Salesforce Announces NFT Platform, Intensifies Competition for OpenSea and LooksRare

Salesforce, US-based software company has officially stepped into the Web3 sector with the launch of its NFT platform. Named ‘NFT Cloud', this new initiative by the San Francisco-based company is aimed at allowing people to mint and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Supported on a blockchain network, an NFT is a digital collectible, inspired by artwork, sportsperson, game character, or even an artist. The sales of NFTs have been skyrocketing for a while, especially with the rise of the metaverse industry.

Upon its launch, NFT Cloud will be able to ‘link data, communities and wallet', as per the details provided on Salesforce's website about its NFT platform

“Engage new communities in unique ways with integrated data. Mint NFTs using your CRM and sell on your existing commerce site. Deploy audited smart contracts, backed by a trusted platform. Get your team up to speed with Trailhead and scale your efforts with Web3 implementation and integration partners,” the website read.

Salesforces is betting on making its platform ‘energy efficient' and has decided to only support NFTs built on proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchains

“NFT Cloud does not support energy-wasting proof-of-work blockchains resulting in 99 percent fewer emissions,” the website added.

Solana and Polygon are popular PoS blockchains that support NFTs.

In recent days, the competition in NFT sales has risen with the launch of other NFT marketplaces. In January, newly launched LooksRare marketplace had recorded a sales volume of $394 million (roughly Rs. 2,912 crore) within just three days of its launch.

Recently, OpenSea NFT marketplace also added the support for Solana blockchain-based NFTs. OpenSea is the world's largest virtual shopping-place of digital collectibles.

The sales of NFTs reached $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,84,700 crore) in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.