This article comes fromDecrypt, original author: Jeff John Roberts

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

Summary:

This article comes from

, original author: Jeff John Roberts

Odaily Translator | Nian Yin Si Tang

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Summary:- Coinbase is looking at NFTs as a new revenue opportunity to diversify transaction fees.- Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas also said that the company is not worried that online brokerages like Robinhood will "take the cake."

Coinbase Chief Financial Officer Alesia Haas said the company is exploring NFTs as a potential new line of business.

NFTs are blockchain-based tokens that, unlike Bitcoin, represent unique ownership of digital or physical items, ranging from artwork to videos, tweets to concert tickets, that can be minted as NFTs. Although NFTs have been around for several years (take the 2018 hit CryptoKitties as an example, which is an NFT game featuring digital kittens), in recent months, driven by several large-scale transactions, , NFT has entered the mainstream market. One of the most eye-catching was a nearly $70 million auction in March-the artist Beeple's NFT painting "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" was sold at Christie's

Sold for $69 million

, the winning bidder is MetaKovan, the founder and financier of Metapurse.eth, the world's largest NFT fund.

Haas did not elaborate on when Coinbase could offer NFTs, nor did it say whether the company plans to create an NFT art marketplace similar to Nifty Gateway or Foundation, or simply act as an NFT resale platform. She also did not say how much the company might charge.

Note: Haas made the above remarks on the eve of Coinbase’s listing.

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Does it compete with Robinhood?

While the company is lucrative and valued at as much as $100 billion, skeptics say its business model, which relies heavily on transaction commissions, is unsustainable. In particular, they point out that Coinbase’s high commissions (over 2%) will be challenged as companies such as Robinhood and PayPal expand their crypto businesses.

"It's true that fees are compressing for all assets over time. But I don't think (crypto fees) will be commoditized at this point," she added, adding that crypto trading is far more complex than stock trading, and other trading platforms lack sufficient The expertise and security infrastructure required to challenge Coinbase.

Haas also noted that Coinbase must diversify its revenue streams; currently, 94 percent of its revenue comes from commissions on transactions in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Part of the company’s strategy, she said, will be to encourage existing users to get exposed to a growing number of new products, including those related to lending and staking, part of a DeFi space that’s heating up as the crypto industry continues to mature. Haas also said that Coinbase's business cannot be lumped into one category.

“We are focused on the long term and will continue to diversify our products. Right now we are focused on investing, but what is interesting is that we are seeing more than 20% of users using multiple products, including staking, yield, and lending,” Haas said .

Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong expects the company's non-trading businesses (such as Coinbase Earn, debit cards, staking, and institutional custody) to grow significantly in the long run, likely accounting for more More than 50% of the total business. Currently, Coinbase's exchange business is its main source of income. In the last year, transaction fees accounted for 86% of Coinbase’s total revenue.

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Will stocks be tokenized in the future?