🍀Kraken's NFT Marketplace Could Let Users Borrow Funds
❃Kraken CEO Jesse Powell outlined his vision for the crypto exchange’s incoming NFT marketplace
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Crypto exchange Kraken is reportedly developing its very own NFT marketplace, where users can buy and sell various jpegs.
What’s more, the exchange’s CEO, Jesse Powell, said that digital art collectors may also be able to borrow against their collection.
“If you deposit a CryptoPunk on Kraken, we want to be able to reflect the value of that in your account,” Powell said during a Bloomberg interview.
“And if you want to borrow funds against that,” he added, suggesting that a CryptoPunk could be used as collateral to borrow other cryptocurrencies or stablecoins.
The financialization of NFTs makes up “phase three” of this sector’s development, said Powell. “Phase one was speculation, phase two is buying art and supporting artists, phase three is going to be functional uses of NFTs,” he said.
Marketplaces like OpenSea posted record-breaking volumes as collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks traded hundreds of millions of dollars.
Kraken is, however, a bit late to the party. Already, rival crypto exchanges Binance and FTX have launched respective NFT marketplaces this year in hopes of getting a slice of the action. Coinbase’s NFT marketplace is also in the works, with sign-ups for its waitlist already topping two and half million of excited collectors.
Nexo, a crypto lending and borrowing platform, also announced the launch of an NFT collateralization product last week. Antoni Trenchev, Nexo’s co-founder, said that “services like Nexo’s lending will be in high demand to unlock NFTs’ underlying value while allowing users to retain ownership.”
The company said that Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks will be the first two eligible collections, adding that more collections will be announced soon.