Alicia Maher 
Binance Smart Chain-based automated market maker or decentralized exchange, Pancakeswap is looking at joining the NFT bandwagon with a new NFT marketplace launch due for September 22. Alongside the proposed marketplace, Pancakeswap will be releasing a new NFT collection entitled PancakeSquad to mark the launch of its marketplace.
According to reports, fees generated from the minting and sales of digital collectibles by users will be channeled toward buying back circulating CAKE, Pancakeswap’s native and governance token. Upon its launch, users will have access to the PancakeSquad NFTs after minting them. However, the DEX did not state how many of the NFTs will be available for minting.
Pancakeswap’s Marketplace to Compete with Binance and Bakeryswap Marketplaces
PancakeSwap will rival Binance’s non-custodial marketplace as both are built on BSC. However, a major rival to the Pancakeswap DEX will be Uniswap, which is yet to attain an NFT status but remains the number one DEX built on Ethereum and across the DeFi ecosystem. Bakeryswap, another DEX built on BSC, has an NFT marketplace that is less notable amongst NFT enthusiasts. Pancakeswap’s popularity in DeFi is likely to contribute to the growth of its imminent marketplace and pool in massive transaction volume like other marketplaces such as OpenSea, which is built on Ethereum blockchain.
NFT Marketplaces Spring Up Across Various Blockchains
The NFT fever is spreading at an astronomical rate. In the last few days, new NFT marketplaces have been launched including crypto exchange, OKex’s custodial NFT marketplace that has been integrated on its platform and will facilitate the minting and trading of non-fungible tokens (NFTs).
Derivatives exchange FTX also launched its custodial NFT marketplace a few days ago, which led to a surge in the price of its native token, FTT and Solana blockchain’s token SOL. FTX’s marketplace has a cross-chain feature- facilitating transactions between Ethereum and Solana.
Interestingly, marketplaces built on the low-cost and high-speed BSC have not been able to match the success rate of Ethereum-based marketplaces. Between April and June, thousands of users complained about cut-throat gas costs spurred by the high trading activity on the blockchain. On its part, EIP-1559, an upgrade proposed to reduce gas prices on Ethereum, has not been able to help in that regard as users still witness increasing gas costs, especially during periods of traffic.
High gas costs or not, several NFT enthusiasts prefer trading their collectibles on Ethereum-based marketplaces to BSC counterparts. Perhaps the late arrival of BSC-based marketplaces is a factor. Meanwhile, celebrities across different sectors are now carving a niche for themselves in the NFT space while trying to connect with their fans. In March, the Twitter founder sold his first tweet on the platform as an NFT. American rapper, Jay-Z sold his debut album as an NFT, too, while commemorating the album’s anniversary.
