US crypto exchange Coinbase has rolled out a beta version of its much-anticipated non-fungible token (NFT) social platform, currently available to a select testing group.
“Beta testers will be able to create a Coinbase NFT profile to buy and sell NFTs using any self-custody wallet, whether that’s Coinbase Wallet or something else. For a limited time, there’ll be no Coinbase transaction fees. We’ll eventually add fees, which will be in-line with Web3 industry standards, and we’ll provide notice before anything changes,” Coinbase’s Sanchan Saxena, VP of Product and Ecosystem Products said in a blog post.
Coinbase appears to be taking the marketplace in a more social direction, where users create their own profiles and curate them with NFTs that fit their image. Any self-custody wallet can be connected to an account so that users can select which NFTs they want to add, highlight, or hide from their profile.
Users of the platform can follow other profiles, and like, share, or comment on their NFTs. A “Discover” page is also part of the platform, similar to Twitter’s “Explore” function.
Image via Coinbase NFT
“In the coming weeks and months, we’ll add more features that will gradually bring our vision for a web3 social marketplace to life. We’re planning to add drops, minting, token-gated communities, and the option to buy NFTs with your Coinbase account or a credit card. We’ll also add support for NFTs on multiple chains. And over time, we intend to decentralize more features by moving them from Coinbase tech to decentralized solutions.”
In October, when Coinbase launched the waiting list for the new platform, it took less than a day to amass one million names on the list, and less than two weeks to attract another million and a half people. As of April 12, Coinbase had 4.5 million users waiting to get on the new NFT platform.
The massive interest in Coinbase’s new foray into NFTs could end up taking significant market share from OpenSea, the current leading NFT platform. According to Dune Analytics, OpenSea didn’t hit 1 million active users until January of this year, which pales in comparison to Coinbase’s waitlist.
