The waitlist for Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has already seen over 1.4 million signups, and that’s in less than 48 hours since the San Francisco-based crypto exchange announced the imminent launch of the platform on Tuesday.
Slated to open before the end of the year, Coinbase NFT, according to the original announcement, “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 company said.
Coinbase has been teasing an NFT platform since the spring but has offered little in terms of details. That changed on Tuesday when the cryptocurrency giant announced "Coinbase NFT," a service that promises an easy way for users to mint and purchase NFTs.
"Creating an NFT should be as simple as tapping a few buttons ... Coinbase NFT will be a peer-to-peer marketplace built to enable creativity [w]ith an intuitive design built on top of a decentralized marketplace," said the company in a blog pos...
At press time, the waitlist counter for Coinbase NFT has reached 1,427,450 and with such a ratio of signups could be well on its way to surpass 2 million by the end of the day—provided technical issues don’t slow the process down.
Waiting list of newcomers to Coinbase’s NFT platform. Source: Coinbase
“We are getting a LOT of signups - so grateful for all your interest,” Coinbase vice president of product Sanchan Saxena wrote on Twitter on Wednesday. “We are seeing insane loads on our servers and our team is working hard to get this resolved. Check back soon!”
We just announced the upcoming launch of Coinbase NFT (https://t.co/U1ymWieRT3). We are getting a LOT of signups - so grateful for all your interest 🙏🙏.
We are seeing insane loads on our servers and our team is working hard to get this resolved. Check back soon! #Coinbase
Though there is little info regarding any fees the company may accrue from the new business, these “insane” numbers could turn into a hugely profitable new business for Coinbase.
Coinbase enters NFT race
OpenSea and Rarible are the NFT market’s current incumbents. The two were responsible for a combined $6.8 billion in trading volume in Q3 2021, with OpenSea contributing more than 99% to that figure, according to the latest report from blockchain analytics firm CoinGecko.
Data from DappRadar shows that over the past month, OpenSea has had a rolling 30-day average of 261,050 active users who have conducted a total of 2.49 million transactions worth $3.02 billion.
The U.S. division of cryptocurrency exchange FTX today launched its new NFT marketplace. Initially offering NFTs minted on the Solana network, FTX NFTs will soon add support for Ethereum—the leading blockchain for NFTs—as it attempts to steal some of OpenSea’s thunder.
Unlike OpenSea and decentralized Solana marketplaces like Solanart and DigitalEyes, FTX NFTs lets users buy and sell collectibles in U.S. dollars using credit cards or funds brought in from an ACH bank transfer or wire transfer. U...
These are undoubtedly impressive numbers for the nascent NFT industry. Still, the booming DeFi sector dwarfs these figures, recently passing $216 billion in total value locked. With Coinbase and its user base of more than 68 million entering the scene, things could change dramatically.
I bought my first Bitcoin on Coinbase in 2013. Many will buy their first NFT on it too.
Coinbase is also joined by major players Binance and FTX.
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The Infinite Node Foundation, a newly established nonprofit endowment, announced Tuesday that it has acquired the IP of influential Ethereum NFT collection CryptoPunks from previous owner and Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs.
The Foundation, which announced a $25 million grant in April “to build the future of digital art,” will now steward the 10,000-piece Punks collection first created by Larva Labs in 2017, while Yuga Labs shifts back to its “apeish roots.”
CryptoPunks General Manager Na...
Gaming giant Square Enix, the firm behind Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, announced this week that it is expanding its blockchain game Symbiogenesis to Sony’s Ethereum layer-2 network, Soneium.
Symbiogenesis originally launched on Ethereum scaling network Polygon, and is currently wrapping up what’s slated to be its final season of content. But that imminent conclusion isn’t stopping Square Enix from a further affiliation with Sony on the blockchain.
The initiative connects Symbiogenesis with...
Doodles took its next major step forward Friday after switching CEOs in January, launching its ecosystem token—DOOD—on Solana with an airdrop for NFT holders.
The initiative is the first critical launch since Scott Martin, better known as Burnt Toast, assumed the project’s chief executive role, beginning an era in which he planned to introduce more risk while doing away with its previously “extractive corpo” initiatives.
Martin, who is also the artist behind the Doodles brand, previously spoke...