eBay is the latest company to move towards crypto and NFTs, joining a host of other major brands that have jumped on the bandwagon in recent months.
Founded back in 1995 during the dot-com bubble, eBay is known across the web for selling used items, collectibles, and similar products that you wouldn’t normally find on other major eCommerce platforms.
eBay also has a solid reputation for staying ahead of the curve when it comes to new developments within the digital ecosystem.
For example, the company acquired PayPal all the way back in 2002, and in 2004 they purchased a 25% stake in the up-and-coming classified listings site Craigslist. In 2005, eBay purchased Skype, later selling it to Microsoft for a cool $8.5 billion.
In addition, eBay has a tendency to break the rules from time to time. In 2012, the company was charged by the United States Department of Justice with entering into non-solicitation agreements with other technology companies.
During its earliest days, the site was an extremely unregulated place that sold Nazi parahernalia and other questionable items. In 1999, a man tried to auction off one of his kidneys on eBay.
eBay has been around for many years, evolving with the internet and showing that it’s not afraid to bend the rules. Because of these factors, eBay was probably always destined to get involved with cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and everything else web3 has to offer.
eBay Is Poised to Become the First Major eCommerce Platform to Accept Crypto
So far, all of the major eCommerce platforms have been reluctant to accept crypto as a payment method.
This means that eBay could be the first one to take the plunge. So far, the company has simply stated that it is “studying” the “possibility” of accepting crypto, but that moment could come sooner than many of us expect. CEO Jamie Iannone explained:
“We’re just completing our transition to manage payments where we’re now managing $85 billion of volume on our platform directly. This gives us the ability to open up new forms of payment.”
eBay’s strategy this year will focus on payments and advertising, and it’s possible that crypto could be a part of the former.
NFTs Are Already Being Traded on eBay
It’s worth mentioning that people are already selling NFTs on eBay.
Even though the platform hasn’t really supported these trades yet, eBay isn’t stopping NFT investors from using it. These NFT traders are simply taking advantage of a trusted system that everyone knows and uses, and it’s almost as if eBay is naturally evolving towards this new marketplace.
It seems inevitable that eBay will start to cater to these transactions, creating dedicated categories and systems that will support NFT investors in the future.
