eBay has officially announced that it will support the sale of NFTs on its platform, embracing the sale of cryptographic tokens linked to digital collectibles. However, it won't be an enormous free for all from the get-go, as eBay will restrict NFT sales to a select few verified accounts before rolling NFT sales out to the wider platform.
eBay Joins the NFT Craze
eBay is one of the world's largest online shopping platforms, and opening up to cryptocurrency non-fungible tokens (NFT) would drastically increase the number of potential users.
NFTs are digital assets tied to a cryptocurrency token. The sale of an NFT creates an indelible chain of ownership, proving that you and you alone are the sole owner of the digital asset.
In recent times, NFT artwork sales have shocked the world with their enormous prices. For example, a unique digital artwork created by the artist Beeple sold for $69 million in March 2021, while marketplaces for unique or rare digital collectibles are thriving.
Although the initial NFT bull market has somewhat subsided, eBay's entry into the world of non-fungible tokens makes sense. The enormous online marketplace already deals with hundreds of millions of sales involving collectible cards and other physical collectibles.
Moving into the world of digital collectibles is a logical next step—but it won't be easy usurping some of the established NFT trading platforms, such as Open Sea, Rarible, or SuperRare.
In its official blog post announcing the news, eBay further elaborated on the reasons for its newfound interest in cryptocurrencies.
Our open platform is a big part of why eBay is so successful, and that won't change. NFTs offer greater access to a broader audience of collectors and creators. In the same way digital publishing brought more exposure for writers, digital collectibles bring greater opportunity for artists and creators.
Will NFT Creators Flock to eBay?
The initial rollout of NFT sales on eBay might see a slow uptake. With a limited number of verified sellers able to sell NFTs, the overall inventory and range of artworks, memorabilia, and other collectibles may be low.
Furthermore, as this initial rollout is primarily to help eBay "learn more about what's important" to the community, NFT sellers are likely to face several different policies and changes before NFT sales rollout to a wider audience.
As yet, there is no concrete information on how eBay will implement NFTs on its platform. eBay will have to integrate at least some blockchain capabilities and cryptocurrency payment processing, which will take time. However, another positive for cryptocurrency users is the introduction of NFTs could enable wider crypto payments on eBay.