Chainlink opens NFT price feed oracle to expand DeFi usage

Oracle provider Chainlink announced in a Dec. 15 blog post that it is now offering floor price feeds for Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Chainlink noted that the feature will bring “high-quality price data to the NFT economy” by delivering data to developers and introducing new use cases.

Coinbase Cloud first announced the feature in conjunction with Chainlink in September. However, Chainlink’s announcement today indicates that the price feeds are now available to general users rather than those who inquire about the service.

Chainlink’s NFT price feeds gather market data from multiple NFT marketplaces, calculate averages through Coinbase Cloud’s data analysis features, then deliver price data to smart contracts and applications through a decentralized oracle network.

The service currently supports 10 NFT collections: Azuki Official, Bored Ape Yacht Club, CloneX, Cool Cats, CrypToadz, CryptoPunks, Doodles, Mutant Apes, Vee Friends, and World of Women.

The most significant of those collections are Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks, which have seen 443 ETH ($563,000) and 236 ETH ($300,000) in trading volume over the past 24 hours respectively.

Chainlink noted that DeFi applications often fail to support non-fungible tokens even though those NFTs are built on the same blockchain networks as supported cryptocurrencies. It says that this is due to an “industry-wide lack of quality NFT price data” — a problem that is clearly addressed by the company’s new price feeds.

Chainlink expects its price feeds to be applied on many types of apps including NFT lending and borrowing platforms, prediction markets, and derivatives markets. Company statements quoted in today’s announcement suggest that multiple blockchain projects ⁠— including BendDAO, Taker Protocol, ParaSpace, and Cryptex Finance ⁠— are currently making use of the service.

Though Chainklink’s price feeds are available to the general public, they are targeted at developers who create applications and compose smart contracts.