Coinbase wants in on the NFT boom.
On Tuesday, Coinbase said that the biggest Crypto exchange in the US is launching a new marketplace cor the one-of-a-kind digital collectibles by this year’s end.
Users will be allowed everything such as buying, selling and creating NFT, or so-called non-fungible tokens, through Coinbase.
“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,” Coinbase Vice President of Product Sanchan Saxena said.
The crypto behemoth’s entry into NFTs is a direct challenge to Mark Cuban’s OpenSea, which is the current largest NFT marketplace. According to Dune Analytics, OpenSea recorded $3 billion in transactions in September 2021 alone, and $1.3 billion so far in October.
The stock of Coinbase went up little bit in response to the news, but it was still down 3.2 percent on the day as of Tuesday afternoon. Bitcoin’s price, which fell 3.1 percent on Tuesday, has a strong correlation with the company’s stock.
NFTs are a Non-fungible tokens that are one-of-kind and verifiable digital assets which cannot be replicated. For example, they are like the limited-edition baseball cards or collectors’ items.
According to Christie’s, a blockchain-based digital artwork sold for a record-breaking $69 million in March, putting its creator “among the top three most valuable living artists.” When it was announced in March that digital artist Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, would be exhibiting his work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” at the London-based auction house, it made international headlines.
OpenSea generates revenue by taking a 2.5 percent cut of all sales made on its platform. Coinbase hasn’t said how much it will charge for NFTs.
Proponents of NFTs say they let artists cash in on digital versions of their work.
