Coinbase has launched the beta version of its social NFT marketplace, the company has hopes of increasing social involvement in the NFT economy with the recent initiative.
Coinbase (COIN) launched its long-awaited NFT marketplace on Wednesday, with the goal of fostering a social community for buyers and sellers.
“This product is more than just buying and selling,” said Sanchan Saxena, Coinbase’s vice president of product. “It’s all about bringing your community together.” It’s about being able to interact with them and engage with them on the platform.”
In addition to a marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, Coinbase hopes to increase social involvement in the NFT economy by forming a community for NFTs.
Users can establish a profile and customize it with the NFTs they’ve generated, comment on NFTs, and initiate conversations with other NFT holders and sellers, in addition to browsing what’s for sale. Users can follow other collectors and makers, just like they do on Twitter.
Lucréce, an NFT maker on Coinbase’s platform, said, “The community aspect has become a pretty significant part, almost as vital as the art itself.” “When you build a community, they become your champions.” I don’t have a large crew because I’m a solo creator. People who share your vision and long-term goals are the ones you want to have involved with you… NFTs are by their very nature sociable.”
Coinbase NFT marketplace
Coinbase’s marketplace is intended to be open to everyone, allowing users to disconnect their digital wallets at any time and take their NFTs with them wherever they go. Users can buy and sell NFTs using a self-custody wallet, which is a digital wallet in which owners have sovereignty over their digital money and assets because only they have access to the private key.
Verification badges will be used to verify the legitimacy of the collections. Coinbase will rely on users and the community to report bogus NFTs, as well as a team dedicated to identifying scams, duplicates, and fakes and removing them.
Coinbase will not charge a transaction fee for NFT purchases as an initial promotion, but will eventually begin charging one, which the company claims will be in the low single digits. Users will be able to buy NFTs with cryptocurrencies as well as credit cards.
The marketplace will be exposed to a limited number of invitees in beta before being more widely available to the general public. Coinbase wants to expand its marketplace to more people and nations in the coming weeks as it refines the product and adds new features based on feedback from early adopters.
Coinbase hopes to partner with artists to release exclusive NFTs on the Coinbase platform in the next weeks and months, in addition to enabling the opportunity to buy and sell NFTs on the secondary market. Coinbase will also assist with the management of royalties for NFT creators, ensuring that the original author is paid on a daily basis whenever an NFT is sold.
“On the platform, we’re making it possible to own your own smart contract,” Saxena explained. “We believe that each artist should have their own smart contract, rather than being trapped under the smart contract of a platform.”
The NFT Coinbase store will be able to search for any NFT produced on the Ethereum blockchain. Users can search for new collectors by price or collection name, or use the “explore” page to locate brand new artists tailored to their likes. On the site, Coinbase will also suggest people follow.
“We believe Coinbase’s debut of its NFT marketplace will be a game-changer for both the company and the NFT space,” says Mark Palmer of BTIG fintech.
“We believe the marketplace will provide key diversification away from crypto trading, which now accounts for the vast bulk of its revenue, and it will be an important component in what we see as a growing, diversified digital asset platform,” says the company.
According to Chainalysis, the market for NFTs has grown to more than $40 billion in 2021. According to Coinbase, this is up from a projected $338 million in 2020.
