India’s largest cryptocurrency exchange WazirX announced the launch of the country’s first Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) marketplace on Tuesday, June 1. The platform is expected to feature exclusive artwork by renowned artists, photographers and mixed media professionals from India and other South Asian countries. The platform, which will be used for trading NFTs, will run on its parent company Binance’s blockchain technology. Binance is one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world, which acquired WazirX in 2019.
NFT is a one-of-its-kind cryptocurrency asset that is non-fungible in nature, which implies that NFT is not replaceable by another ‘identical’ item. No copies of an NFT can be created following the purchase, which makes it a unique asset for buyers.
The company said that the marketplace currently has 15 creators, and has received over 15,000 applications from creators and collectors till now. The marketplace will initially feature works of visual artist Vimal Chandran, wall mural artist Sneha Chakraborty, Montreal-based mixed media artist Ishita Banerjee, automotive photographer Arjun Menon, and anonymous street artist Tyler, among others.
WazirX said it has brought on board over 300 creators who will be releasing their works on the marketplace. The platform will have rewards and cashback worth $50,000, no listing price, and will offer a minimal gas fee of $1 for transactions. Gas fees is the money that NFT trading platforms charge.
“Creators on the WazirX NFT platform have been divided into various categories and the team is onboarding them in a phased-out manner. The launch is heavily focused on Indian-origin artists scattered around the world for now. The selection of artists has been divided into ‘Spotlight’ and ‘Discover’ sections. Spotlight artists have been curated keeping in mind the diversity of their work, genre, popularity, and credibility,” the company said in a statement.
NFTs have become popular after a series of significant sales this year, including one by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey of his tweet for over $2 million. The other sale of note includes an NFT artwork that was bought for over $69 million by Singapore-based entrepreneur Vignesh Sundaresan at a Christie’s auction in March.
NFTs on the WazirX marketplace can be purchased only through the platform’s native token WRX, with one token currently worth Rs 104. WRX has a supply cap of 1 billion. The platform will launch with a ‘fixed price’ model in the beta phase and allow artists to add a royalty fee of up to 15% on the resale of their work. The NFTs will be interoperable and can be transferred to a different blockchain later, the company said.