FTX has struck a deal with Reddit to integrate FTX Pay, its crypto-to-fiat exchange platform, with Reddit and Arbitrum. It will allow users to pay gas fees on Reddit’s Community Points tokens with fiat. Community Points are actually blockchain-based Reddit tokens whereby users can divvy out rewards and interact with the social platform.
Moreover, Community Points allow subreddits to reward active members or make governance decisions. The transactions, like all layer-2 rollups, are settled on Ethereum. Reddit enlists the expansion-minded FTX to let users pay Ethereum’s transaction fees with fiat.
Amy Wu, the head of FTX Ventures, said users need ETH for gas fees to transact with their Community Points on-chain. FTX Pay empowers the users with the same. It should be noted that Community Points are only live in the r/cryptocurrency and r/fortnite subreddits despite Reddit having a waitlist. It airdrops points to active users in the same way as users receive Karma for the upvoted posts.
A spokesperson for Reddit explained that Community Points are only meant for community governance and reputation points on Reddit. Selling the tokens is against the portal’s terms of use. Steven Goldfeder, the CEO of Offchain Labs, hopes to see new cases emerge around Reddit’s crypto tokens. He said they have the entire rollup and security mechanism built out, but they also allow for others to develop in the ecosystem. Goldfeder outlined that it’s not just Reddit launching Community Points, others can tap into it too.
