Kraken NFT Emerges 🦑

Dear Bankless Nation,

Kraken is one of the most storied exchanges in all of crypto.

And with over 1.8 million ETH in its reserves today, Kraken’s more than aware of the power of Ethereum and the digital economies it fosters, like NFT markets.

Late last year, Kraken launched a public beta of its new NFT platform, and this week Kraken NFT is finally out of that beta and ready for showtime.

For today’s post, let’s dive in to see how Kraken NFT is angling to be the next contender here.

-WMP

Kraken Opens Its NFT Marketplace ⛵️

Kraken NFT Context

In December 2022, Kraken announced the beta launch of Kraken NFT, aiming to offer streamlined experiences around buying, selling, and exploring NFTs. Out of the gate, the beta platform supported +110 NFT collections across both the Ethereum and Solana networks.

Since that launch, Kraken NFT has continued to steadily add support for new features and new collections in response to early user feedback. For example, in recent weeks the exchange added a range of new projects to the platform in batches, including DeGods and Nakamigos in the latest and Miladys and Shinsei Galverse in the batch prior.

What’s Happening Now

For the full product launch this week, Kraken NFT added support for the Polygon network, so now you can manage your Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon NFTs all from your same Kraken account. To welcome Polygon in with a bang, the platform also just added support for the Reddit Avatars collection, which has exploded in popularity since last fall.

Besides these new additions, Kraken NFT leans most on its core pillars. These offerings include:

1. ⛽ Zero gas fees: Since Kraken NFT handles buys and sells off-chain, you don’t have to worry about paying any gas fees when transacting on the platform, only when sending NFTs to or from the platform.
2. 🪙 +200 payment options: Kraken NFT supports listings and offers in any of the +200 currencies that the main Kraken crypto exchange supports, from USD to $PEPE.
3. 🕐 24/7/365 live support: Kraken NFT isn’t a decentralized protocol so users of the platform can lean on Kraken’s support team any time if they run into a problem.
4. 👋 Beginner-friendly experience: Fast sign-up, intuitive search tools, handy links to project communities and a growing library of educational content make for a simple onboarding flow for new collectors.

Using Kraken NFT

You can start things off by visiting nft.kraken.com. You’ll arrive at the homepage, where you can scroll down to see a selection of curated projects across a number of categories, including “NFTs for every wallet,” “Top collections,” “Recently sold,” “Featured projects,” and beyond. Along the top of the page, there’s a navigation dashboard where you can click through and search all the available collections, your transaction history + NFTs, and any outstanding offers you have.

Here, note that although anyone is free to browse the marketplace, users will need a Kraken account to deposit, buy, bid on, or list NFTs. If you already have an account, all you need to do is sign-in by clicking the “Sign in” button in the top right. If you don’t have an account, you can create one easily by clicking the “Create account” button.

After you’ve logged-in, you can access other parts along the top of the page in the navigation dashboard to view your transaction history, NFTs in your account, connect your Web3 wallet, and manage offers you’ve sent or received.

If you click into a collection you’re interested in, you can select NFTs you like and press “Buy” or “Offer” to proceed. You can review the available collectibles by sorting via price range, traits, offers, and so forth. If you do dive into the platform and get stuck anywhere along the way, you may find the answer you need in the Kraken NFT marketplace FAQ. Otherwise, the support team is available as well.

Zooming Out

The newly expanded Kraken NFT platform is entering a challenging market but is aiming to provide a streamlined user experience around a safe, curated marketplace. Yet the team also wants to evolve in line with the space by adding more relevant benefits, features, and giveaways over time.

We’ll see how the seas fare for this new marketplace going forward, but for now it’s clear Kraken’s up to the challenge.