Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has launched its NFT marketplace in beta.
Coinbase NFT is described as a Web3 social marketplace for discovering and trading non-fungible tokens – empowering people to create, collect and connect.
Beta testers can create a Coinbase NFT profile to buy and sell NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain – also using wallets outside of Coinbase – with no transaction fees for a limited period.
It allows users to create a profile curated with their NFTs, follow others and comment together directly on NFTs. Comments can be upvoted and downvoted, Reddit-style.
It also aims to offer personalised NFT recommendations based on purchases made, what’s trending and who they follow.
Future developments include NFT drops, minting, token-gated communities and the option to buy NFTs with a Coinbase account or credit card.
It will also add support for NFTs on multiple chains, with features moved from ‘Coinbase tech’ to decentralised solutions over time.
Seed funding for Wallet-as-a-Service startup
A Wallet-as-a-Service startup has raised €7 million in a seed funding round.
Tangany, based in Munich, enables clients including Tezos Foundation, Quirin Privatbank and Exporo to provide custody of digital assets for customers on the blockchain via its white-label technology.
Supporting the storage of assets such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, stablecoins, security tokens and NFTs in both hot and cold wallets, Tangany now has more than 25 customers reflecting more than €400m of digital assets under custody.
The round was led by Nauta Capital. Existing investor HTGF and new investor C3 VC Fund also participated.
“With this successful funding round we begin the next chapter of our development,” said Martin Kreitmair, CEO. “We were 4x oversubscribed which shows that Tangany is heading in the right direction. So far, Tangany has been growing through its own profitability.”
The team is expected to grow to more than 50 employees by the end of 2022, starting with the key hiring of Heinrich Polke, its new COO. The funding will also enable Tangany to add new services to the existing core custody business such as staking and yield farming.
Cryptocurrency shorts
Web3 venture studio Decent Labs has launched a decentralised autonomous organisation – DAO – to allow venture funds to build protocols together. Crypto investing giants BlockTower Capital and GSR led a $10 million on-chain investment which included Cumberland DRW, Digital Currency Group – owners of CoinDesk – and 1kx, among others.
The UK is second only to the US for cryptocurrency jobs advertised. There are 3,893 vacancies in the States, with 954 in the UK and 386 in Canada, which took third spot.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse told the Paris Blockchain Summit that ‘tribalism’ around cryptocurrencies is holding back the $2 trillion market. “Polarisation isn’t healthy in my judgement,” he told CNBC. “I own bitcoin, I own ether, I own some others. I am an absolute believer that this industry is going to continue to thrive.”
Legendary videogame company Atari has terminated its licences with UAE financial services group ICICB, which will lead to the demise of Atari Tokens on Ethereum. However it plans to mint a new cryptocurrency soon and provide most existing holders of the tokens with an equivalent number of the new assets.
Crypto prices
The overall market cap of the more than 19,000 coins is at $1.92 trillion, a 0.5% decrease in the last 24 hours.
Market leader Bitcoin – the original cryptocurrency created by the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto – is around $41,500 at the time of writing (7am UK) following a slight increase in value. BTC is 1% up in a week.
Ethereum, the second most valuable crypto coin – created as a decentralised network for smart contracts on the blockchain – lost 1% to $3,075. ETH, set for a huge upgrade soon, is 1% down over the course of a week.
Binance Coin is a cryptocurrency created by popular crypto exchange Binance to assist its aim in becoming the infrastructure services provider for the entire blockchain ecosystem. Its BNB token dropped 1% to $420, leaving it 0.5% down over seven days.
The XRP token of Ripple, a payment settlement asset exchange and remittance system, acts as a bridge for transfers between other currencies. XRP dropped 2% to 75 cents, which leaves it 2% up over seven days.
Solana is a blockchain built to make decentralised finance accessible on a larger scale – and capable of processing 50,000 transactions per second. Its SOL token fell 2% to $106 while it is down slightly on its price last Thursday morning.
Terra, described as a programmable money for the internet, shed 2% to $93. Its payment token LUNA is 5% higher than its price a week ago.
Cardano is an open source network facilitating dApps which considers itself to be an updated version of Ethereum. Its ADA token, designed to allow owners to participate in the operation of the network, fell 1% to just below 94c. It is 3% down over the course of a week.
Avalanche, a lightning-quick verifiable platform for institutions, enterprises and governments, came out of nowhere months ago to break into the top 10 currencies. Its AVAX token fell 1% to $78.14 and is 4% down in a week.
Polkadot was founded by the Swiss-based Web3 Foundation as an open-source project to develop a decentralised web. Its DOT token, which aims to securely connect blockchains, rose slightly to $19.08 and is 4% higher than its price a week ago. It is now above Dogecoin in the valuation table as a result.
Meme coin DOGE was created as a satire on the hype surrounding cryptocurrencies but is now a major player in the space. DOGE dropped the 4% it had added in the previous 24-hour period to return below 14c while it is 1% down over seven days.
To see how the valuations of the main coins have changed in the last few days, click here.
For valuations of the top 250 coins by market cap plus 24-hour price change and volume traded, see below.
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