Reddit’s New NFT Marketplace Opens the Door for Avatar Sales, Trading

As social media platforms ramp up their cryptocurrency dealings, Reddit launched an NFT marketplace Thursday, where users can purchase blockchain-based avatars at a fixed price in fiat currency. 

The avatars — which can be purchased without digital assets using credit or debit cards — cost anywhere from $9.99 to $99.99 and can be used as customizable profile pictures. 

The NFT (non-fungible token) marketplace ought to expand upon Reddit’s previous avatar creation tool, which hit the market two years ago. The new NFT feature will give users a license to create any type of avatar and earn profits from their art, according to Reddit’s announcement. 

“Collectible Avatars are limited-edition avatars made by independent artists,” the company said. “If someone sets their Collectible Avatar as their avatar on Reddit, they can mix-and-match the avatar gear with other Reddit avatar gear and accessories, and their profile image in comments sections will have a glow-like effect.”

The art can be used on and off of Reddit, the company said. 

Collectible Avatars will be available to everyone in the coming weeks, Reddit said, but a limited number of Reddit users in the Collectible Avatars community were granted early access on Thursday.

It’s not Reddit’s first foray into NFTs. Earlier this year, the company, following Twitter’s footsteps, introduced a feature that would allow users to make Ethereum-based NFTs their profile pictures. 

For its new avatars, Reddit worked with artists from popular creative communities, such as r/Comics, the company said. 

“From the start, our goal has been to empower artists to create and sell their work,” Reddit said. “Artists will get paid for every Collectible Avatar that sells on Reddit, less any fees, and are also entitled to receive royalties from secondary sales of their Collectible Avatars on open marketplaces.”

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