are going to join eBay. The website allows creators and collectors to produce, purchase and resell NFTs. However, eBay claims it’s acquiring the whole firm, including IP and the employees.

“We developed KnownOrigin to empower artists and collectors by providing them the capacity to promote, sell, and acquire unique certified virtual content,” said David Moore, the co-founder of KnownOrigin, in a statement. “As interest in NFTs continues to develop, we feel now is the right moment for us to join with a firm which has the reach and expertise of eBay.”

David Moore further noted, ”With more than twenty-five years of developing comparable communities of devoted individuals, we are delighted by chance to bring a whole new audience on this trip. This is the beginning of a new story in the KnownOrigin journey, and we couldn’t choose a better moment to focus on expanding and creating with the crew at eBay. This relationship will help us bring a new wave of NFT artists and collectors.”

The acquisition comes shortly after eBay debuted its first collection of NFTs in cooperation with web3 platform OneOf. The company’s new “Genesis” NFT Collection will showcase 3D and animated versions of the legendary sportsmen featured on Sports Illustrated pages over the years. eBay said the growth in the collectibles sector led to its first partnership in the NFT field.

“eBay is the first stop for people around the world who are looking for that ideal, hard-to-find, or distinctive addition to their compendium and, with this acquisition, we will continue to stay a leading site as our community is progressively trying to add digital collectibles,” said eBay CEO Jamie Iannone in a declaration. “KnownOrigin has built up a great, enthusiastic and dedicated network of creators and collectors, rendering them an ideal inclusion to our community of vendors and buyers. We welcome these innovators as they join the eBay society.”

eBay has been pushing its crypto and collectibles business hard in the last year, increasing its originality guarantee to make sure trading cards sold on eBay aren’t fake and establishing live auctions to display even more collectible objects. Collectible item transactions are at an all-time high coming out of the epidemic, and eBay is seizing the chance to protect both physical and digital assets with the KnownOrigin purchase and the eBay Vault – which, as of writing, is still not a location NFTs are qualified to be housed.