Coinbase ready to launch NFT marketplace

One of the world’s biggest crypto exchanges – Coinbase – is to launch a marketplace that will enable its users to mint, collect and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The company said users can sign up to a waitlist for early access to ‘Coinbase NFT’ – set to compete with major players in the space like OpenSea.

Users will have access to certain ‘social features’ and tap into the so-called ‘creator economy’ – a term used to describe the specific sector where people make money posting content online.

This move into the NFT space could be a way for Coinbase to earn its revenue in a different way since it is currently strongly dependent on exchange fees.

According to DappRadar, OpenSea is by far the biggest NFT marketplace with a record $3.4 billion in transaction volume in August alone.

Coinbase explained the new platform would be used as a peer-to-peer marketplace that will make minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering NFTs easier than ever.

“Just as Coinbase helped millions of people access Bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way — we want to do the same for the NFTs,” a spokesman said.

Mining for free but with hefty gas fees

The company is launching with support from the Ethereum blockchain, but won’t be integrating with any Layer-2 scaling networks at launch. That means Coinbase NFT users will be able to mine for free but still potentially be paying high gas fees and dealing with many of the scalability issues of mainnet Ethereum at launch.

Coinbase says it will eventually offer “multi-chain” support on Coinbase NFT, but is launching with support for ERC-721 and ERC-1155 Ethereum standards.