When NFT boomed in 2021, one of the NFT markets was king. Now that another NFT boom has arrived, can the same market return to the top of the mountain? We talk about – of course – OpenSea NFT Market.
OpenSea has played a huge role in bringing NFTs into the mainstream consciousness, and for many it is still the NFT market of choice for millions of NFT traders around the world. Today, it faces more competition than ever – and with NFTs on the rise again, OpenSea has a lot of ground to gain to get back on top.
Our complete 2025 guide is here open sea
Key insights
- Created by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah
- Released in December 2017
- World's largest NFT market during NFT boom 2021
- Facilitating over $39.5 billion in NFT transactions (as of December 2024)
- Currently the third most popular NFT market, after Magic Eden and Blur (as of December 2024)
What is OpenSea?
OpenSea is a supported NFT market EthereumBlockchain-based With OpenSea, users can create, buy, and sell a wide variety of NFTs, including Digital art, Collectors, Virtual Earthand more
Created by Devin Finzer and Alex AttaullahOpenSea took advantage of the growing interest in NFTs in the second half of the 2010s and became the #1 NFT market in the world when NFTs had their first boom in 2021.
With OpenSea, users can perform a variety of NFT transactions, including:
- Initial Sale: The first sale of a new NFT, via the OpenSea Launchpad
- Secondary sale: Existing NFTs listed at a price determined by their holder
- NFT Auctions: NFT holders can hold auctions for the assets they want to sell.
- NFT Bids: Potential NFT buyers can bid to buy an NFT, even if it is not listed for sale.
OpenSea uses highly developed smart contracts to ensure smooth, secure and transparent transactions. Users can connect many of the most popular software wallets to the platform – including Metamask, Coinbase wallet And more – to view and interact with NFTs across the site.
OpenSea NFT Market as a convenient place to trade the largest collections of NFTs, incl CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Hot penguins And mostly OpenSea also supports many smaller collections and projects, making it a welcoming platform for NFT creators and NFT collectors.
History of OpenSea
OpenSea started successfully CryptoKitties – a blockchain game by Dapper Laboratory which started working in 2017. With their success, Finzer and Atallah recognized the potential of NFTs and therefore decided to create an NFT market that could support these fast-growing assets.
The OpenSea NFT market launched in December 2017 and quickly gained a following thanks to its user-friendly design – one of the first NFT markets designed from the ground up to be as accessible to beginners as possible.
OpenSea quickly grew to become the number one NFT marketplace, even though trading volume was relatively modest at first. This changed in 2021, when the explosion of NFTs caused trading volumes to reach billions of dollars in just a few months, placing OpenSea at the heart of the NFT industry.
OpenSea leveraged this success into successive rounds of funding. They raised $100 million in July 2021 and another $300 million in January 2022, valuing OpenSea at an incredible $13.3 billion.
By mid-2022, NFTs were seeing a decline in public interest. Despite this, OpenSea used the funds generated in the last 12 months for development. In April 2022, OpenSea acquired and relaunched the trader-focused NFT marketplace Gem. OpenSea Pro In April 2023.
OpenSea faced its first major competitor in October 2022 with the first NFT market. erase OpenSea has quickly earned its crown as the number one NFT marketplace with a detail-focused user interface and an upcoming token launch that is appealing to many users.
The years 2023 and 2024 will see more challenges for OpenSea, with the increasing popularity of NFT in Solana – An OpenSea blockchain does not support – it helps Magical Eden Grow to become the world's #1 new NFT marketplace.
For all its success, OpenSea has been plagued by controversy. In the early days, OpenSea worked to identify and prevent the sale of NFTs with stolen or outright stolen artwork. Fortunately, numerous security improvements and platform updates over the years have helped mitigate these problems to a large extent.
OpenSea has also faced backlash for taking a back-and-forth stance in support of developers' royalties. Their shaky stance on the matter was one of the main reasons for the rise in popularity of competing NFT markets such as Blur and Magic Eden.
Going into 2025, many think that OpenSea will be the third most popular NFT market behind Magic Eden and Blur. However, with NFT interest picking up again, there are plenty of opportunities to reorder again in the year ahead.
What is the future of OpenSea?
OpenSea is in an interesting position today.
In recent months, there have been rumors that OpenSea is finally getting ready to launch its own token. This allows it to catch up with its competitors – with two of the biggest, Blur and Magic Eden already launching their ecosystem tokens at $BLUR and $ME.
November 2024 saw OpenSea change its entire NFT market experience, with this new site due to arrive in December 2024. Wealth and bring them back to the top of the NFT industry.
In the NFT boom of 2021, OpenSea was in the right place at the right time to invest. This time, OpenSea starts the race slightly further back. However, with their history and experience – and of course with a restructured market experience on the way – 2025 could see massive changes to the sites we use to buy, sell and trade NFTs.
