By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 21st, 2024
Gem aggregator will continue functioning independently from OpenSea as a separate product and brand. However, OpenSea will employ the key Gem features to make buying NFTs seamless and delightful.
OpenSea, the world’s first and largest digital marketplace for crypto collectibles and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), has acquired an Ethereum NFT marketplace aggregator Gem in order to “invest in the future of the pro community.”
1/ Exciting news!
To invest in the "pro" community and continue improving the OpenSea experience, we’re excited to share that we’ve acquired @gemxyz !
Read more in the official announcement blog, and below 👇https://t.co/IBn38f2d3U
— OpenSea (@opensea) April 25, 2022
According to the OpenSea blog post, Gem aggregator will continue functioning independently from OpenSea as a separate product and brand. However, OpenSea will employ the key Gem features to make buying NFTs seamless and delightful.
OpenSea commented:
“We’re excited to invest in Gem’s roadmap, and ultimately welcome more people into the world of NFTs. That said, it’s important for our community to know that when we consider a big decision like the one we’re announcing today, we evaluate all aspects of it thoroughly. We place equal value on the people we’re forging partnerships with, as much as the product and its users.”
As Gem has stated, it did not expect the acquisition offer from OpenSea. However, Gem will be delighted to get access to OpenSea’s infrastructure and resources that will accelerate its growth.
Gem is an NFT marketplace aggregator that allows you to discover and collect NFTs across numerous marketplaces including Opensea, Rarible, Larva Labs, LooksRare, and NFTX. Its goal is to aggregate every NFT marketplace starting with Ethereum. The platform started in early 2021 and is now one of the best NFT marketplace aggregation platforms available. Since last September, the platform has significantly expanded its user base, having added as many as 48,000 new users. Besides, as of Monday, April 25, the 207,577 transactions had been completed on the Gem platform.
Notably, one of the unique features of Gem is 39% cheaper gas fees when compared to buying from an individual marketplace.
The Latest from OpenSea
For OpenSea, the acquisition of Gem is not the first purchase this year. In January, it acquired Dharma Labs, a protocol for collective tokenized debt agreements. Within the deal, Dharma Labs stopped all the operations. Nadav Hollander and Brendan Forster, two of the Dharma Labs founders, became the new OpenSea Chief Technology Officer and its Head of Strategy respectively.
Besides, OpenSea raised $300 million in Series C funding led by Paradigm and Coatue. As a result, the company hit a $13.3 billion valuation, up from the $1.5 billion valuation after the $100 million Series B back in July 2021.
In February, OpenSea suffered a hack attack that is a widely spread phenomenon now. The attack had users sign a partial contract with general authorization, which took about three hours. After that, the hacker proceeded with calls to their contract, enabling NFTs to transfer without payment.
Currently, OpenSea is expanding its features, remaining the market leader in NFT sales. In January, it exceeded $6.86 billion in NFT trade volume.