The popularity of cryptocurrencies over the last 18 months has led to these tokens slowly becoming a part of mainstream markets and investment decision-making, with more and more people looking to put their money into the likes of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin and many other tokens. While the prices of all these tokens have soared, the craze around crypto has also created a new phenomenon – non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. NFTs are essentially units of data on blockchain networks, where each unit is unique and cannot be changed for another. They are being used to certify ownership of digital assets, and have the potential to change the way digital economies work. Many celebrities, content creators and even organizations from all over the world have pushed their NFTs this year, with some of these being sold for huge amounts. In this light, it is extremely encouraging that India finally has its own NFT marketplace as well, through the crypto exchange WazirX.
This is quite an interesting and encouraging development for the crypto industry in India, which recently received a breather from its central bank as well, as it stated that an old 2018 order that barred banks from dealing in cryptocurrencies can no longer be cited to restrict cryptocurrency operations in the country.
NFTs are the next big thing in the crypto market, and given the popularity of crypto in India, it was vital for this new trend to enter the Indian market as well. The use of online crypto gambling has also been widespread in the country, and NFTs could be a potential game-changer in that industry as well, with bitcoin games in India perhaps being accessible via NFTs in the near future.
WazirX, which is owned by Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, recently announced the launch of WazirX MarketPlace, which will be a marketplace for Indian artists and creators to post their content in exchange for WRX, the platform’s own native token (1 WRX = Rs 104 at present)
WazirX, which is owned by Binance, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, recently announced the launch of WazirX MarketPlace, which will be a marketplace for Indian artists and creators to post their content in exchange for WRX, the platform’s own native token (1 WRX = Rs 104 at present). Users will be allowed to switch their holdings of WRX to other blockchain networks such as Ethereum at a later date, but the current condition is in place to try and encourage the use and growth of WRX.
WazirX has also decided to allow the purchase and sale of NFTs via WRX only as of now to mitigate the environmental cost of minting new NFTs, which is the same as that for coins like Bitcoin, and has led to quite a lot of opposition to the overall crypto industry all over the world. A 5 per cent service charge will be subtracted from all sale proceeds, with the remaining amount being deposited into creators’ accounts, while artists will also have the option of adding a royalty fee of up to 15 per cent on resales of their assets. The beta phase of the marketplace is launching with a fixed price model in place, with WazirX opting to not allow bidding on these digital assets at the moment, unlike the global model where huge sales of NFTs have taken place partly due to the bidding system in place.
There are around 15 popular creators, including visual artist Vimal Chandran, wall mural artist Sneha Chakraborty and media artist Ishita Banerjee who have posted their creations on the WazirX marketplace already, with more than 15,000 applications by creators being processed by the company at present. This is an exciting time for the crypto sector in the country, with restrictions finally being lifted to allow full access to the crypto market, and the arrival of NFTs in the mix is another step in this direction, with other entities sure to follow WazirX’s lead.
