By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 19th, 2024
Let’s have a look at the list of the NFT marketplaces that have all chances to become strong rivals for OpenSea this year.
For those interested in minting, or trading NFTs, OpenSea remains the choice location for these traders. OpenSea serves in most part as an NFT accumulator, beyond the level at which it is a gallery. Its trading volume for December last year stood at over $3 billion while its volume for the year was well above $12 billion placing it as the number 1 in the space. But with the increased interest in the industry in recent times, let’s have a look at a list of 5 NFT marketplaces that have the potential to overthrow it from its lead. Here they are.
Coinbase NFT
Coinbase’s operation is leaning on the side of centralization as a means to enhance adoption by people in the crypto and blockchain spaces. It leverages the growing love of NFTs in competing against the likes of OpenSea. With the launching of Coinbase NFT marketplace, this platform shows significant potential. Reports have also shown that the Coinbase NFT marketplace has registered has over 1 million users since inception showing the amount of anticipation that has greeted the firm’s new venture.
It should be noted that the marketplace isn’t operational yet as the launch date is still far from known. However, judging by the numbers it has been able to pull by its waitlist, it is clear that this new arm could do the numbers in this year:
FTX NFTs
Another centralized NFT marketplace that could usurp OpenSea is that of FTX. The exchange’s NFT marketplace holds the distinction of being the only NFT marketplace that supports the trading of both Ethereum-based NFTs and Solana-based NFTs.
Due to this functionality, it is believed that the marketplace would be able to draw in more NFT lovers to its platform and it could also supplant OpenSea.
Rarible
While OpenSea has been able to establish itself as the undisputed NFT marketplace in the field, one marketplace that could someday flip it is Rarible.
Rarible is a platform that allows digital artists and creators to sell custom-made tokens. Interestingly, it is not only a marketplace but a distributed network built on Ethereum and allows transactions without the need for a middleman.
The platform is powered by RARI, its governance native token, which plays a very important role in the platform operations. Through the ownership of this token, hodlers can vote on proposals to change the rule governing the marketplace on issues like fees, how they should be spent and the promotion of creators on the platform.
It was founded by Alex Salnikov and Alexei Fali.
Zora
This is one of decentralized NFT marketplaces protocols which according to TechCrunch is “with two main components but one philosophy: sustainable economics for creators.”
Zora affords creators the opportunity to create a dynamic pricing environment for their asset as they set two prices for their products — a start price and a max price. As community members transact each asset, the prices tend to move between both set prices thereby allowing the market to be dynamic and different from its competitors.
Already, the platform has enjoyed a number of investments from investors in the space.
Magic Eden
The Solana-based NFT marketplace also has the potential of displacing OpenSea. According to data from DappRadar, it is one of the top 10 NFT marketplaces as it has recorded over $200 million in trading volume since its launch in September last year.
Magic Eden’s low transaction fees of 2% give them a competitive advantage over the rest of the marketplaces.
While Magic Eden has seen more transactions recently, OpenSea still records higher amounts per transaction. Data by DappRadar shows that Magic Eden has been able to gather more than 4.5 million transactions over the last one month while that of OpenSea is at around 1.7 million.
What this points out is that users are flocking this new option though that has not necessarily translated into a higher transaction volume.