Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has opened a waitlist for its upcoming NFT marketplace. While there are plenty of non-fungible-token (NFT) marketplaces, what makes Kraken different is that it will offer gasless transactions, meaning that users won’t have to pay any gas fee for trading on the platform.
“This helps you build your dream collection with near-instant transfer speeds and the peace of mind that spikes in network activity will not impact the cost of your purchases and trades,” the company said in a blog post.
Some of the other features the platform boasts are rarity index, pay with cash or crypto in your Kraken account, collect NFTs across multiple blockchains, and resale your NFTs among others. Kraken NFT comes with built-in tools that help you understand how rare certain characteristics of an NFT are. Rarity scores help quantify the traits and attributes that make every NFT unique so you can make more informed decisions.
Further, Kraken will let users mint NFTs on Solana as well as the Ethereum blockchain. Earlier, in December, Kraken CEO Jesse Powell told Bloomberg that he wanted Kraken NFT users to be able to borrow funds against high-value NFTs as collateral, however that feature wasn’t announcement.
Meanwhile, Coinbase has also launched the beta version of its NFT marketplace on the Ethereum blockchain. The crypto exchange company will only allow a small set of creators, who are on the company’s waitlist to join the Beta program.
Beta testers will be able to create a Coinbase NFT profile, and buy and sell NFTs using any crypto wallet, whether that’s Coinbase Wallet or something else. The company has also announced zero transaction fees for beta creators. “We’ll eventually add fees, which will be in line with Web3 industry standards, and we’ll provide notice before anything changes.”
While Kraken is a major player in the crypto exchange world, it does feel like it’s getting into NFTs a bit late, and at a time when NFT sales have plunged drastically.
According to the CryptoSlam tracker, in January the sales in NFT were $4.6 billion. By the end of March, the NFT sales stood at $2.44 billion, a decline of 53 per cent in NFT sales. The data further shows that the number of unique buyers dropped from 9.98 lakhs in January to 6.4 lakhs in March and currently stands at 3.81 lakhs for April, a decrease of 66.5 per cent for unique buyers. Meanwhile, OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace, has around 67 per cent fewer trades compared to what it had in March.
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