Magic Eden presently has a monopoly in the Solana NFT area, but expect OpenSea to aim to woo Eden’s consumer base away from Eden following this launch.
OpenSea, the NFT marketplace, has announced the upcoming integration of the Solana (SOL) blockchain into its platform, a long-awaited move that industry experts and numerical data suggest could result in reciprocal benefits for both ecosystems, as well as positive sentiments for the broader NFT space.
Solana’s launch is scheduled for an undisclosed date in April. It will join the list of three existing networks, Ethereum, layer-2 Polygon, and Klaytn, and will be accessible via the rankings page’s drop-down ‘all chains’ button.
Referring to the flood of tweets and media coverage over the possibility of a Solana launch, OpenSea jokingly referred to the announcement as the “best-kept secret in Web3.” Adam Montgomery, Head of Blockchain, also provided his opinion on the launch.
Their sixteen-second preview video was met with widespread acclaim, as seen by the tweet’s 615,500 views, 8,964 retweets, and 21,700 likes in the eighteen hours since its release.
If you haven't heard from me in a while…this is why. Huge effort to get this built, super proud of the team @opensea https://t.co/sZQl2HITpU
— Adam Montgomery (@montasaurus_rex) March 29, 2022
The establishment of the NFT marketplace LooksRare in January 2022 represented the first significant leadership threat to OpenSea’s multi-year monopoly in the NFT field. It saw the deployment of an airdrop strategy, allowing experienced investors to claim governance LOOKS tokens as a reward for using the site.
According to Dune Analytics’ quantitative data, LooksRare has registered a total of 55,874 users since its launch on Jan. 10, facilitating almost $21.3 billion in trading activity. In comparison, OpenSea has added 884,052 new members since its competitor’s launch, but these investors have transacted little over $12 billion in volume.
As a result, LooksRare currently holds a 52.4 percent market share based on trading volume, compared to OpenSea’s 47.6 percent.
Within Solana’s ecosystem, DappRadar marketplace data indicates that Magic Eden is now topping the space with a $41.05 million trade volume over the last 30-days, followed by Solanart and Solsea with $4.39 million and 656,830, respectively.
Following Magic Eden’s collaboration with entertainment company Overtime, co-founder Jack Lu stated their belief that NFTs will enable the “next generation of sports fans to experience sports in a completely different way than the previous generation of millennials, who grew up passively watching sports on TV or in person.”
Disclaimer: These are the writer’s opinions and should not be considered investment advice. Readers should do their own research.
