While Coinbase is better known for its cryptocurrency exchanges, the company also has some self-custody wallets under the Coinbase wallet Brand. With this type of wallet, you are in control of your crypto assets as private keys are stored on your devices.
Today the company brings NFTs to the desktop browser. People using Coinbase Wallet for desktop browsers will soon see a new tab called “NFTs” that will allow you to access the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) associated with your wallet address.
While many mobile wallets allow you to view your NFT collection, such as: Rainbow, silver and also Coinbase Wallet on mobile devices, browser extensions usually do not have a native NFT gallery function. The function will be rolled out in a few days.
Credit: Coinbase
In addition to the new NFT feature, Coinbase has been working on better support for test networks and alternative networks. While you can already switch between several networks in the settings, Coinbase Wallet now shows your token balances in all supported networks such as Arbitrum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Fantom, Optimism, Polygon and xdai. It’s kind of a unified inbox for your crypto assets.
Coinbase Wallet will also support EIP-3085 (EIP stands for Ethereum Improvement Proposal). When a Coinbase wallet interacts with a decentralized application that also supports EIP-3085, this leads to a better user experience for the end user.
EIP-3085 enables Dapp developers to propose a specific network for a transaction. In other words, it makes it easier to interact with multiple networks.
The main benefit of using a self-custody wallet is that you are not limited to what is available in the app. You can connect to a third party Dapp using WalletLink, WalletConnect, etc.
But Coinbase has also integrated some decentralized exchanges directly into the Coinbase wallet interface. Interestingly, Coinbase uses Uniswap and 0x for these trades. Coinbase does not generate any revenue from users who exchange tokens via Uniswap or 0x.
In many ways, Coinbase Wallet feels like Coinbase’s web3 initiative. The company wants to stay relevant as crypto users keep getting better educated and interacting with more dapps.
MetaMask is very popular with new crypto users looking to buy an NFT for the first time. But MetaMask users will tell you that MetaMask … isn’t great. And Coinbase doesn’t want to stand still. It has acquired crypto wallet startup BRD and it is planned to start its own NFT marketplace.
