The NFT market is seemingly thriving

Other NFTs collectives have had a rather constant price measured in Ether the last months, but declined value in USD due to Ether tanking. Surely, this is solely a fraction of the total NFT market, but as there is no price index measuring the value across the whole market, this stresses that at least the market has not tanked. This is remarkable since the NFT market is arguably more speculative than the crypto market itself. Not to mention that NFTs have surged in value the past year, so it was likely that holders would be nervous and take profit, particularly as their cryptocurrency holding has simultaneously decreased in value, possibly increasing their urgency to hold fiat.

In the case that NFT prices tumble, the question is how the market reacts based on its speculative nature and the fact that it is both illiquid and severely challenged by Ethereum’s scalability issues. As OpenSea’s trades are settled decentralized mainly on the Ethereum blockchain, each holder cannot simultaneously liquidate their NFTs. This will simply flood the Ethereum network with heavy transactions. The limited achievable selling will either tone down the panic selling or it will increase the eagerness to liquidate NFTs. In essence, nobody knows how the NFT market will react to heavy selling pressure as it has not experienced it yet.

MasterCard partners with Coinbase for its NFT marketplace

In October, Coinbase (COIN:NASDAQ) announced its intention to launch an NFT marketplace. With a verified client base of over 73mn clients alongside a liquid spot market, a respected custody solution, and great know-how on creating user-friendly interfaces to retail, Coinbase’s upcoming marketplace should become considerably more user-friendly than, for instance, OpenSea, which is likely to increase the broader interest in NFTs. For its NFT marketplace, Coinbase announced last week a partnership with MasterCard to let its clients purchase NFTs with their credit cards. At the same time, MasterCard said: “…Mastercard sees even greater potential for NFTs’ underlying tech to go beyond art and collectibles into many more areas”. The NFT marketplace was originally scheduled for launch in late 2021, however, there is no current launch date.

Twitter joins, YouTube and Meta might follow

Twitter launched last year the feature to be tipped in either Bitcoin or Ethereum. At the same time, Twitter announced its intention to let users verify NFTs and use them as profile pictures. Last week, Twitter fulfilled this as it launched the feature allowing users to show NFTs as a hexagon profile picture as a part of their $2.99 a month Twitter Blue subscription. This week Alphabet-owned YouTube hinted that it might develop various NFT features intended for creators to capitalize on. Likewise, Facebook owner Meta is rumored to let users verify NFTs and use them on Facebook and Instagram. The company is also rumored to be working on an NFT marketplace. Big tech’s entry into the NFT space will arguably make it even more accessible.

The outlook for NFTs