Crypto finances company Blockchain.com Inc. announced Thursday that it’s launching a nonfungible token marketplace into beta along with a waitlist for users to sign up.

This launch follows the ongoing surge in popularity in the NFT market that caused it to hit $10.67 billion during the third quarter of 2021, according to a report from DappRadar. That represented an increase of 704% over the previous quarter. Leading the industry has been collectible artwork pieces on the Ethereum blockchain – such as the CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club – and blockchain games, which include Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.

Nonfungible tokens are proofs of ownership of digital items such as artwork, music, video game items and other digital goods secured by smart contracts using blockchain technology on Ethereum, Flow, Solana and other protocols. Using NFTs, proof of ownership can be bought, sold and traded for numerous types of assets.

According to Blockchain.com, the process of minting, buying, selling and trading NFTs is a complex process and the company wants to simplify that and bring about increased adoption. The company believes its marketplace can do that.

The company said it sees many of the adoption challenges that crypto faced earlier, in particular that getting access to the NFT market is complex and nonintuitive.

The company also pointed users at its NFT explorer, a tool that displays various types of NFTs that have been sold or traded in the last 24 hours. It provides the price in Ethereum, along with a dollar value (or conversion into another world currency) along with where the creator, current owner and collection the NFT is from.

This NFT marketplace beta launch follows news from crypto exchange Coinbase Inc. in October that it would launch its own NFT marketplace, which is now in early access. Exchanges FTX and Binance also announced marketplaces earlier this year.

Blockchain.com raised $300 million in funding that valued the platform at $5.2 billion in March. The company said that it intended to use the money to expand its product offerings and take advantage of the current cryptocurrency industry’s increased interest and “times of hyper-growth,” as co-founder and Chief Executive Peter Smith called it.

Users interested in getting access to the NFT marketplace can do so by signing up for the beta waitlist.

Image: Blockchain.com