Coinbase opens its NFT trading platform to beta testing

Cryptocurrency exchange platform Coinbase has finally opened its Web2 social marketplace for NFTs, but to a select audience for beta testing, according to a blog post.   

On October 12, 2021 Coinbase had announced that an NFT marketplace will be coming soon.  

The company said that it has been getting inputs from the NFT community and even released a couple of YouTube videos in early February this year with tutorials on how to sign-in to Coinbase NFT and how to buy NFTs on the platform.   

Now in the beta testing stage, the platform will be accessible to a small set of testers whom the company said “will be invited based on their position on the waitlist,”. The waitlist opened in October last year. 

It is to be noted that after the new 30% tax on cryptocurrency profits came into effect on April 1st this year, trading volumes on India’s major cryptocurrency exchanges plummeted. It also saw Coinbase suspend its operations in the country just three days after announcing the launch of its services in the country. Coinbase announced that it will allow trading via UPI even amidst regulatory confusion.

However, on April 11, the website showed that the platform had suspended payments via UPI after the regulatory body NPCI took to Twitter saying that “The National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI.”  

Statement by NPCI as on 7th April 2022. With reference to some recent media reports around the purchase of Cryptocurrencies using UPI, National Payments Corporation of India would like to clarify that we are not aware of any crypto exchange using UPI. Please see attached document pic.twitter.com/lGTcaSLKeC

— NPCI (@NPCI_NPCI) April 7, 2022

According to a March 2, 2022 Deloitte report, NFTs in the area of sports media alone is estimated to generate more than $2billion ( around Rs.15,000 crore) transactions in 2022.  

The case in point for India’s NFT potential is with cricket NFT platform Rario, raising a Series A $120 million round led my Dream Capital. On April 19, Coinbase itself invested an undisclosed amount in NFT-creation platform Mintbase.  

Back to Coinbase’s NFT platform, with the intent to launch generally, Coinbase will be taking on competitors such as the likes of OpenSea, Rarible, SuperRare and AtomicMarket. The platform will include social features such as a commenting system with upvotes and downvotes like in Reddit, and an algorithmic feed.  

Somewhat akin to Instagram, the platform will include profiles of users who can showcase their collection of NFTs, these profiles can be followed by other users. It will also include a discover feed for NFTs which will include NFT recommendations based on the user’s interest gauged through algorithms that run on trending topics and interest of the individual users.   

Also read: Firms put NFTs, blockchains to work to manage real world assets in India 

The beta testers, who can pay using a crypto wallet such as the one Coinbase offers on MetaMask,  will have a shopping tab where they can purchase specific NFTs and is currently only supported by the Ethereum Blockchain. However, Coinbase said that the NFT marketplace will support Mastercard in the future.