A Long, Strange Trip for the ‘Uber for Nurses’Read more

Photos by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Andreessen’s Haun Will Keep Coinbase, OpenSea Board Seats as NFT Rivalry Grows

By  |  Oct. 14, 2021 4:24 PM PDT
Photo: Photos by Bloomberg. Art by Mike Sullivan.

Coinbase is still riding high two days after announcing its non-fungible token marketplace. The crypto exchange’s stock closed at $260 on Thursday, up 5%, after CEO Brian Armstrong tweeted late Wednesday that more than 1 million people had joined the waitlist for the marketplace, which is called Coinbase NFT. By Thursday afternoon, the waitlist had climbed to more than 1.6 million places.  

This growing interest strengthens Coinbase’s position as a threat to OpenSea, the premier marketplace for buying and selling NFTs, which are digital, blockchain-based assets. OpenSea only has 300,000 users, according to Mark Palmer, a fintech analyst at brokerage firm BTIG. Coinbase, in contrast, has 68 million users who could also try NFTs on the marketplace, set to launch by the end of this year.

Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
Instacart CEO Fidji Simo. Photo by Getty.
Exclusive startups Finance
Growth Wanes at Instacart, Gopuff
Grocery upstarts Instacart and Gopuff haven’t been able to deliver two things at once this year: growth and profits.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. Photo by Bloomberg
semiconductors ai
Why Nvidia Aids Cloud Rivals of AWS, Google and Microsoft
Nvidia’s business of selling chips for artificial intelligence is going gangbusters, but the company faces a looming problem.
CareRev co-founder Will Patterson stepped down as CEO last week. Art by Clark Miller
Exclusive startups venture capital
A Long, Strange Trip for the ‘Uber for Nurses’
Will Patterson was on a hot streak. As the co-founder and CEO of CareRev—a gig-work platform sometimes described as an “Uber for nurses”—he saw his company’s business surge during the pandemic as hospitals and clinics scrambled to find healthcare workers.
Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg
Exclusive apple ar/vr
Apple’s Learning Curve: How Headset’s Design Caused Production Challenges
If Apple unveils its long-awaited mixed-reality headset next week as expected, it will represent the company’s riskiest gamble on a new product since the iPhone.
Adam D'Angelo photograph by Ko Sasaki. Art by Clark Miller
The 1:1 ai
Adam D’Angelo’s Endless Quest to Answer Everything
Adam D’Angelo is basking in an “ endless summer ” of artificial intelligence. A few weeks before he and 350 industry peers released a bizarre, one-line statement warning that AI could herald a nuclear-level extinction event, the 38-year-old co-founder of Quora told me he actually sees more upside in AI than downside.
PRO
Introducing The Information’s Generative AI Database
OpenAI’s ChatGPT launched six months ago, igniting a boom in generative artificial intelligence.