By
Godfrey Benjamin
March 21st, 2024
The newly appointed OpenSea CFO Brian Roberts puts some light on the company’s IPO plan. However, the OpenSea community feels dejected and abandoned as an IPO plan will most likely mean that there shall be no token airdrop.
Leading Ethereum-based NFT Marketplace – OpenSea – has announced its plans to go public through an Initial Public Offering (IPO). The announcement comes after OpenSea appoints former Lyft executive Brian Roberts, as the platform Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Speaking to Bloomberg, OpenSea CFO Brian Roberts shed some light on the IPO plans. Roberts was also instrumental in executing a successful IPO strategy for Lyft back in 2019. Thus, he can play a crucial role in sharing his playbook with OpenSea. Speaking about OpenSea’s impressive financial records, Roberts told Bloomberg:
“I’ve seen a lot of P&Ls (profit and loss statements) but I’ve never seen a P&L like this. When you have a company growing as fast as this one, you’d be foolish not to think about it going public. I’ve seen a lot of P&Ls (profit and loss statements) but I’ve never seen a P&L like this”.
Furthermore, OpenSea Founder and CEO Devin Finzer said that the company is also talking to big investors for additional funds. OpenSea already has backing from some of the big investors like a16z, Founders Fund, Coinbase and Blockchain Capital.
People familiar with the matter said that investors are looking to invest over $1 billion at a valuation of over $12 billion. It has been exponential growth just over the last few months for the NFT marketplace. The last time OpenSea raised funds in July, it pegged a valuation of $1.5 billion.
Further taking about the IPO plans, Roberts said that the company doesn’t need more cash. Instead, it will use the funds from the IPO “to acquire companies, strike partnerships, and create joint ventures to further expand the use of NFTs into new industries”.
OpenSea Community Isn’t Happy about Its Plans for Going Public
While the NFT marketplace is looking to raise funds from the public, the community members aren’t happy or excited about the news. The IPO plan has also put fear among the community members that the OpenSea token won’t happen. The biggest dilemma among OpenSea platform users is whether or not they would be receiving a token airdrop.
Wait.. What? OpenSea is doing an IPO? Disappointed. Your platform is a success because of the community, and you can't give back.
— Living Pixelated (☕️, 🎟️, 🔮) (@LivingPixelated) December 6, 2021
Many in the community were expecting an OpenSea token airdrop. This has been one of the most common practices among crypto projects. With this IPO move, OpenSea users and NFT collectors feel that the company has been abandoning them in favor of investors.
Sucks to hear @opensea is selling out and doing an IPO.
Their VCs didn’t get them to where they are today. We did.
Just another reason why I can’t wait for @Coinbase_NFT. If we are using corporate vehicles, we might as well use the one that won’t go down three times a week.
— 2070 (@Punk_2070) December 6, 2021
OpenSea has been one of the most successful NFT marketplaces facilitating billions of dollars worth of trading volume. However, with the recent move, some users say that they will shift to other platforms if they launch their NFTs and abandon OpenSea.