The second-largest exchange in the United States, Kraken, announced on Tuesday that its NFT Marketplace would be available soon, vying with major exchanges such as Binance and OpenSea with its premium features.
Kraken exchange announced its upcoming non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, dubbed “Kraken NFT,” via its official Twitter account, and they are inviting users to sign up for a waitlist for their coming marketplace:
The announcement came a few months after Kraken CEO Jesse Powell announced in December 2021 that the exchange would launch its NFT Marketplace, but he only provided a few details. Then he stated that they are developing their own NFT marketplace to ensure the overall growth of the NFT market and provide a channel for everyone to pool their NFTs for borrowing funds on the platform, among other things.
The Kraken NFT, according to the Kraken exchange, is intended to facilitate everyone’s entry into the NFT ecosystem, as Kraken recognized that the NTF ecosystem has become difficult for many to join.
Kraken NFT will support a variety of blockchains, including Ethereum and Solana blockchain NFTs at launch. In a tweet from Kraken support, the exchange also stated that it plans to add more chains.
The marketplace features that it will launch with are expected to give it a strong foothold in competing with notable existing NFT exchanges such as Binance. Those features facilitate entry into the NFT ecosystem while improving users’ overall trading experience.
Notable Kraken NFT features include zero gas fees for NFT trades once an NFT is custodied with Kraken NFT, as opposed to Binance, which charges a 1% trading fee on NFT trades. Users can also track the rarity scores of their NFTs, pay for or sell NFTs with cash or crypto (120+ cryptocurrencies), and NFT creators will get rewarded with their cut from each resale.
Furthermore, Kraken NFT will use an industry-leading security infrastructure to protect its users’ NFTs and also allow them to curate their NFT collections across multiple blockchain networks.
Kraken’s planned marketplace launch follows the footsteps of its competitor, Coinbase (the largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange), which launched its NFT marketplaces as a beta version for selected users last month. Over 1 million people have signed up for the marketplace’s waitlist.
