Coinbase Jumps After Sign-Up Numbers for NFT Marketplace Revealed

Coinbase (COIN) shares rose 6% Thursday after reports that the crypto exchange’s new non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has a waiting list of more than one million people who signed up on the first day it was announced earlier this week.

As of Thursday morning, the waiting list was at 1.35 million, which is four times the 300,0000 users that OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace, has, according to a note from financial services firm BTIG.“We believe the immediate and emphatic reaction of retail customers to its announcement on Tuesday that it would launch a non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace by the end of the year has demonstrated its ability to accelerate the transformation of its franchise,” BTIG analyst Mark Palmer, who has a buy rating and $500 price target on Coinbase, wrote.Coinbase’s planned NFT marketplace comes as rival exchange FTX on Tuesday announced it was moving into the NFT business with a trading platform for digital collectibles on the Solana blockchain. Trading in NFTs climbed to $10.7 billion in the third quarter, an increase of more than 700% from the previous quarter, according to a report by blockchain analytics firm DappRadar.BTIG estimates that Coinbase could add $137.5 million in revenue, or about 2% of BTIG’s full-year 2021 revenue estimate for the company through the new NFT marketplace.

See related: Visa Launching NFT Program to Support Digital Artists

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