eBay Inc. (Nasdaq: EBAY) continues to deepen its footprint in digital collectables. The e-commerce giant announced on Wednesday that it has acquired the U.K-based non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace KnownOrigin. The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed.
The latest acquisition is important for eBay’s tech-led reimagination as part of the company’s effort to develop a top destination platform for digital artwork collectables as well as sales.
Jamie Iannone, CEO of eBay, talked about the development: “we will remain a leading site as our community is increasingly adding digital collectables. KnownOrigin has built up an impressive, passionate and loyal group of artists and collectors making them a perfect addition to our community of sellers and buyers.”
Since established in 2018 in Manchester, UK, KnownOrigin has remained a marketplace that allows collectors and artists to create, purchase, and resell NFTs via blockchain-support transactions. Since its establishment, KnownOrigin has witnessed huge growth and trade volumes as it has revolutionized the way users create, buy, and sell NFTs.
eBay’s tech-led reimagination has resulted in massive upgrades to the firm’s technology, performance and customer experience, including tools making it easier to discover, buy and sell anything.
As a part of such reinvention, last month, eBay started allowing the buying and selling of NFTs with the launch of its first collection of NFTs in partnership with web3 platform OneOf. The firm said the surge in the collectables market led to its first-ever collaboration in the NFT landscape.
Rising Demands of NFT
Crypto has shown its potential to the world about its real efficiency and shaping the economy of the digital era. Likewise, NFTs, a niche of cryptocurrency, has created another way of reaching the top, building what crypto took years to develop in decades.
NFTs have created a way for the artists and many other professionals to showcase and mint their works as NFTs. It is a great diversion in the crypto era where users began working on mining their NFTs.
The NFT market has introduced businesses, investors, users, and ordinary people to exploit great opportunities. More celebrities, including musicians, sportspersons, movie stars, and others have turned their interests in this digital token to create their own NFT collections and sell them.
The NFT craze has remained as strong in 2022 as it was last year. Lots of big mainstream businesses are setting up NFT shops in hopes of discovering a new revenue model.
Everyone from GameStop, Visa, The NFL (National Football League), Softbank, Coinbase, Rackuten, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), Tech Mahindra, Spotify, Associated Press, USFL, Animoca Brands, and other have their own NFT marketplaces in some stage of planning, while some have launched recently.
Image source: Shutterstock
In its bid to become the primary marketplace for all things digital, e-commerce marketplace eBay is likely on its way to accepting digital currency payments on its platform.
As reported by TheStreet who interviewed the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Jamie Iannone, the plan has neither been confirmed nor refuted by the trading marketplace, however, there is a confirmation that some revelations will be made on March 10, the day the company dedicates for its investors.
Iannone is keen on making eBay the go-to marketplace for everything, bordering on both physical and digital objects. While the physical objects are already featuring prominently on the platform, the CEO noted that a number of digital assets, especially Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are already being traded on the eCommerce marketplace.
“So even without announcing anything or doing anything, people started trading NFT on a platform,” Iannone continued. “It reminded me of many years ago when people just started selling cars when we didn’t even have a vehicle business at that point. So we’re seeing the same type of thing [with NFT].”
In a bid to better serve the customers that are more likely to utilize this relatively unpopular technology to conduct transactions, eBay believes exploring as many alternative sources of payment processing is now imperative more than ever.
Digital currencies are becoming increasingly popular by the day. While they are well-suited as a means of payment, worldwide, regulatory restrictions have often made these assets operate almost entirely in the shadows, thus hampering their bid to journey unto mainstream adoption. This, coupled with their high volatility has made e-commerce platforms avoid accepting payments in cryptocurrencies.
A limited number of mainstream supermarkets or e-commerce outfits are already changing their minds about crypto payments. Konzum, one of the biggest supermarket chains in Croatia, is one of the welcoming outfits that accepts Bitcoin payments, and should eBay pull through with the assumption of adding crypto payments, it will join the list of pioneering marketplaces to do so.
