Reddit Launches New NFT Avatar Marketplace
Reddit is launching a new NFT-based avatar marketplace today that lets you buy blockchain-based profile pictures for a fixed price. The company said you don’t need to have a crypto wallet to buy them, so your credit or debit card should be enough, and you can use Reddit’s own wallet product to store them.
The social network said it is releasing 90 designs with the total amount of NFTs being sold in this early access phase being “tens of thousands”.
The company noted that if you purchase one of the limited edition NFTs, you will have licensing rights to use it on and off Reddit as an avatar. These rights aren’t as extensive as owning an NFT from Yuga Labs’ Bored Ape Yacht Club collection, which allows you to create merchandise or TV shows based on the bored ape you own. Also, you can mix and match your avatar’s look with merch available in the avatar builder, and your avatar will have a “glowing effect” next to your community comments.
Image credit: Reddit
This isn’t Reddit’s first rodeo with NFTs. Earlier this year, the company began testing a feature that would allow you to set any Ethereum-based NFT as your profile picture – weeks after Twitter released a similar feature. Last year, Reddit released limited edition NFTs based on its mascot Snoo, called CryptoSnoos.
Reddit has partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain, to create these avatars on the chain. You can use Reddit’s own blockchain wallet called Vault — which is available on the firm’s native app — to store and manage these NFTs. Currently, Vault is used to earn blockchain-based community points and spend them on special features such as badges and animated emoji.
Today, NFT avatars will be available to members of the r/CollectibleAvatars invite subreddit for a first look. The community will have details on how to set up a wallet, exclusive artist AMAs, and behind-the-scenes posts on those throwaway profile pictures. Because there is no auction, all NFTs have a fixed price and can be purchased through fiat currencies such as US dollars. List prices for these NFT avatars are $9.99, $24.99, $49.99, $74.99, or $99.99. If you’re not part of that community, the company noted that these collectible avatars will be available for purchase on the avatar builder page for everyone in the coming weeks.
Image credit: Reddit
The company has worked with artists — some from communities like r/Comics, r/ProCreate and r/AdobeIllustrator — for the first collection. Reddit-noted artists also receive royalties – with a 50/50 profile shared with Reddit – from secondary sales of these NFTs on marketplaces such as OpenSea and Rarible.
Reddit says that while NFT profile pictures is an early-stage blockchain project, it wants to explore more features with the technology.
“In the future, we see blockchain as a way to bring more empowerment and independence to communities Reddit. Reddit has always been a model of what decentralization could look like online; our communities are self-built and self-powered, and as part of our mission to better empower our communities, we are exploring tools to help them become even more self-sustaining and self-governing,” the company wrote in a statement.
Reddit has joined a long list of companies experimenting with NFTs. After launching NFT support on Instagram, Facebook recently ported some of these features to the blue app. After launching its own digital art collection in May, eBay acquired NFT marketplace KnownOrigin in June. In May, Spotify began testing a feature that allowed some artists to promote digital collectibles on their profiles, and link-in-bio startup Linktree launched new features for creators like unlockable links for specific NFT collection holders. Expect more of these tests in the near future.
