OpenSea NFT marketplace transactions cross $1 billion in monthly volume
OpenSea, the world’s largest NFT marketplace has reported that its monthly transaction volume has exceeded $1 billion for August already and the volume reported so far this month has been $1.23 billion.
This represents an over 250% rise in the volumes from July and this just goes to show the craze that the non-fungible tokens (NFT) market has been generating and how OpenSea has been dominating this space for the last couple of months as it accounts for over 95% of the total NFT transaction volumes as of now. Other dev teams have been scrambling to put together a similar marketplace for ethereum and other blockchains like Solana and the competition is indeed coming but so far, OpenSea appears to be a monopoly and will continue to be so for the next couple of months at least.
OpenSea has had a valuation of $1.5 billion as of July but with the increasing interest in NFTs, this valuation is expected to skyrocket in the coming months. The company was formed in 2017 and had received $23 million in funds for Series A and $100 million for Series B. The craze for NFTs has led to fears on whether this is driven by pure greed and speculation by those who just want to flip the NFTs and make a quick buck out of such transactions as many outsiders do not see much value in the NFTs that are being sold at record prices right now.
The valuations that these NFTs have been receiving have also been raising many eyebrows though major companies like The Fortune, Coca-Cola, and others have continued to strongly support NFTs and have been issuing NFTs of their own products which have basically sold out in minutes. The crypto prices have also been rising over the last month or so and this increases the suspicion, especially for long-term investors on whether this craze is just a bubble that is likely to break at any point in time.
While everyone agrees that art and collectibles do require a lot of recognition and blockchain is likely to be the medium that gives them the right place and value, skeptics continue to wonder whether this is the right way to value items that are not really great pieces of art but for now, the market doesn’t seem to care as the interest among retail investors in NFTs continues to increase daily.
