Quietly, and seemingly overnight, Reddit has become one of the biggest crypto-art marketplacesāand it did so by avoiding the acronym NFT.
Earlier this month, Reddit CPOPali Bhat revealedthat 3 million users have created Vaultsāthe siteās name for a blockchain walletāsince the company launched the product this summer. Of those, an estimated 2.5 million were set up to purchase Redditās own Avatarsāthe siteās name for profile picture-style NFTSāhe explained.
That means that Reddit, which just formally entered the crypto-collectible space this summer, already has more users than OpenSea, one of the most established NFT platforms, has active accounts.
Itās an impressive feat, especially considering the dramatic depreciation of cryptocurrency and blockchain collectibles in 2022. (Last month,Bloomberg reportedthat trading volumes in NFTS have plummeted 97% from a record high in January.) And itās one that other major social media platforms are surely monitoring with slavering mouths. Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, isconsidering launching its own marketplace, too.
A caveat comes attached to Redditās achievement, however. In August, the company dumped free Avatars into the vaults of high-profile Redditorsāa not-so-subtle ploy meant to encourage the websiteās users to open new accounts.
Reddit unveiled its marketplace in July of this year. It was marketed as a kind of populist platform, targeting crypto-curious audiences who otherwise felt a barrier to entry into the world. Instead of NFTs, the company offered Avatars (the original collection was based on variations of Redditās logo); instead of wallets, Vaults. Collectibles were priced at low, fixed ratesā$9.99, $24.99, $49.99, etc.āand could be purchased via credit card.
The company established the new service on Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain chosen for āits low cost transactions and sustainability commitments,ā pera recent press release.
To date, cumulative sales of Reddit Avatars have topped $6.5 million, according to information fromDune analytics.