Coinbase NFT Releases New Features as It Struggles to Attract Traders

By Kate Irwin

Coinbase NFT is adding more new features for its relatively small userbase.

The cryptocurrency exchange’s NFT marketplace has rolled out a number of enhancements since its public beta launch at the beginning of May. Coinbase NFT has added an NFT “Bulk Manage” feature, a “Liked” tab, the ability to edit list prices, an insights page, and a notification hub.

It has also added rarity filters, time-delayed listings, a “Following” feed, and the ability for users to connect up to 10 crypto wallets to a single Coinbase NFT account, among other things. 

But traders haven’t substantially materialized—despite the platform still holding off any Coinbase fees “for a limited time.”

According to external data from Dune Analytics, Coinbase NFT has seen about 8,202 unique buyers and sellers on its platform since it launched two months ago. There have been 20,765 transactions at time of writing, which adds up to a total volume traded of roughly $2.9 million, or 1,468 ETH, per Dune figures.

If those numbers seem high, they aren’t by comparison. Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea saw $15.6 million in total volume traded on Thursday alone. And the industry-leading platform has roughly 1.9 million registered users who have made at least one transaction on the site.

Regardless, Coinbase NFT’s development appears to be continuing, despite the broader crypto bear market and Coinbase’s recent wave of layoffs and rescinded job offers—which led some scorned would-be employees to vent online.

The response to Coinbase’s new features thread on Twitter was mixed, with some expressing concerns about the company allegedly selling user data, which Coinbase has denied, while others argued the company “failed” with its NFT marketplace launch.

But a Coinbase representative told Decrypt that Coinbase NFT is a “Web3 social marketplace” and that it shouldn’t be viewed in terms of on-chain metrics alone.

Right now, Coinbase NFT is focused on building out its product first—monetization, according to the company, will come after.

“We do not focus solely on transaction numbers and volume,” a Coinbase spokesperson told Decrypt via email. The company did not respond to subsequent requests for user counts or engagement statistics.

“There are many other folks on the platform that are interacting and driving use of the social features,” the spokesperson said. “We're early in beta and have many new features coming out regularly. Our focus is on the community using those features to make our marketplace feel more social.”

On its first quarter earnings call in May, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said he was actually “really pleased” with Coinbase NFT’s success thus far and wanted to add support for more blockchains in the future.

“We’re going to keep investing in it,” Armstrong said.

But how much is Coinbase investing in its NFT marketplace? According to President Emilie Choi, the answer is less than 10% of the company’s total budget.

“We allocate roughly 10% of our budget to longer-term bets such as the NFT marketplace,” Choi said on the earnings call.

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