In February, a gif named Nyan Cat featuring a pop-tart-shaped feline flying through a field of stars with a rainbow trailing behind it got auctioned off for $587,000.

Who would pay close to 600 grand for a simple looped animation, you might ask? Well, the gif itself was not even up for auction. Instead, what buyer "ox7eb2...36fb" purchased was a cryptographic hash representing the gif, stored forever on the Ethereum blockchain.

Welcome to the weird and wild world of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. The "non-fungible" means they're unique, and the "token" means they work on the blockchain like cryptocurrencies. Think of them as cryptos but with extra information tacked on to give you "dibs" on whatever digital asset the NFT represents, be it a tweet, "Charlie bit my finger," or Nyan Cat.

Coinbase (COIN  ), looking to diversify its revenue streams, announced its very own NFT offering, which they imaginatively dubbed "Coinbase NFT."

The exchange hopes to demystify the world of NFTs by leveraging the company's design ethos, which helped to put Bitcoin into the hands of your aging grandmother.

"Just as Coinbase helped millions of people accessing bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way- we want to do the same for NFTs," wrote Sanchan Saxena, Coinbase VP of product, in a blog post.

"Coinbase NFT" aims to be a one-stop-shop to mint and trade NFTs with a heavy social aspect built-in. "By fostering connections, Coinbase NFT will help creators, collectors and fans build community," Saxena writes.

According to the post, Coinbase NFT will connect you with other like-minded enthusiasts through personalized feeds and profiles. The company also stresses ease-of-use on their new platform, stating that "creating an NFT should be as simple as tapping a few buttons. Anything more complicated is a barrier to creativity." Coinbase will initially support NFTs on "Ethereum based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards with multi-chain support planned soon after."

TechCrunchpoints to a conspicuous lack of "Layer-2 scaling" in "Coinbase NFT" which could result in higher "gas bills" than on competing marketplaces, which might limit the platform's initial appeal. "Gas bills" represent the energy cost needed to solve cryptographic puzzles used to secure an NFT on the blockchain.

So, for instance, It might cost you $2 to mint an NFT, but your gas bill could be as high as $50. OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, has sharply cut gas fees by leveraging the power of the so-called "Polygon network," meaning Coinbase has its work cut out for it in entering the space.

While trading volume for NFT's reached $10 billion in the third quarter, their appeal remains limited, and their value dubious at best. NFT's are simply bits of code that give you "ownership" of a digital asset, but that ownership is limited. The creator of that asset often still holds the rights to copy, distribute, and ultimately profit from their creation, giving NFT's little to no intrinsic value, at least for the time being.

"NFTs won't move the needle for them [Coinbase]," Mizuho Securities analyst Dan Dolev told Barrons. He argues that the pressures from competitors like Robinhood (HOOD  ) on Coinbase's trading fees, which represent 96% of its revenues, are simply too great.

Others like BTIG's Mark Palmer are more bullish on "Coinbase NFT."

"An exchange with 11% of all the crypto assets in the world has already demonstrated its reach," he told Barrons. "Now it will have the opportunity to introduce NFTs to investors who may have not had any experience with them."

He argues that by acting as a "one-stop-shop" of sorts, Coinbase could get the edge on platforms like Robinhood.

"A bundled offering is going to be much stickier," Palmer told Barrons. "Ultimately, certain parts of the platform will be loss leaders but they'll promote engagement that will result in higher revenue overall."