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American manufactured meat company Oscar Mayer is auctioning off a one-of-one pack of “Hot Doge Wieners” on Ebay.
The limited edition pack of Dogecoin themed wieners includes 10 sausages and a picture of the beloved Shiba Inu dog on the packaging, along with the “cash equivalent” of 10,000 Dogecoin (DOGE).
The auction is set to close on Aug. 7 however the listing has been temporarily taken down with the firm noting on Twitter today that “you guys really took this to the moon. The link is down but will be up soon!”
During the initial hours of bidding, Redditors in the r/dogecoin community spotted a bid of $3050 during the auction. That might seem like a lot considering the “collectors item” has a maximum shelf life of three months (if stored in a freezer) — and the winner needs to allow “3-5 weeks for delivery”. However the cash value of 10K DOGE is just over $2000, so that’s only $1050 for the chance to own some perishable hot “doges”.
You guys really took this to the moonthe link is down but will be up soon!
— Oscar Mayer (@oscarmayer) August 4, 2021
The auction is part of Ebay’s Auctions for Charity, and all of the proceeds from the sale will go to the food bank and hunger relief organization Feeding America. Oscar Mayer’s profile picture on Twitter currently contains a picture of Doge wearing Oscar Mayer shades.
Oscar Mayer’s charity efforts and DOGE-themed marketing campaign come at a time when the number one memecoin is struggling to recover from the crypto downturn which began back in May. DOGE hit an all time high of $0.73 on May 8 and has since declined by more than 70% to around 20 cents according to data from CoinGecko.
While the price of DOGE has struggled of late, another memecoin backed by a Reddit community has taken the lead on price. The price r/CryptoCurrency Moons (MOON) coins has increased by 112% over the past week, going from $0.16 on July 29 to $0.34 as of today.
While it’s worth more than DOGE technically, it’ll take a monumental shift to officially usurp the throne from DOGE, as MOON had a 24-hour trading volume of $79,000 compared to $931 million for Dogecoin.
Related: Brand executive posts discounted Utah home listing for Dogecoin
Oscar Mayer joins a long list of popular brands that have jumped on Dogecoin promotional bandwagon. Cointelegraph reported on July 20 that male grooming product manufacturer Axe launched a limited run of body spray cans dubbed “Dogecan”.
Other firms to join in on the fun include Slim Jims, Snickers and Milky Way, all of which celebrated Doge Day on April 20.
eBay Inc. has announced that it will allow the sales of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for digital collectibles such as video clips, images, arts, photos, audios, and other types of digital files on its platforms.
The US multinational e-commerce corporation told Reuters that from now going forward, an “NFT inventory will be provided to sellers who meet eBay’s standards.”
“NFTs have reached a tipping point of credibility, trust and adoption so that mainstream audiences now feel comfortable exchanging new forms of digital collectibles,” said Jordan Sweetnam, general manager and senior vice president for eBay’s North America market.
The company has invested heavily in infrastructures for physical collectibles such as trading cards as well as items such as watches and sneakers that help verify for buyers. Customers can bid on NFTs the same way they do for physical collectibles.
Whether customers are looking for a digital representation of Elon Musk holding Doge or a physical Dogecoin replica, eBay is now the marketplace to get these products. Customers will make all payments in US dollars, unlike other major NFT platforms that normally accept Ether payments for NFT.
Several NFTs that are currently available for sales on eBay appear on the WAX blockchain, and sellers stating that buyers need to create a WAX wallet in order to get their NFTs.
Currently eBay wants to ensure that NFTs are listed by trusted sellers and only in certain categories such as art, music, trading cards, and entertainment. The firm said that it plans to expand its tools and policies in future to allow more categories after they collected feedback from the community regarding the current group of NFTs.
NFT Market Rages
The development comes after eBay stated last week that it accepted cryptocurrency as a payment method and was also planning to get NFTs on its platform. The latest embrace by eBay follows billions of dollars in NFT purchases over the previous few months.
