Coinbase's NFT Marketplace Opens To All, But Users Don't Show Up (bloomberg.com) 35
Coinbase's new marketplace for nonfungible tokens is now officially open to all -- and it's getting off to a very slow start. From a Bloomberg report on Wednesday: After letting in a select number of users from its waiting list in the last few weeks, the U.S.'s biggest crypto exchange opened the marketplace to everyone as of noon Wednesday New York time. The site -- which Coinbase says is still in testing -- recorded fewer than 110 transactions as of about 5:15 pm, representing less than $60,000 in sales, according to tracker Dune Analytics. (Update: Fewer than 1,700 transactions at the time of publication, representing less than $700,000 in sales) That compares with $124 million in transaction volume for No. 1 NFT marketplace OpenSea on May 3, the most recent day available, per Dune. The result is hardly the mad rush expected by some on Wall Street after Coinbase's NFT project attracted several million signups to its waiting list when it first announced the marketplace last fall. The new site is part of efforts by Coinbase to diversify its revenue and fuel growth, which is expected to turn negative this year. The NFT project is overseen by Surojit Chatterjee, a former Google employee who joined Coinbase last year at a compensation package of $646 million.
Nick Tomaino of 1confirmation, an investor at Coinbase, tweeted earlier this week, in part: I haven't sold a share of Coinbase but will sell all my shares if the company doesn't make a strong move in NFTs in the next year. The current NFT product is not it. Coinbase built a massive business by being the bridge that connects fiat and crypto and keeping a finger on the pulse of the bleeding edge of crypto. For the first decade of the company the main way people entered the space was cryptocurrency so being laser focused on BTC and later other coins made a lot of sense. NFTs are now the most important onramp to crypto. The data this year is undeniable. Macro enviornment weak, NFTs strong. The fact that Coinbase hasn't yet shipped a fiat > NFT onramp product is very bad for shareholders. There's already been billions of dollars left on the table by not offering a marketplace product.
Their whole approach to NFTs has been off. Months of vaporware to drum up hype and then an Instagram-like feed for NFT influencers feels like an approach from an out of touch Silicon Valley company who knows NFTs are hot but doesn't understand them deeply from user perspective. This is a major divergence from the crypto native company with a finger on the pulse that Coinbase has been historically. Being first to trends and having the will within the company to get meaningful shit done has been the hallmark. As a company grows it's always hard to keep that, but if the finger on the pulse is gone and Coinbase is no longer the leading bridge between fiat and crypto it is no longer a great asset to own imo.
Nick Tomaino of 1confirmation, an investor at Coinbase, tweeted earlier this week, in part: I haven't sold a share of Coinbase but will sell all my shares if the company doesn't make a strong move in NFTs in the next year. The current NFT product is not it. Coinbase built a massive business by being the bridge that connects fiat and crypto and keeping a finger on the pulse of the bleeding edge of crypto. For the first decade of the company the main way people entered the space was cryptocurrency so being laser focused on BTC and later other coins made a lot of sense. NFTs are now the most important onramp to crypto. The data this year is undeniable. Macro enviornment weak, NFTs strong. The fact that Coinbase hasn't yet shipped a fiat > NFT onramp product is very bad for shareholders. There's already been billions of dollars left on the table by not offering a marketplace product.
Their whole approach to NFTs has been off. Months of vaporware to drum up hype and then an Instagram-like feed for NFT influencers feels like an approach from an out of touch Silicon Valley company who knows NFTs are hot but doesn't understand them deeply from user perspective. This is a major divergence from the crypto native company with a finger on the pulse that Coinbase has been historically. Being first to trends and having the will within the company to get meaningful shit done has been the hallmark. As a company grows it's always hard to keep that, but if the finger on the pulse is gone and Coinbase is no longer the leading bridge between fiat and crypto it is no longer a great asset to own imo.
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I don't understand why this keeps getting posted. I understand the Nasi bullshit but not this.
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In Soviet Russia, Troll Farm pays you.
The user are NFTs to! (Score:3)
Re:The user are NFTs to! (Score:4, Insightful)
They're birds!
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They're apes!
And they're getting bored.
Weird (Score:5, Insightful)
It's almost as though the entire NFT thing is a scam so obvious that even the speculators aren't really interested in it.
It's just pining for fjords... (Score:2)
All the shilling pump-and-dump rugpullers probably didn't get the memo to shill the pump... It happens.
It's a decentralized scam - not an organized one.
They'll simply have to shill more if they don't want to stay poor and die in a gutter.
Something-something-Elon Musk, Moon, soon to be dead dogs, [cnet.com] Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon, Lamborghini, Linguine, monkeys, GM/GN.
