Coinbase Joins the NFT World By Launching its Own Marketplace

There is pretty good news for thousands of NFT community members who will now have another market to exchange their digital artifacts. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States by volume, announced the development of an NFT marketplace six months ago but provided few details about when it will be available. Let’s fast forward to today. You will be amazed to know that the beta version of “Coinbase NFT” was released with collections of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

According to its website, Coinbase is a publicly-traded cryptocurrency exchange platform with about 89 million customers, $278 billion in crypto assets, and $547 billion in quarterly volume traded.

Coinbase Joins the NFT World By Launching its Own Marketplace

Coinbase is curating and promoting a variety of NFT collections during the beta launch, including Doodles, World of Women, and Azuki. Any Ethereum-based collection will be available on Coinbase NFT, with “additional [blockchains] coming soon,” according to Alex Plutzer, NFT product lead at Coinbase NFT. “Over time, we’ll cycle these [collections] out to help introduce people to fantastic NFTs on the platform, particularly for folks who aren’t as familiar with NFTs.”

For a limited time, there will be no transaction costs for NFTs on its marketplace. The price will rise over time, but it will still be a “low single-digit fee,” according to Sanchan Saxena, vice president of products at Coinbase, who spoke at the meeting. To trade NFTs on the platform, users can utilize a Coinbase wallet or any other self-custody wallet they own.

“We’ve successfully brought the complexity of cryptocurrency to the masses in an easy-to-use method,” Saxena said. “We believe we have a similar opportunity to do so for NFTs as well.”

However, unlike its crypto exchange, the NFT marketplace plans to include a “web3 social marketplace,” according to Saxena. The marketplace will allow users to buy, sell, and interact with creators, collectors, and the community around the NFTs they possess.

Those at the top of the Coinbase NFT waitlist will be allowed to become beta testers on the platform, where they will be able to build a profile and display their NFTs, both made and exchanged. In the next weeks, everyone over the age of 18 will be allowed to use the entire platform, according to Saxena.