Prominent non-fungible tokens [NFT] marketplace, OpenSea has registered a $10.3 billion mark this year in cumulative transaction volume, since its inception back in 2017. This was observed by the community-driven data provider, Dune Analytics. However, the platform’s daily volume steered away from the August peak this year but has continued to maintain a transaction volume of about $50 million which is still counted among the highest income in decentralized applications [DApps].
For the last 30 days, the platform had hosted more the $1 billion worth of volume. Over the past week alone, the market-place has already handled about $412 million volume.
Meanwhile another popular online video game pioneer, Axie Infinity has over a million users transacting in its network as compared to OpenSea’s 637,286. But the world’s largest online marketplace continued to dominate the chart in terms of both total volume and the average settlement price. On the other hand, Cryptopunks and NBA Top shot occupied the 3rd and 4th position with $1.59 billion and $726 million in total volume, respectively.
OpenSea rises to the top
Before its meteoric rise in the the NFT realm, OpenSea closed a $23 million funding round led by the California based venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, in March 2021. Interestingly back then, the tech firm viewed OpenSea as the “Amazon of non-fungible tokens” and noted,
“OpenSea makes NFTs searchable, usable, and organized. But it goes further and provides a marketplace that brings all platforms together and eases transactions among all parties, the way eBay and Amazon do. Given the importance of this consumer layer in such a fast-growing area, it’s no surprise that OpenSea’s growth has been off the charts, with transaction volume growing 100x in the last six months.”
Another important development that made an impact was the Bored Ape Yacht Club [BAYC]. The collection featured 10000 unique digital images of an ape which were primarily marketed on OpenSea as many crazy fans spent millions to buy some of the collectibles. Reportedly, a single BAYC with serial code #3749 got sold for a staggering $1.3 million.
Besides, many celebrities too joined the bandwagon throughout the year. The latest example was Hollywood director, Quentin Tarantino’s revealed auctioning ‘secret’ non-fungible tokens from his cult movie Pulp Fiction on OpenSea.