Coinbase NFT temporarily suspends drops to improve platform
Coinbase NFT, the NFT platform of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, announced a pause on “creator drops” to concentrate on other aspects of its marketplace amid rumors of a shutdown.
Coinbase NFT pauses creator drops
Coinbase NFT has announced a temporary pause on creator Drops on the NFT marketplace to redirect focus to other prioritized features and tools requested by creators. It is important to note that the Coinbase NFT marketplace is not being shut down.
This is after a partner Jessica Yatrofsky initially reported that her upcoming NFT collection would no longer drop on Coinbase NFT after being privately informed of the marketplace shutting down. The company has since corrected the information.
Coinbase NFT responds to rumors on shutdown
Coinbase NFT responded to this rumor on Wednesday, saying that it only paused “creator Drops’’ for a moment. The company is currently focusing on other aspects of its marketplace as requested by its artists.
The Coinbase NFT didn’t share any information on the “features and tools” mentioned in the announcement by Coinbase. They also didn’t specify when NFT drops might resume. Nevertheless, Coinbase continues to allow access to NFTs listed by other companies like OpenSea, allowing users to access new tokens from alternative sources.
Since its launch in April, Coinbase NFT has recorded a total trading volume of approximately $7.3 million, according to data from Dune Analytics. The site’s trading volume has not exceeded $150 over the past 24 hours and has remained slightly below $1,500 over the past seven days. In comparison, OpenSea saw over $10 million in volume just on Tuesday, according to data from DappRadar.
OpenSea dominates NFT trading volume with $483 million in January compared to Coinbase $7 million
Coinbase NFT’s drops feature allowed creators to launch their collections directly on the platform instead of acting as a secondary marketplace like OpenSea. Data from Dune Analytics shows that Coinbase NFT’s total trading volume is 4,454 ETH, which is approximately $7 million.
In January alone, OpenSea generated 306,645 ETH in trading volume, equivalent to $483 million. Additionally, in January, OpenSea facilitated the sale of over 1.5 million NFTs on Polygon, an Ethereum sidechain, surpassing the 1.1 million NFT sales on Ethereum’s mainnet through the same marketplace. This trend continues from December when OpenSea enabled the sale of 1.3 million NFTs on Polygon compared to just under 1 million NFTs on Ethereum.
Coinbase NFT struggles
Coinbase’s NFT platform struggles started early, as even private beta volume data failed to impress. Additionally, the marketplace’s shortcomings have faced criticism following the company’s layoff of over 1,100 employees in June last year.
Coinbase NFT recorded trades amounting to $149 after hovering around $108 for much of Thursday. Despite monthly NFT trading volumes reaching hundreds of millions of dollars, even after crashing 97% from their January 2022 peak, Coinbase, the second-largest crypto exchange after Binance, does not figure in these volumes.
