31/10/2022 Reddit Launched Its Own NFT Marketplace in July. It Already Has More Users Than OpenSea and Other Major Platforms

Three million users have created Reddit Vaults—the company’s name for a blockchain wallet—since the service was created a few months ago.

Examples of Reddit Avatars. Courtesy of Reddit.

Quietly, and seemingly overnight, Reddit has become one of the biggest crypto-art marketplaces—and it did so by avoiding the acronym NFT.

Earlier this month, Reddit CPOPali Bhat revealedthat 3 million users have created Vaults—the site’s name for a blockchain wallet—since the company launched the product this summer. Of those, an estimated 2.5 million were set up to purchase Reddit’s own Avatars—the site’s name for profile picture-style NFTS—he explained.

CryptoPunk sells for 4,000 ETH ($12.41 million), sixth-most expensive ever
Nifty News: PayPal removes NFT protections, Adidas NFT sneakers and more
Panthers Partner with Fanaply to Release Exclusive NFTS, Experiences

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.

It’s 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 it’s 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 Reddit’s achievement, however. In August, the company dumped free Avatars into the vaults of high-profile Redditors—a not-so-subtle ploy meant to encourage the website’s 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 Reddit’s logo); instead of wallets, Vaults. Collectibles were priced at low, fixed rates—$9.99, $24.99, $49.99, etc.—and could be purchased via credit card.

The company established the new service on Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain chosen for “its low cost transactions and sustainability commitments,” pera recent press release.

To date, cumulative sales of Reddit Avatars have topped $6.5 million, according to information fromDune analytics.

Arts

https://news.artnet.com/market/reddit-launched-its-own-nft-marketplace-in-july-it-already-has-more-users-than-opensea-and-other-major-platforms-2199244

Interesting NFTs
CryptoPunk 5577
By C352B5
Really Remote Working Part 3
The third piece is the Really Remote Working series, white sands and turquoise waters make this is a desk space like no other. Created during the lockdown period whilst being confined to the same place every day, this piece is part of a series of imaginary places that I dreamed of being able to work from.
#FORESTER
Uh, hi! I'm #FORESTER. I've never told anyone this, but I once licked a dog. I once got in a fight with a rooster, and won. Maybe you and I can be partners in crime.
The Harvest
An anthropomorphic figure stands, wide eyed, staring at the viewer; its body masculine, muscular, and humanoid. Its “mind” dissociates into a conglomerate of structures resembling feathers, grain, teeth–as well as a radial flower “node”, casting linear rays throughout the composition. To his left, a vat of bodies gesture and writhe in a kind of amniotic soup, attended by a video game robot. The bot's red display reads “uWu”. Behind the robot and filling the left side of the composition is an archaic figure composed of a variety of vintage objects and symbols. Among them are a hardbound book with ancient cuneiform scripts, indicating barley, beer, bread, ox, house, and sky, behind which is a grimacing, salivating jagged toothed maw; and an old Commodore floppy drive. The figure’s head tilts toward an illuminated crescent moon, suggesting the Egyptian Sacred Bull. The archaic figure is composed of a variety of mutating cells, which shift in color, and pattern; eventually breaking free into an ephemeral broadcast of bubbles which move across the background. The work came into being against a psychological introspection, which included associations to pop culture such as alien abduction and pod people, as well as quite a bit of reflection on grains as a symbol of civilization, agriculture, sustenance, life, and imbibing (mainly whiskies).
#74635
By OthersideDeployer