Re:Weird (Score:4, Informative)
Didn't help that two prominent YouTubers did basically a very neutral POV analysis of NFTs.
Steve Mould did a technical analysis of an NFT [youtube.com] by examining NFTs on the blockchain, and revealing what an NFT is actually in the blockchain. Basically you got a data file that just contains pointers to a file contained in IPFS.
Then LegalEagle did a video on the legal issues with NFTs [youtube.com]. And let's say it's not good - since owning an NFT confers no copyright rights. And some items like the Bored Ape NFTs which were computer generated, may not actually be copyrightable because humans were involved very minimally in the creation.
In short, NFTs are neat things, but "ownership" is murky - because owning the NFT may not have the things you think it does. It may not even be sold by a copyright owner. So instead of just clicking "buy", one must do a whole pile of off-chain research to see if the seller has the rights to what they're selling.
And then there's other things - because of First Sale Doctrine. The first person who purchases an NFT might get benefits for buying it. But those benefits don't necessarily confer to the person who bought the NFT off the first purchaser - there is no sale contract between the original producer and the second purchaser as there would be between the producer and the first purchaser due to First Sale Doctrine. So someone selling an NFT that includes say "bonus membership into the club", if the NFT is sold again, there is no obligation that bonus follows the NFT because the First Sale Doctrine applies to both the original purchaser and seller only.
Thus, an interesting technology, but two explainer videos that neutrally say "well, you don't really get anything..."
A market place to buy and sell NFTs. (Score:2)
I Can't say I'm surprised. (Score:1, Funny)
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I Can't say I'm surprised. NFT's are fading faster than Will Smith's career.
Is that the guy who insulted and embarrassed his wife on national TV by assuming she couldn't defend herself against a joke?
The bubble is bursting? (Score:2)
It's funny that these two stories show up on /. on the same day:
- Google's Cloud Group Forms Web3 Team To Capitalize on Booming Popularity of Crypto
- Coinbase's NFT Marketplace Opens To All, But Users Don't Show Up
Just as the behemoths are jumping into the pool the marketplace is cooling off. Let's hope this is the sign of the bubble bursting.
Re:The bubble is bursting? (Score:4, Interesting)
Even if the fundamentals of NFT marketplaces were solid -- they're undoubtedly not -- the macroeconomics are starting to indicate that a deep and probably fairly prolonged recession is imminent. It's going to be painful for most people. It's going to be devastating for NFT gamblers who spent money they really couldn't afford.
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Mostly agree. The Fed's decision to cut back on liquidity will expose some uncomfortable realities about the underlying economy. There may be another leg up in the stock market, after the Fed decides to pause, but for the crypto crowd this very well may be the last stop.
Disagree on the length of the recession. Once the SHTF the Fed will pump even more liquidity. The last stand, if you will.
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Firstness isn't everything (Score:2)
Off the top of my head I can think of quite a few counterexamples, Apple (the biggest company in terms of market cap), Microsoft (dominant in the desktop), Google (top browser and mobile OS).
Apple didn
Who is Nick Tomato? (Score:2)
And why should I care?
user perspective (Score:2)
but doesn't understand them deeply from user perspective
What on earth is the user perspective of an NFT? I assume I can buy an NFT, and I can sell an NFT, but what can I do with an NFT?
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> but what can I do with an NFT?
Hope you can sell it to another sucker? /s
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You don't even need the /s for that, that's literally all you can do with NFTs.
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All of the NFT and cryptocurrency stuff has a very strong "you just don't understand it!"
It's the Wookie defense in reverse. Does this sound ridiculous? Then it must be true! You're just out of touch and missing the boat. FOMO!
Now give me all your money.
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I've heard that a user could slurp multiple juices on a single ape! Now that's for some perspective!
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I assume I can buy an NFT, and I can sell an NFT, but what can I do with an NFT?
Losing money seems to be one of the most popular things you can do with an NFT.
Where's the gif? (Score:2)
If you look inside the blockchain you will find that your gif is Not Fucking There.
Wishing doesn't make it so (Score:2)
Just because you say something is valuable doesn't mean that it is. It's amazing that this scam has lasted as long as it already has.
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lol, quite.
"Tulip mania (Dutch: tulpenmanie) was a period during the Dutch Golden Age when contract prices for some bulbs of the recently introduced and fashionable tulip reached extraordinarily high levels, with the major acceleration starting in 1634 and then dramatically collapsing in February 1637 It is generally considered to have been the first recorded speculative bubble or asset bubble in history. Formal futures markets appeared in the Dutch Republic during the 17th century. Among the most notable c
Unbeliebeable (Score:1)
Hard to make a fake product when you don't believe the lie.