OpenSea

OpenSea claims to be the second largest online marketplace for crypto collectibles and NFTs secured on Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, and Solana blockchains.  Users can purchase NFTs on OpenSea using cryptocurrencies, credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay enabled by its partnership with MoonPay.

In 2021, OpenSea’s transaction volume increased by over 600x year-over-year, with monthly Ethereum transaction volume reaching nearly USD 2.5 billion in March 2022. As of January 2022, the platform had over 80 million+ NFTs. However, in July 2022, the company laid off over 40 employees (~20% of its staff) citing the recent crypto downturn and broad macroeconomic instability, while recording its lowest monthly trading volumes in June 2022 (since July 2021).

OpeanSea launched OpenSea Ventures (February 2022), a corporate investment arm led by OpenSea’s co-founder Alex Atallah to support emerging protocols, companies, and ideas that plan to improve the web3 ecosystem through NFTs, decentralized systems, and new blockchain applications. The company also announced its Ecosystem Grants program to support developers, creators, and members to fund community ideas to expand the web3 ecosystem.

Driven by OpenSea’s four core priorities for 2022, namely, to 1) accelerate product development, 2) improve OpenSea’s trust, safety, and reliability, 3) invest in the NFT and web3 ecosystem, and 4) expand headcount, in January 2022 , the company acquired Dharma Labs, a digital cryptocurrency wallet. Further, the company acquired Gem.xyz, an NFT marketplace aggregator, for an undisclosed amount in April 2022 . Gem.xyz enables users to buy multiple NFTs across different marketplaces with a single transaction using any ERC-20 token, which the company claims can save up to 40% on gas fees. In May 2022 , the company also rolled out two new features to detect and remove fake and duplicated NFTs (copymints) and to improve the verification process of creator accounts.

In November 2023, OpenSea announced a significant restructuring effort in line with its vision of OpenSea 2.0 where it plans to shift its focus on developing its OpenSea Studio , a platform to help creators launch and manage their NFT projects. This follows OpenSeas decision in August 2023 to end the mandatory collection of artist resale fees which had sparked backlash, with Yuga Labs, known for NFT collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, announcing its plans to phase out NFT projects on OpenSea, starting in February 2024.

Key customer and partnerships

In March 2021, OpenSea partnered with Australian blockchain firm Immutable to offer NFT minting without upfront gas fees. The company also has formed partnerships with Adobe in October 2021, which enables users to create an image as an NFT in Photoshop, which will display content credentials (attribution for the NFT creator and who minted it); Blockstack, which provides a hosted platform for financial institutions to develop blockchain-based applications; Quantstamp, which provides blockchain security services; Coinbase, which offers a cryptocurrency platform for bitcoin trading; and Trust Wallet, which provides mobile wallet services for Ethereum and ERC20/ERC223 tokens). OpenSea partnered with blockchain monitoring and workflow automation platform PARSIQ (November 2021), enabling users to track OpenSea NFT activity in real-time via PARSIQ’s data monitoring that uses “Smart Triggers” (that collect data from blockchains and relay it off-chain). More recently, in March 2024, the firm partnered with Coachella, a music and arts festival conglomerate, to launch three NFT collections offering virtual and real-world VIP experiences and merchandise.

Funding and financials

In January 2022, OpenSea raised USD 300 million in a Series C funding round valuing the company at USD 13.3 billion. This was a sharp hike from the previous valuation of USD 1.5 billion during its Series B funding round in July 2021. The funds were raised to improve security and customer support through product and technical investments and by doubling its customer support as well as trust and safety teams’ headcount (over 60 at the time of funding) by the end of 2022. Part of the funds was expected to be used to invest in the NFT community to support developers, builders, and creators, and to grow its overall team.