As soon as one of many largest NFT marketplaces and a staunch supporter of Ethereum’s ERC-721 protocol, OpenSea has determined to go multi-blockchain, conduct an Preliminary Coin Providing (ICO)-style airdrop, and attempt to recoup losses from its 98% decline in buying and selling volumes.
In an announcement immediately, the change stated it’s engaged on an airdrop of its new SEA tokens, transforming its web site, and including deeper help for over a dozen blockchains.
OpenSea can also be including help for cross-blockchain NFT purchases, similar to shopping for a Solana NFT utilizing a non-Solana cost technique. It’s additionally lowering its market charges to 0.5% and swap charges to $0 for its OS2 Open Beta.
The change achieved unicorn standing as an early startup, using a wave of buying and selling exercise that peaked at $476 million on Might 1, 2022, following the launch of Bored Ape Yacht Membership’s Otherdeed metaverse land.
Right now, buying and selling volumes have declined 98% from that determine and infrequently exceed single-digit hundreds of thousands.
Three years for the reason that glory days
On virtually each related metric, the multi-year decline is obvious. In January 2022, OpenSea boasted month-to-month NFT gross sales of over 5 million. By January 2025, nonetheless, gross sales have been down 80%.
OpenSea’s royalty charges have been $268 million in January 2022, but failed to achieve even $4 million final month.
The corporate is hopeful that its new ICO airdrop and platform redesign will assist it recuperate. OpenSea laid off 56% of its workforce after receiving a Wells Discover from the Securities and Trade Fee (SEC) in August 2024.
That Wells Discover expressed concern about potential unregistered securities on the platform.
OpenSea has additionally confronted stiff competitors from different NFT marketplaces like Blur and Magic Eden. Magic Eden by the way noticed some success with including different NFT-supporting blockchains like Ethereum and Polygon after initially supporting solely Polygon.
This might clarify the change’s resolution to incorporate a considerable variety of new blockchains in OpenSea 2.0.
General, OpenSea is just struggling to take care of a multi-year decline in NFT recognition. As of late, most merchants merely favor fungible memecoins slightly than non-fungible media.
Its web site relaunch and token providing is unlikely to alter this international pattern.