OpenSea Hits $10 Billion Sales Volume Milestone: What Investors Should Know and How It Could Be Good News for Coinbase

OpenSea logo displayed on a phone screen, representation of cryptocurrencies and NFT logo displayed on a laptop screen are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on Aug. 26, 2021. (Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto Via Reuters)

The largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace has hit another impressive milestone in 2021 amidst growth in that market.

What Happened

OpenSea has surpassed the $10 billion sales volume milestone, just three months after passing the $1 billion mark.

The milestone was broken down by Mason Nystrom of Messari Crypto on Twitter. OpenSea had sales volume of $24 million in 2020, $8 million in 2019 and $473,000 in 2018.

OpenSea has a significant lead ahead of rivals: Rarible and SuperRare have sales volumes of $264.0 million and $178.0 million, respectively, according to DeCrypt.

Play-to-earn NFT game Axie Infinity ranks second for sales volume with its own platform hitting $3 billion in volume in the game’s lifetime.

OpenSea has 635,698 traders on its platform, compared to 83,810 for Rarible and more than one million for Axie Infinity.

OpenSea completed a $100 million funding round in July valuing the company at $1.5 billion. Andreessen Horowitz led the round. Other investors include Kevin Durant and Ashton Kutcher.

Why It’s Important

Cryptocurrency platform Coinbase Global Inc announced its intentions to launch an NFT marketplace.

The platform has seen strong interest and had more than two million people on its waitlist in October with Morning Brew reporting it now has more than 2.5 million people.

OpenSea has been able to fend off competition for Ethereum-based NFT transactions. Coinbase could pose a valuable threat to OpenSeas’s dominance.

Coinbase has more people signed up for its platform’s waitlist than OpenSea, Rarible and SuperRare combined.

Appealing to retail traders, Coinbase has become a favorite cryptocurrency platform thanks to its ease of use for beginners. Coinbase could see a similar approach with building a new NFT platform built for people new to the growing world of non-fungible tokens.

COIN Price Action

Coinbase shares are up 5.01 percent to $353.792 at market close Monday.

By Chris Katje

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