Nfts
OpenSea Takes Market Share from Blur
The former NFT trading leader toppled Blur in terms of volume and sales after incentives diminished.
OpenSea toppled Blur in terms of 24-hour volume and total sales on Wednesday, and commanded the majority of unique buyers over the past 90 days.
OpenSea, the first crypto NFT marketplace, founded in 2017, narrowly reversed Blur, in terms of total sales, is on June 26th for only the third time in the last 90 days, with 2,184 sales compared to Blur’s 2,138.
NFT Marketplaces. Source: DappRadar
OpenSea also maintains a 39% user share with 177,565 unique buyers compared to 154,040 for Blur over the last 120 days.
This week’s “flipping” comes after the launch of Blast The Blur token resulted in lower rewards for users, who had been driving activity for the past eight months. Declining incentives have led some of Blur’s largest market makers to move away from the protocol.
Despite OpenSea’s recent success and beating its competitor in 24-hour volume, Blur still accounts for 62% of total volume over the last 90 days.
Impact of reducing incentives
The impacts of Blur’s reduced incentives are not yet visible and market participants remain divided.
Fuzzy farmer Cbb0fe recently took to social media and said“NFT Bag Holders [are] “They are about to burst into tears when they realize that as Blur farmers we have just sold liquidity to smart holders.”
On the other end of the spectrum, NFT investor OGDFarmer recently said in a Tweeter“No asset class, no matter how mature, has ever evolved without multiple boom and bust cycles. NFTs and their illiquid, crypto-adjacent nature will amplify this. It’s inevitable. I’m looking forward to the coming months.”
Origins of OpenSea
OpenSea dominated the NFT market scene throughout the 2021 bull run, processing over $100 million in sales per day at its peak. As of January 2022, OpenSea announcement It raised $300 million at a valuation of $13.3 billion.
However, in 2022, Blur launched its merchant-focused NFT marketplace and gained market attention by incentivizing users through its airdrop and significantly reducing creator royalties to increase merchants’ profit margins. Blur has also chosen to penalize its users who interact with competing marketplaces such as OpenSea.
After the great success of Blur airdropOpenSea began to lose market share significantly as participants moved to Blur to farm the second phase of its token distribution.
By November 2023, OpenSea had laid off more than 50% of its staff and its main investor, Coatue Management. reduced the value it placed on its $120 million investment in OpenSea by 90%, indicating that the company’s updated valuation is less than $2 billion.
The dark year of the NFT market
The broader NFT market rebounded after an initial sell-off as Blur’s largest market maker, Cbb0fe, deleted its liquidity on June 17. NFT Floor prices have since recovered, with Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Milady all rebounding by more than 5%. The CryptoPunks floor rebounded to 27 ETH, after selling fell to 22 ETH earlier this week.
The NFT market in 2024 has been bleak. Major collections such as Cryptopunks, Pudgy Penguins, and Bored Ape Yacht Club are down more than 50% from their yearly highs and volumes have dropped significantly.
Blur’s rapid rise to market dominance has taken place in just a few months in 2022, but this week’s activity could mark the first signs of a comeback for OpenSea.