Ebay allows the sale of NFTs for digital collectibles on its platform

After enduring a weak second-quarter profit forecast in late April, eBay announced that it is now allowing the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for digital collectibles to be sold on its platform.

Ebay to expand its NFT marketplace

NFTs have been increasingly gaining popularity, as the new form of cryptocurrency enables collectors to confirm ownership of an item. An NFT certifies a digital asset as unique and non-interchangeable, representing collectibles such as photos, video, audio and other types of digital files.

The NFT industry has witnessed multi-million dollar deals, including the well-known sale of a digital art piece by Beeple, which sold for $69 million. The real name of the artist, Mike Winkelmann, admitted that he believes the industry to be in a bubble. 

Musician Grimes also sold some of her digital art for over $6 million. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey showed that not only art can be tokenized and be put on sale, as he sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT, which went for $2.9 million.

The sports industry has also seen its fair share of NFTs, with NBA’s Top Shot NFT marketplace seeing massive success where it allows basketball fans to purchase video highlights from the league’s history. Users can buy the tokens directly from the marketplace or trade and sell with others using the mobile app. Last month, data showed that around 460,000 collectors on the platform have collectively made over 4 million transactions. 

Ebay will permit sellers to list NFTs that meet the company’s standards. The company looks to ensure that NFTs are listed by trusted sellers and are only in specific categories, including trading cards, music, entertainment and art. 

The e-commerce firm added that users would be able to expect programs, policies and tools that would enable them to buy and sell NFTs across different categories in the future. Jordan Sweetnam, senior vice president and general manager for Ebay’s North America market, said:

In the coming months, Ebay will add new capabilities that bring blockchain-driven collectibles to our platform.

All payments for NFTs would be made in US dollars, unlike other NFT platforms, which accept Ether for payments. 

The e-commerce platform also recently stated that it is open to the possibility of accepting cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the future.