Coinbase NFT Marketplace Beta Underperforms in Launch Week

Over one week after its debut, the Coinbase NFT marketplace beta has seen dismal trade volume – an unexpected figure for a platform with 90 million users.

According to Dune Analytics, the Coinbase NFT marketplace beta version had fewer than 1500 transactions in its first week.

The total trade volume is around 109 ETH (roughly $300,000 at the time of publication). So far, the platform has attracted 746 users.

Dune gathered statistics from Coinbase NFT’s support partner 0x Protocol (ZRX), and the data revealed that there are 507 unique buyers and 306 unique sellers among the platform’s 746 users.

Accessibility Barriers, Low Sales to Blame

Overall, this is a modest start of the world’s leading cryptocurrency trading and investing platform.

Unlike Coinbase, OpenSea’s new opponent LooksRare has made a strong start. Its appealing airdrop and LOOKS token rewards for NFT trading drove a large number of trades on the marketplace’s first day of launch.

According to Dune Analytics, the platform received more than 101,222 ETH in trading volume on January 11, valued at more than 325 million USD.

Another highlight of the report is the breakdown of market sales by project. Moonbirds unsurprisingly dominates the NFT market, outperforming other top names like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Apes, and VeeFriends Series 2.

The reason behind the underperformance of Coinbase NFT marketplace is accessibility barriers. Almost no one has any kind of access.

Because of this lack of access, there is no liquidity on the platform. The beta launch is also being regarded as an unsteady move by many, with only a small number of people receiving access at the beginning.

More Work is Needed

The beta version is certainly limited to a restricted number of people. People need invite code to get started.

Coinbase may have arrived late to the NFT game. It is worth noting, however, that about 4 million people are currently registered on the platform’s waiting list.

As a result, if Coinbase NFT continues to add more thorough operating features, the scenario will likely certainly improve significantly.

Overall, the NFT marketplace’s initial performance fell short of Coinbase investors’ expectations.

The company’s stock hit an all-time low earlier this week, just days after the Coinbase NFT beta launched. In the future, the firm intends to integrate other blockchain networks as well as offer some unique features that will allow users to become more engaged.

Since the Coinbase NFT marketplace was widely anticipated by the community and supporters, the slow start has surprised many people. Many people expected the platform to be the onboarding juggernaut and the most direct path to NFT widespread adoption.

Coinbase faces competition not only from industry leaders OpenSea and LooksRare, but also from big crypto exchanges such as FTX.US and Binance, who have already established the NFT market.

However, this is only a test launch, and the team believes that as the platform scales and evolves, it will generate extra revenue.

What’s New With The Market This Week?

The NFT industry has been through a busy week. The star of this week is Moonbirds. Not CryptoPunks or Bored Ape garnered the most user activity in the recent week, but this freshly launched NFT initiative.

Moonbirds has immediately earned a massive revenue of up to $290 million in just 4 days since its debut. According to OpenSea’s data,

Moonbirds has become the best-selling collection in the past week and simultaneously, the value of each NFT in the collection has risen dramatically, from 2.5 ETH to around 30 ETH, and is now approaching 40 ETH.

Users’ interest in NFT is reported to be declining recently, as the number of single NFT purchases as well as NFT games has decreased dramatically, forcing projects to seek other development directions.

Despite this, given the popularity of Moonbirds and Solana’s NFT project Okay Bears, chances for new NFT collections or projects remain available.