Coinbase Joins FTX and Binance, Announce Plans For NFT marketplace
One of the leading crypto exchanges, Coinbase has announced it will be opening a waitlist for a nonfungible marketplace it plans to launch later this year, following the similar move from FTX and Binance.
The Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase announced Tuesday that it is launching a marketplace for non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. VP of Products at Coinbase Sanchan Saxena, wrote on October 12:
“Today, we’re announcing Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.
Just as Coinbase helped millions of people access bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way — we want to do the same for the NFTs.”
The Coinbase announcement comes following crypto exchange FTX and its U.S.-based subsidiary introducing a marketplace with users able to trade NFTs cross-chain through the Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, entered the NFT market in June by launching its own marketplace aimed to minimizing transaction costs.
Noting that “Industries such as fashion, gaming, and music are recognizing the power of NFTs to unlock new forms of creativity and ownership,” the Coinbase VP noted, “If you’ve tried to create or purchase an NFT, you’ve probably found the user experience lacking.”
Coinbase aims to make the process simpler, The Saxena wrote:
“We’re making NFTs more accessible by building user-friendly interfaces that put the complexity behind the scenes. We’re adding social features that open new avenues for conversation and discovery.
We’re going to grow the creator community exponentially, a win for artists and for fans.”
With 68 million verified users and 8.8 million monthly active users as of Q2 2021, Coinbase’s entry to the NFT industry could provide competition for established marketplaces like OpenSea and Rarible. OpenSea’s head of product Nate Chastain is facing criticism for using burner wallets to purchase NFTs on the platform so the artwork could receive more attention on the website’s front page. The platform mainly uses Ethereum, which dominates sales in the NFT market.
According to data from DappRadar, the total transaction volume on OpenSea was $8.7 billion at the time of publication, making it the biggest NFT marketplace. NFT sales through the Pokemon-inspired Axie Infinity game came in second at $2.5 billion.
Join the Coinbase NFT waitlist to be one of the first to use the platfrom.
