Who knew Coinbase’s NFT marketplace launch would suck this bad
Coinbase’s new non-fungible-token (NFT) marketplace made a shockingly slow start to life with the platform, created in partnership with 0x Labs, garnering fewer than 150 transactions on its day of release.
The exchange had racked up a waiting list of more than 3 million people, a select few of whom were given access to the beta version of Coinbase NFT.
But on launch day, things fell a little flat. The so-called social marketplace, which incorporates an Instagram-style follow, comment, and like system, alongside a content feed, welcomed just 300 users, according to Dune analytics.
To lend a little perspective, the world’s biggest NFT marketplace OpenSea managed a $177 million trading volume in the same period.
As reported by Bloomberg, Coinbase plans to reinvigorate its profits by diversifying its offering, but in an earlier piece an analyst warned, “I don’t think the waitlist is going to be as excited about NFTs as they were six months ago.”
Meanwhile, others speculate that Delaware-headquarted Coinbase is playing the long game and that its lack of urgency to enter the NFT space is a sign that it’s prioritizing quality.
Nevertheless, the number of rivals in the space is growing seemingly by the day. Kraken has also announced its own beta NFT marketplace with the promise of zero gas prices.
NFT fans say doom and gloom data is wrong
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) caused quite a stir this week when it appeared to back up the idea of waning interest in NFTs and suggested that market activity had “completely flatlined.”
It quoted crypto analytics site NonFungible as saying: “The sale of NFTs fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September.”
The piece also discusses rising interest rates, Bitcoin’s fall of 43% since its peak, and the price of Jack Dorsey’s Genesis Tweet NFT.
The NFT was bought for $2.9 million and listed for $48 million but has since seen offers hitting just 10.3 ETH or $30,000.
However, after the release of the WSJs’ piece, NFT fans highlighted how data points used in the outlet’s research were not complete.
Partner at San Francisco-based Dragonfly Capital, Tom Schmidt took to Twitter to showcase how there is no apparent flatlining when it comes to the number of NFTs transacted this year using OpenSea. Compare that to the graph WSJ uses, and things don’t quite add up.
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Likewise, another Twitter user noted that not only are NFT transactions nowhere near flatlining but also that weekly user numbers are higher than in 2021, ETH volumes are on the up, and the number of active projects is showing steady growth.
So, while things may have started slowly for Coinbase, and there are some big names out there for it to compete with, the NFT market itself looks like it may be sticking around for a little while yet.
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