Six months ago, America’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase, announced to join the NFT space with its own marketplace, named Coinbase NFT. This news was then warmly received by the NFT community, with more than 8.4 email addresses on the waitlist. Since then, not much information has been revealed, leaving many wondering about the future of this project. Then fast forward to today, the beta mode of “CoinBase NFT” was officially launched with collections of NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.
The Beta testers for Coinbase NFT would be able to create online profiles as well as buy and sell NFTs. In a Tuesday press briefing, Coinbase’s vice president, Sanchan Saxena, hinted the design of the marketplace would be a cross between a social media platform and other NFT marketplaces like OpeaSea.
“While it is true that buying and selling NFTs is a big part of the ecosystem today, what we have learned by talking to many customers and creators is that there is more to it than just buying and selling,” said Saxena. “There is the community aspect of it.”
According to Saxena, the platform will create an interactive environment between users and creators. Users can follow profiles of creators and others, comment on artwork and monitor a personalized feed to discover new NFTs based on engagement and purchases.
To enhance users’ experience, Coinbase NFT also integrates many other popular Ethereum wallets besides its own wallet and supports payment via bank accounts.
Moreover, there would be no transaction fees for a limited time, and gas fees will be reduced for Ether (ETH) transactions by partnering with 0x Labs.
In the future, Coinbase NFT plans to add more features such as NFT drops, minting, and token-gated communities. It also looks to add the option to buy NFTs with a Coinbase account or credit card so the ecosystem is more accessible to mainstream audiences.
To attract more users, the marketplace will also partner with famous NFT artists, who will do collection drops on Coinbase NFT. Saxena shared. “You can expect Coinbase NFT to become the platform where the next Bored Ape Yacht Club or organization is doing their launches on the platform.”
“This is just the beginning,” he added.