Ebay To Allow NFT Sales On Its Platform

Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, have sparked interest, as the new form of cryptocurrency enables collectors to confirm ownership of an item. Large-scale retailers, however, have trailed behind in terms of crypto adoption, but eBay would now allow NFT sales on its platform.

Ebay’s decision to add NFTs is coming amid reports for a weaker than expected second-quarter profit forecast. However, if the NFT craze transfers onto eBay, the e-commerce giant may prove the forecasts wrong.

Non-fungible tokens differ from standard cryptocurrencies by certifying a digital asset as unique and non-interchangeable. NFTs can be used to represent collectibles such as photos, video, audio, and other digital files.

However, NFT sellers have to undergo eBay standards compliance test in order to sell their digital collectibles. This way eBay strives to grant NFTs are listed by trusted sellers and are only in specific categories, including trading cards, music, entertainment, and art.

“In the coming months, eBay will add new capabilities that bring blockchain-driven collectibles to our platform,” Jordan Sweetnam, senior vice president, and general manager for eBay’s North America market noted.

In its short time being alive, the NFT craze already witnessed some large-scale deals, like the sale of a digital art piece by Beeple, which sold for $69 million. However, Beeple – or Mike Winkelman – considered the NFT craze to be nothing but a bubble.

NFT cases don’t end up with Beeple’s digital art piece. Musician Grimes sold some of her digital art for over $6 million via an NFT sale. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey went beyond art, as he sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT, which sold for $2.9 million.

NFT’s are also stepping into sports, with numerous teams now offering NFTs. However, NBA’s Top Shot NFT marketplace is seeing massive success.

The Top Shot marketplace allows basketball fans to purchase video highlights from the league’s history. Users can buy the tokens directly from the marketplace or trade and sell with others using the mobile app.

460,000 collectors on the platform have collectively made over 4 million transactions, data from the NFT platform shows.