Its servers may have had a monumental crash over the weekend, but curiously enough, WazirX is on a high. The cryptocurrency trading firm is trending on Twitter, and its Monday’s announcement has sent India's fintech world into a tizzy.
“We are delighted to launch India's first NFT marketplace,” said WazirX founder Nischal Shetty. “It will truly transform the market in our rapidly digitising world with a growing interest in NFT across the globe,” he added.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have been in the news in recent months as a one-of-a-kind authentication that makes an item, particularly in a digital format, a unique asset. For example, a digital art work, be it a painting or photograph, may be copied, shared and reproduced many folds. But once it is issued an NFT, or in other words authenticated with a digital certificate via blockchain technology (where the information cannot be altered), it becomes one of a kind. Something like the original Mona Lisa painting at the Louvre, compared to the many reprints and photographs of the said painting.
NFTs are considered the logical step for collectors and businesses to extend investments, trading and auctioneering in art and other 'non-fungible' assets into the digital realm. A few weeks ago, when London auctioneer Christie's sold a digital-only artwork by the artist known as Beeple for more than Rs 500 crore, it topped a string of similar high-value sales via the NFT mode—this ranged from the GIF of a flying cat to the first tweet sent out by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Obviously, the interest in India, too, is palpable, especially, since the buyers of the Beeple art work were Indians, something WazirX hopes to capitalise on. Also, with its primary area of business—cryptocurrency trading—under a cloud as the government is said to be mulling a ban, this could be a smart diversification move.
WazirX's NFT initiative has on board Canadian entrepreneur Sandesh B. Suvarna as well as film personality Visakha Singh. “This is a great opportunity for artists and IPR owners to monetise their existing assets via a new revenue stream,” said Singh, adding, “We are confident that this would be a beautiful marriage of arts, technology and commerce.”
A WazirX statement said it will not charge customers for creating and listing NFTs on the platform, but will only charge a 'gas fee' against the computer power used to verify the transactions.
