Redditors have created millions of crypto wallets to buy NFT avatars • TechCrunch
In July, Reddit jumped on the NFT bandwagon, launching an NFT-based marketplace that allows users to buy blockchain-based profile pictures for a fixed price. Given the general sentiment surrounding NFTs today, you might assume – like me – that the experiment ended badly. But it is clearly the opposite.
Today during a panel at TechCrunch Disrupt, Reddit’s Chief Product Officer Pali Bhat revealed that over three million Redditors have used Reddit’s Vault blockchain wallet to create over three million crypto wallets to date. Most of these – 2.5 million – were created to buy NFT avatars that can be used as profile pictures on the platform, he said.
It is difficult to put the figures into context, given that not all NFT marketplaces willingly share such calculations. But Dune Analytics estimated in a recent report that one of the leading platforms, OpenSea, hosted over one million active wallets as of January. Meanwhile, the MetaMask crypto wallet earned over 30 million users in March.
Reddit partnered with roughly 30 artists to release about 40,000 NFT avatar designs a few months ago, which could be purchased through the Reddit mobile app at prices ranging from $9.99 to $99.99. (They’re all currently sold out.) Users who purchased one of the limited-edition images were granted licensing rights to use it on and off Reddit as an avatar, and could mix and match the avatar’s look using a built-in avatar builder tool.
Reddit partnered with Polygon, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain, to create the avatars. (In blockchain jargon, “minting” refers to publishing a unique NFT so it can be bought or sold.) Vault is used to store and manage NFTs through the Reddit app.
Reddit’s latest foray into the NFT space comes after the social network began allowing users to set any NFT as their profile picture, followed by Twitter. At the time, NFT avatars were exclusively available to members of the invite-only r/CollectibleAvatars subreddit.
Beyond NFTs, Reddit has branched out in a number of different directions in recent months in search of new revenue streams. The company has toyed with the idea of introducing TikTok-like video editing tools and made several targeted acquisitions, buying content moderation startup Oterlu, natural language processing company MeaningCloud, machine learning platform Spell and contextualization company Spiketrap. Reddit also revamped its developer portal to give third-party apps and bots a boost, and it upgraded its Reddit Talk live audio product with new discovery features.
