Reddit NFTs: New Digital Collectibles Onboarding Millions To Web3 - Ethereum (ETH/USD)

Social news website and platform Reddit could be onboarding millions of people to the world of non-fungible tokens and Web3. The catch is that people who have the NFTs might not even know what they are.

What Happened: Reddit onboarded millions of people to the world of NFTs with the launch of digital collectible avatars.

“Collectible avatars are limited-edition avatars from Reddit that provide owners with unique benefits on the Reddit platform,” Reddit’s help page said.

Several creators worked with Reddit to produce groups of collectible avatars. The collectible avatars are stored in vaults on Reddit and can be bought, sold or traded in a similar fashion to NFTs. A collectible avatar owner can use it while posting and commenting on Reddit.

Users can also mix and match other avatar gear to customize their collectible avatar to make it stand out.

The avatars are based on Snoo, the alien mascot for Reddit.

Onboarding New Users: Benzinga reported Reddit could be exploring Web3 back in October 2021 thanks to a job posting.

In July 2022, Reddit announced the launch of collectible avatars, using Polygon MATIC/USD.

Many of the collectible avatars were free airdrops to loyal users on Reddit. A portion of the collectible avatars was also available for purchase, but unlike many traditional NFTs, users could pay with Stripe and use their local currency.

Several Twitter threads on the subject of Reddit NFTs have made note of the fact that Reddit does not call these NFTs or mention the word NFTs in the section explaining the collectible avatars.

Instead, Reddit focuses on ease of use, cash transactions and onboarding new users to Web3 seamlessly. The ease of onboarding new users to the world of NFTs by Reddit could be one of the biggest events for Web3 in years.

Similar to the way users got onboarded to NFTs through Dapper Labs’ NBA Top Shot sports digital collectibles, new users are recognizing the value of having unique collectibles that can easily be bought and sold. Users are also recognizing the value of having a unique profile avatar, similar to the use case of NFTs as profile pictures on other social media platforms and way for creating a digital identity.

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian praised the new collectible avatars in a tweet.

“I’m glad to see the Snoo NFT Avatar launch has taken so well. I shipped the first version of a Reddit avatar generator in 2009 + once a bunch of smarter people got around to inventing blockchains, I instantly thought back to this and it does make me happy to see it come to life,” Ohanian said.

Strong Early Numbers: According to Dune Analytics, there are currently 2.8 million holders of Reddit collectible avatars. Reports from Reddit recently said that there were three million wallets created on the platform.

A look at OpenSea, a leading NFT marketplace, shows four Reddit collections among the top 10 by sales volume in the last 24 hours.

#1 Spooky Season, poieeeyee x Reddit: 0.38 Ethereum ETH/USD floor, 770 ETH total volume

#4 Foustlings: 1.65 ETH floor, 184 ETH total volume

#5 The Senses: 1.70 ETH floor, 174 ETH total volume

#10 Spooky Season Rojom: 0.57 ETH floor, 128 ETH floor

Data from Dune Analytics shows $6.4 million in sales volume for the Reddit digital collectibles, including $2.4 million in the last 24 hours. More than 23,070 collectibles have been traded.

The interest in Reddit digital collectibles also helped boost the price of Polygon, which is up 6% to $0.9034 for the week.