NFTs were a crucial and defining factor of the crypto bull market in 2021, giving traders an accessible avenue to enter the booming cryptocurrency market.
However, as the crypto winter tightened its grip, NFT sales plummeted 63%, falling to $8.7 billion in 2023, despite volume tripling between October and November.
The State Of The NFT Market
NFTs are based on the blockchain and represent the unique ownership of assets. These assets can be images and physical objects. However, global sales for NFTs plummeted to 63% in 2023, falling to $8.7 billion in 2023, according to data from CryptoSlam. This drop comes despite volume tripling to $918 million between October and November. NFTs were widely regarded as a status symbol, with users being able to purchase an NFT and use it as a profile picture on Twitter. However, X, as Twitter is now known, no longer supports NFT profile pictures.
OpenSea 2.0
Devin Finzer, the CEO of NFT marketplace OpenSea, believes it makes sense for the industry to move beyond seeing NFTs as simply collectible images. Finzer stated he looks at more than just numbers when defining the success of the NFT industry and his own company, OpenSea. The OpenSea CEO stated,
“One of the things we’ve been most excited about is not necessarily how do you drive the most volume, but rather, how do you build sort of the most compelling use cases for NFTs.”
OpenSEa had been one of the most dominant NFT marketplaces during the crypto bull run, reaching a market valuation of $13 billion. However, the crypto winter saw a reversal of fortunes and several other developments. In August, the NFT marketplace’s former head of product was convicted of insider trading. The platform also drew criticism after it removed royalties for NFT creators on the platform and laid off 50% of its staff. Additionally, the emergence of new players such as Blur, Magic Eden, and the OKX NFT marketplace saw trading volumes on OpenSea decline considerably.
Regarding the shifting trends and dwindling trading volumes, Finzer stated that trading volumes can be misleading because some marketplaces incentivize activity on their platform by using their own token as a reward.
Finzer revealed that OpenSea is working on a platform upgrade known as OpenSea 2.0, which will give users a better user experience and improved differentiation between NFT categories as more use cases for NFTs spring up. Currently, all NFTs are displayed in the same manner on OpenSea and other NFT marketplaces, irrespective of whether they are event tickets or gaming tokens. He also added that OpenSea is working on displaying ticket NFTs on a calendar and sorting them by date.
“We really want to have a marketplace interface that can be better customized to suit each type of use case.”
Several Changes Incoming
Other NFT marketplaces, such as Blur and Tensor, have gained significant traction by offering what they claim to be a highly professional trading experience, allowing users to profit from quick price changes. According to Finzer, the OpenSea 2.0 upgrade will allow users to easily access its pro trading platform and toggle between a “collector view” and a more advanced view. Finzer added that OpenSea had also improved its detection of fake NFT collections and harmful URLs. However, he declined to comment on the termination of royalties for NFT creators on the platform and whether OpenSea planned to reinstate its royalty program in the future.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
