FTX US Opens Trading for CryptoPunks, Bored Apes and Other Ethereum NFTs

By Andrew Hayward

FTX US launched Solana NFT marketplace FTX NFTs in October with the promise that support for Ethereum NFTs would only be a matter of weeks away. Today, the crypto exchange will make good on that promise.

Ethereum NFTs are launching on FTX NFTs today, FTX US President Brett Harrison confirmed with Decrypt. The platform will support ERC-721 collectibles and feature popular collections such as CryptoPunks and the Bored Ape Yacht Club upon launch. A teaser image shared by FTX last week showed silhouettes from the Cool Cats and Doodles collections as well.

As with Solana NFTs, the FTX US marketplace is a centralized, custodial exchange. That means that it has the same level of know-your-customer (KYC) identity checks as the FTX US cryptocurrency exchange itself, and that NFTs must be transferred to the marketplace’s own platform to put them up for sale.

FTX NFTs will offer the same payment options for Ethereum NFTs as it does for Solana collectibles, including the ability to buy in U.S. dollar denominations using a credit card or money via an ACH transfer or wire transfer. Buyers can also use cryptocurrency, as well, and can purchase NFTs via the website or FTX mobile app.

Because the NFT sales take place off-chain on FTX’s own platform rather than entirely on the Ethereum blockchain, users won’t have to pay gas fees for actions like placing bids on NFTs, buying or selling NFTs, or changing bid/offer prices.

That said, users must still pay a gas fee for transferring owned NFT to FTX’s platform for a potential sale, as well as a partially subsidized gas fee to transfer NFTs from FTX to an external, non-custodial wallet, according to Harrison. Similarly, FTX US already subsidizes gas fees for ETH crypto withdrawals, he said.

FTX NFTs is currently the only NFT marketplace to support both Ethereum and Solana NFTs. Ethereum is currently the leading platform for NFT collectibles, recently generating billions of dollars’ worth of trading volume each month, although high gas fees for transactions and environmental concerns are common critiques of the platform.

Solana has emerged as Ethereum’s biggest NFT market rival over the last few months, thanks in part to its speedy transactions, low fees, and significantly lower energy consumption.

FTX’s entry into the Solana marketplace quickly made an impact, too: the exchange refused to list projects that made royalty-like payments to NFT holders, citing regulatory concerns, and many creators changed their rewards policies as a result.

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