Yahoo Finance Coinbase opens its NFT marketplace to everyone
Coinbase (COIN) is opening its NFT marketplace to all users, allowing anyone to join, after initially launching the platform to a select number of invitees in late April.
The NFT marketplace, which is still in beta, is focused on trying to create a social community for buyers and sellers. With opening the platform to everyone, Coinbase is hoping to let users test it and build a social community.
The move comes earlier than expected, with a company spokesperson saying the product is now ready for heavier traffic volumes. The company initially posited it would take weeks to months to open to everyone.
“Coinbase believes NFTs are here to stay, and the Coinbase marketplace is about much more than just buying and selling,” the company said in a statement. “Coinbase is focused on cultivating a community and is excited to be opening the beta up for more people to enjoy the experience they have created.”
Besides exploring what’s for sale, users on Coinbase's NFT marketplace can create a profile and curate it with the NFTs they’ve created, comment on NFTs, or start conversations with other NFT holders and sellers. Like Twitter, users can build followers and discover other collectors and creators.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are certificates of authenticity that show proof of ownership for digital collectibles. The tokens are typically assigned to one-of-a-kind digital music, sports memorabilia, and virtual real estate, among other items.
NFTs, which exploded into a more than $40 billion market in 2021, according to Chainalysis, are seeing some of that activity level off this year as the market matures and risk assets have sold off.
In the first quarter, the volume of sales fell by nearly 50%, with a very marked slowdown in the volume of buyers and sellers, according to a quarterly report by NonFungible, which tracks NFTs. Still,1.2 million have minted NFTs as of February, up from 500 at the beginning of last year, according to blockchain analytics company Nansen’s quarterly report.
Artists can earn royalties from NFTs that give them a percentage of the sale price when their creation is first sold and each time it’s resold on a marketplace. For instance, after the original artist first sells an NFT, the buyer could sell the NFT to another buyer in the secondary market and the original artist would receive royalties on that secondary sale.
Coinbase’s marketplace is designed to be open for all, allowing users to disconnect their digital wallets at any time and take their NFTs with them elsewhere. Users can buy or sell NFTs using a self-custody wallet, that is a digital wallet where owners possess their digital money and assets because only they control the private key.
The authenticity of collections are verified through verification badges. Coinbase is relying on users and the community to report fake NFTs as well as a team that will look out for scams, duplicates, and fakes to take those down.
Coinbase is not imposing a transaction fee for NFT purchases initially, but over time will begin charging one, which the company says will be a low single-digit fee. Users can purchase NFTs in cryptocurrency, but also will be able to use a credit card.
The marketplace is offering a wide range of NFTs from creators and brands, including Doodles, the colorful, line-drawn NFT avatars used as a profile pictures on social media; Boss Beauties, the first NFT artwork collection to be displayed in the halls of The New York Stock Exchange that stands for female empowerment; and actor Bill Murray’s NFT collaboration with The Chive that’s changing the way stories are shared and told. Murray, who has no social media accounts, is using blockchain technology as an alternative to a book or documentary.
Coinbase plans to announce new marketplace features soon.
Jennifer Schonberger covers cryptocurrencies and policy for Yahoo Finance. Follow her at @Jenniferisms.
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