The demand for NFTs continues to rise and the NFT market shows no signs of slowing down. Year-to-date, within less than three months, the combined market capitalization of major NFT projects has risen by 1,785%.
NFT sales have skyrocketed alongside the valuation of NFT-related tokens. Major NFT marketplaces such as Opensea and Rarible have witnessed their sales increase by somewhere between 50-fold to 100-fold in the past three months.
Image source: Shutterstock
Online marketplace eBay has introduced auctions for nonfungible tokens to its platform.
According to a Reuters report, eBay users who meet certain criteria on the platform will be permitted to list nonfungible tokens, or NFTs. The company added that it would expand its policies and tools surrounding digital collectibles in the future.
“In the coming months, eBay will add new capabilities that bring blockchain-driven collectibles to our platform,” said eBay’s North America senior vice president Jordan Sweetnam.
The report comes almost exactly one week after CEO Jamie Iannone said the platform would be “exploring opportunities” to enable NFTs on the platform “in an easy way.” The CEO said buyers and sellers were already able to deal in NFTs on eBay but the platform had not yet simplified the process. Iannone said at the time that the company was also considering introducing crypto payment options.
Executives at the online marketplace have previously hinted that eBay could be open to accepting crypto payments. Three years ago, a senior vice president at the firm said eBay was “seriously considering” integrating Bitcoin (BTC) into its platform as a payment method.
Thousands of projects featuring NFTs have exploded in the crypto space over the last few months, seemingly following the example of multimillion sales of digital artwork on online marketplaces. The introduction of the tokens into a marketplace like eBay with roughly 187 million active buyers has the potential to keep the craze going for even longer.
In an August 2020 paper “Is bitcoin money?” Peter Hazlett and William Luther wrote that there exists only “a small corner of the internet where transactions are routinely conducted with Bitcoin serving as the medium of exchange.” But that corner may be growing into a room, or even a house now.
“Demand for Bitcoin has certainly grown over the last year,” co-author Luther, assistant professor of economics at Florida Atlantic University, told Cointelegraph in a recent conversation. “As new users find themselves with Bitcoin, and existing users find themselves with more Bitcoin, it’s only natural that more people will consider using it to make payments.”
Others see a recent rise in crypto payment options. “Definitely,” Joanna Wasick, a partner at law firm BakerHostetler, told Cointelegraph, adding: “More people are owning cryptocurrencies, and more companies are accepting them — sometimes even at an incentive over fiat. There’s also an influx of exchanges and payment platforms facilitating these kinds of transactions. I don’t think that happens without a demand.”
This past week, eBay was reported to be exploring crypto payment options, including NFT auctions, while PayPal was said to be discussing the development of its own stablecoin. Elsewhere, Switzerland’s Canton of Zug began recently accepting tax payments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
“There have certainly been some major announcements from mainstream financial services companies in the past several months that point to the momentum of viewing crypto as a payment option,” Kristin Smith, executive director at the Blockchain Association, told Cointelegraph, citing Visa, PayPal — and from the crypto world — BlockFi.
Not all believe that Bitcoin is viable as a medium of exchange, though. Aswath Damodaran, professor of finance at New York University’s Stern School of Business, told Cointelegraph: “I don’t see it, and the reasons are simple: It is an incredibly inefficient currency, with transaction costs overwhelming the benefits.”
These inefficiencies are likely to multiply, too, as BTC moves closer to its 21-million limit. “It is also far too volatile for people to trust it,” he added — though he doesn’t rule out other cryptocurrencies as potential payments options.
St. Louis Federal Reserve president James Bullard noted that in the 19th century –– before the American Civil War –– it was common for private United States banks to issue their own notes, a practice analogous to today’s cryptocurrencies, in his view. “They were all trading around [i.e., the banknotes], and they traded at different discounts to each other, and people did not like it at all.” People want a uniform currency like the U.S. dollar, said Bullard.
