Is OpenSea NFT’s trading volume down 99%?
Back in June, OpenSea introduced a new open source Web3 marketplace protocol – Seaport – for participants to buy and sell NFTs. Launched first on Ethereum, Seaport has helped improve the user experience while lowering the cost of using OpenSea and other Web3 marketplaces.
On Wednesday, OpenSea announced the integration of Polygon into the Seaport protocol. The official handle of the largest NFT marketplace tweeted,
“Starting today, we will start using Seaport for all new listings and offers on Polygon! We are excited to start using Seaport across multiple blockchains to improve the experience for everyone on OpenSea.”
Here it is worth noting that Polygon on OpenSea was powered by the 0x protocol in the past. Now, by moving Polygon over to Seaport, OpenSea is consolidating its infrastructure to “provide a more stable buying and selling experience that matches other chains.” The move will also allow the NFT marketplace to ship new features across all EVM-compatible chains faster.
From having no entry thresholds, to adding native token support [MATIC]and allow listings as bundles to promote purchases from other wallets [hardware, multi-sig, etc.]and simplifying bulk transfers, OpenSea has launched several new features intended to improve the buying and selling experience of users with Polygon.
OpenSea volumes are down 99%
The volumes on OpenSea have fallen significantly in recent months. Per DappRadar’s data, on May 1, the platform processed a record $2.7 billion in NFT transactions, but last Sunday, the marketplace recorded only $9.34 million worth of transactions. Next, there were only about 24,020 users on Sunday, about 1/3 of what was recorded when it hit the record in transactions in May.
A recent Fortune report noted the same,
“What was once a red-hot market fueled by FOMO during the 2021 crypto bull market is now just a trickle, with trading volume on the most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea, down 99% in just under four months.”
Per people from the space, the same “could be a blessing in disguise” because it would mean fewer twists and turns and false promises and would ensure more utility and value up front.
Is that the actual picture?
After the Fortune story was first published, an OpenSea spokesperson told them via email that the company disagreed with DappRadar’s methodology, noting that the 99% swing compared the site’s highest ever trading day to one of its lowest. Per Fortune, OpenSea prefers the ETH volume metric. The same essentially leaves out the effect of the cryptocurrency’s price fluctuations. According to the aforementioned calculation, trade is still “down sharply”.
Citing Dune Analytics’ data, the report showed,
“By that measure, monthly volume fell 62% from May to July, and is on track to fall further in August, according to crypto-tracking platform Dune Analytics.”
The spokesman went on to say that OpenSea was not concerned about the decline in trade volume, adding:
“We play the long game because we see what’s possible, so we’re not too worried about short-term volatility. We’ve always expected hype, hype and deflation as the community and use cases evolve, the technology becomes more sophisticated, and creators figure out how to build more utility into their projects.”
