According to sources, over one million registrations have been received for the early access waitlist launched by the company on Tuesday. However, it is unclear how many of these registrations are duplicates or spam.
Sanchan Saxena, the Vice President of Products at Coinbase, acknowledged the overwhelming response on social media and assured that the team is working to resolve the server overload issue.
Coinbase recently joined the likes of Twitter (TWTR.US) and FTX in exploring the booming sector of NFTs or digital collectibles. Data shows that NFT daily sales reached a peak of nearly $268 million at the end of August, with some NFT sales in recent months reaching millions of dollars. Katie Haun, a general partner at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and a board member of Coinbase, is also a board member of NFT marketplace giant OpenSea.
Earlier in August, Coinbase warned of a slowdown in customer activity in the beginning of the third quarter. As competitors like Robinhood Markets (HOOD.US) intensify their efforts to attract crypto users, Coinbase has been seeking revenue diversification. Senior fintech analyst Julie Chariell suggests that NFTs could be Coinbase's "next frontier" and may bring significant profits to the company next year.
Chariell stated in a report, "The fees for this business are more likely to reflect retail fees compared to institutional crypto trading commissions. We estimate that charging fees of 3% for NFT trades could generate higher revenue for Coinbase compared to cryptocurrency trading platforms, while reducing the volatility of its business."