Because Bitcoin has yet to find widespread use as a means of exchange, growing numbers have suggested that its proper role might really be as an alternate store of value, like gold. But Luther, for one, doesn’t think this makes much sense, telling Cointelegraph:
“I don’t understand those who say Bitcoin is better suited as a store of value than as a medium of exchange. An asset can only function as a store of value if it is expected to have a positive price in the future. And it will only have a positive price in the future if it has some use in the future.”
To say that Bitcoin can be a store of value today, and possibly a medium of exchange one day — though maybe not — could be putting the cart before the horse. In Luther’s view: “Bitcoin is expected to function as a medium of exchange in the future — that its price fluctuates today as people expect it to be more or less useful as a medium of exchange in the future.” Moreover, he believes that “conditional on its usefulness as a medium of exchange in the future, it might serve as a store of value as well.”
Meanwhile, Bitcoin remains the most used crypto payment platform, according to BitPay, which processes some $1 billion annually in crypto payments. In March, Bitcoin accounted for 72% of BitPay’s crypto payments (by number), far ahead of Bitcoin Cash (BCH) (14%) and ETH (10%), which ranked second and third, respectively.
There are indeed valid reasons why crypto partisans continue to use BTC for transactions — even while other crypto platforms may be faster with lower fees. “I don’t like spending my Bitcoin, but I know that as soon as I say those words ‘just send me your Bitcoin address’ the transfer will get done quickly and cheaply,” said Quantum Economics founder Mati Greenspan in a recent newsletter, further adding:
“I know for a fact that my analyst will be happy to receive Bitcoin, and that I have a Bitcoin stash that I can feasibly use to pay with. However, if I tell him, ‘Hey, let me send you some XLM,’ the response probably won’t be enthusiastic because it would probably require him to spend time and energy researching wallets and exchanges.”
Bitcoin today occupies a somewhat unusual role as a “niche medium of exchange,” according to the Cato Institute’s Lawrence White in a blog post. “It is better than other media for making some payments that, even if for legitimate purposes, might be censored if routed through payment systems controlled by national governments and central banks.” A grassroots human rights organization in Belarus, for instance, has used the BTC network to transfer money to striking workers — in a way that the government cannot stop.
Others expect that BTC will achieve mainstream acceptance as a payments option. Bill Zielke, chief marketing officer of BitPay, told Cointelegraph that “crypto is already a significant payment method, as more than a billion in volume occurs annually.” Firms such as Newegg and Apmex, both top 100 merchants, already “see a meaningful percentage of their sales in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”
However, more still needs to happen before Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies achieve widespread adoption as payments options. “Most importantly, cryptocurrency needs to become more stable and stop being a speculative vehicle,” said Wasick, adding: “If I think the value of my Bitcoin is going to go up, I’m not going to use it to buy a car. I’m going to sit on it so I can realize more gains.”
Damodaran agreed, as individuals who think about using Bitcoin to purchase items worry that their BTC will be worth 30% more in a day or two. Sellers — e.g., merchants — “don’t want to receive it since they are worried about the exact opposite.” Damodaran added: “For a good crypto to make it, it has to get governments to buy in, some version of a trusted authority to reduce transaction costs and [become] less of a speculative game.”
Related: Bitcoin’s upcoming Taproot upgrade and why it matters for the network
“The two biggest obstacles, in my view, are the volatility of its purchasing power and the relatively small number of transactions it can handle,” Luther told Cointelegraph while going on to add: “Second-layer solutions have gone a long way toward eliminating the second problem — and will no doubt go further. Of course, that means most on-chain Bitcoin transactions would merely be for settlement.”
“There are regulatory issues that we believe would encourage broader adoption, such as adopting a de minimis exemption for cryptocurrency transactions,” added Smith. For example, cryptocurrency transactions of less than $200 might be exempt from taxation.
“The regulatory regime needs to change or at least become clearer to people,” said Wasick, in addition to raising a question: “How many people using crypto for payments know exactly what the tax implications are of their payment transactions?”
But what about Bullard’s contention that people aren’t keen to deal with all these private forms of money. What they really want is a uniform currency, like the U.S. dollar.
“Bullard has a point — people generally want a uniform currency,” answered Wasick, but Bullard overlooks some key aspects of cryptocurrencies, she added. They are “decentralized and deflationary — or, at least, non-inflationary — by design.” Fiat, by comparison, created and managed by governments, “is by design inflationary. […] Dollars lose value over time.”
Bullard, in Luther’s view, also glosses over some important historical details. Most pre-Civil War banknotes were not discounted, he said — “they typically traded at par.” Only when they circulated far away from the issuing bank were they discounted. Banknotes issued in Chicago, for example, might trade at a discount in New York — but only because it was costly to redeem them. Luther further explained:
“Banknote collectors had to bundle them up and ship them back to the issuing bank in order to redeem them for gold. Then, they had to haul that gold back home. And, of course, they risked theft both ways.”
Banks would have liked to provide closer redemption options, but regulatory restrictions on branch banking didn’t allow it. According to Luther: “Far from demonstrating an uncompromising desire for a uniform redeemable currency, as Bullard claims, the historical evidence suggests that many redeemable currencies might prevail, even under a poor regulatory regime that makes them perform far worse than they otherwise would.”
Still, the volatility problem with crypto persists, which is why some believe the solution for crypto as a payment mechanism starts with stablecoins. “We do see use of stablecoins growing,” answered Zielke, adding: “Accepting or paying with stablecoins opens up new possibilities for global businesses that require the stability of the dollar but the security, speed and efficiency of blockchain payments.”
“I like the idea of stablecoins,” said Luther. But as is the case with traditional cryptocurrencies, they still need some improvements. “For one, they tend to be stable relative to the dollar, which by definition means they will never be managed better than the dollar.” A second concern is “they typically require one to trust the issuer to manage the supply appropriately — a risky proposition,” said Luther.
Related: The way of the stablecoin: A journey toward stability, trust and decentralization
Damodaran was skeptical about the utility of stablecoins, which he described as “solutions in search of problems,” further adding: “Of all the problems in the world, not having a currency that works is not in the top 100 in much of the world.”
But it is a problem in some locales, which is why Smith, for one, believes that crypto as a payment option may first catch on widely “in other, non-U.S. jurisdictions,” especially countries that “do not have the same access to payment systems that make internal transactions simple.”
Meanwhile, White listed some other current BTC use cases, including “fundraising by activists in Nigeria, Hong Kong and Russia, savings expatriation by people fleeing Venezuela, remittances into Iran, and peer-to-peer transfers within China among people seeking to avoid state financial surveillance.” He concluded: “Such uses — together with forecasts of wider future use — are enough to sustain Bitcoin’s positive market value.”
The CEO of the multinational e-commerce platform eBay, Jamie Iannone, stated in an interview that the company was exploring its options when it comes to adding support for cryptocurrency payments and NFT integration.
The comments were made in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box, a TV show based around the stock market, one week after the eBay stock experienced a drop in value that had shareholders concerned about recent developments.
Lannone referred to the possibility of crypto integration as a valid payment method by telling Reuters:
“We are always looking at the most relevant forms of payment and will continue to assess that going forward. We have no immediate plans, but it (cryptocurrency) is something we are keeping an eye on.”
The interview also made clear that eBay is looking at ways to take advantage of the Non-Fungible Token (NFT) boom that has been taking place in the crypto space, which could allow it to capture an audience that hasn’t adopted the technology yet.
Lannone also referred to the importance that NFT integration has for the company by saying:
“We’re exploring opportunities on how we can enable it (NFTs) on eBay in an easy way, Everything that’s collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades.”
With EBay’s recent second-quarter forecast failing to meet the market expectations amid an increasingly competitive E-commerce industry, the company has been actively looking for ways to improve its chances of success against companies like Amazon and Shopify.
In recent years, eBay has paid special attention to advertising and a payment business with a simpler e-commerce platform but has failed to take the spot Amazin holds as a favorite among consumers in the United States and Europe.
The inception of other platforms like Canada’s Shopify has also resulted in the growing uncertainty faced by eBay, which used to be the go-to destination for consumers during the first days of the internet’s E-commerce boom.
However, eBay has shown a great deal of success when it comes to offering different payment methods as it allows sellers and buyers to make use of platforms like Paypal, Bank transfers, international wire transfers, and many more.
While Lannone’s statements don’t necessarily mean that the company will be adding cryptocurrencies to the listed of supported payment methods any time soon, such a move would be consistent with the company’s history and could result in increased adoption of cryptocurrency in a more impactful way than the likes of Tesla.
One of EBay’s main strengths is the high percentage of collectors who make part of its user base as a direct result of the platform’s position as the best place to sell and purchase collectibles.
The platform has historically offered anything from Pokemon cards, action figures, comics, posters, military paraphernalia, art pieces, and much more, to millions of users worldwide, with some items selling for more than $1 million.
eBay has been doing business since the dawn of the internet and may be looking for new ways to thrive.
This reputation that the platform has achieved over the past decades could make it a perfect match for the booming NFT ecosystem, which has made the news constantly over the past month as more personalities and companies endorse the technology.
By adopting NFTs, eBay could capture a growing segment of the NFT market while facilitating their acquisition for users who might not be able to acquire them via dedicated platforms, as the technical nature of blockchain and crypto have remained as one of the major barriers to adoption.
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E-commerce site eBay says that it is exploring the possibility of adding NFT support, according to an interview with CNBC.
“We’re exploring opportunities on how we can enable [NFTs] on eBay in an easy way,” eBay CEO Jamie Iannone told CNBC.
When asked how long it could take to enable NFTs, Iannone noted that users are already selling NFTs with physical components on eBay. As such, the company’s efforts are largely an attempt to make the experience simpler and more streamlined.
EBay’s decision to explore NFTs appears to be closely related to its long-standing focus on collectible items such as trading cards. “Collectibles are a core category,” Iannone stated. “We’ve already done a billion dollars in GMV in the first quarter and that’s more than we’ve done in half of all of last year’s record setting levels.”
NFTs or “cryptocollectibles” are a special form of cryptocurrency token that can be minted in limited editions, making this type of product a good fit for eBay’s original business plan.
“Everything that’s collectible has been on eBay for decades and will continue to be for the next few decades,” Iannone noted.
He added that eBay is assessing new forms of payment. On whether eBay could accept Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as payment, Iannone stated that the company has “no immediate plans” to accept cryptocurrencies but is nevertheless “keeping an eye on” it.
The news comes weeks after several other events related to cryptocurrency took place in the e-commerce sector.
In February, rumors emerged about a possible digital currency from Amazon, though it is still not clear whether that digital currency will be a blockchain-based cryptocurrency.
Meanwhile, two companies that already support crypto are expanding their efforts: Shopify is exploring Ethereum DeFi integration, while Newegg has added Dogecoin to its list of payment methods.
Finally, payment companies such as PayPal have decided to integrate Bitcoin trading and payments, while Mastercard and Visa have plans to handle stablecoins and other cryptocurrencies. In this light, eBay’s move into NFTs is a natural course of action.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this author held less than $75 of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and altcoins.
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Major online marketplace eBay will be pursuing crypto payment options for its customers as well as exploring ways to introduce nonfungible tokens to the platform.
In an interview with CNBC today, eBay CEO Jamie Iannone said the company would “continue to look” at payment options like crypto. In addition, eBay will be “looking at it and exploring opportunities” to enable nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, on the platform “in an easy way,” comparing the digital offerings to collectibles.
“One of the great things about eBay is when there’s a new trend, it just shows up on Ebay,” said Iannone. “That’s what we’re seeing in areas like NFT, which we’re looking at how can we explore that better.”
The CEO said parts of NFTs were “already transacting” on the platform now, but eBay had not yet simplified the process for buyers and sellers. As of the first quarter of 2021, eBay has roughly 187 million active buyers.
This story is developing and will be updated.
