OpenSea debuts Solana NFT Launchpad to lackluster demand

In an apparent attempt to match the rival Magical Edenfeature set, Open sea has rolled out its new launchpad function for embossing new ones Solana NFT projects. However, the leading NFT marketplace’s first drop on the launch pad has been far from a sizzling success from the start.

Zoonies, an alien themed Solana NFT profile picture project, debuted at OpenSea’s new Solana launch pad yesterday, marking the first project to adopt the feature. A launch pad allows collectors to create (i.e. generate and purchase) NFTs during a primary sale, and it is a feature like Magic Eden and game-centric Solana marketplace Fractal have had both in place for several months.

However, it has been more than a day since the Zoonies coin launched on OpenSea and the project has yet to sell out. As of this writing, less than 5,000 of the 8,888 total Solana NFTs have been minted. The whitelist sale began at 12pm ET on Wednesday, with the public sale starting at 7pm ET.

Currently some of the NFTs that have been sold are listed below 2.5 SOL ($109) public coin price of OpenSea’s secondary marketplacewhere the cheapest items available in the collection are listed as low as 1.97 SOL (about $86).

There are no other examples of Solana NFT launches on OpenSea yet to compare it to, but the Zoonies’ slow start is not unique in current NFT bear market. Tiffany Huang, Magic Eden’s head of content and marketing, confirmed Decrypt that some of the recent Solana NFT coins are not sold out either.

“Given market conditions, we have not sold out any of our launchpad collections recently, but are taking care in the way we evaluate projects,” she said. Huang added that Magic Eden had recently updated its guidelines to “show our commitment to launch the best projects.”

Amid rising demand in the Solana NFT area, high-profile projects such as Okay Bears and Trippin’ Ape Tribe has seen rapid sell-offs and significant secondary market action in recent months that has even surpassed NFT trading volume on Ethereum at times. However, not all projects are an instant success, and project creators will sometimes cut back on their intended supply to secure the “sold out” tag without a long wait.

Zoonies may eventually go that route as well. On the project’s official Discord server today, admin Zario wrote: “We are considering cutting the supply and we will [an] announcement about it soon.”

An NFT is a blockchain token which serves as proof of ownership for an item, including digital goods such as profile pictures, artwork, collectibles, and video game items. Ethereum is the leading NFT platform, based on total trading volume and total value, but Solana has gained steam as an emerging rival with cheaper fees and a fervent community of collectors.

OpenSea’s entry into the Solana NFT market in April was notable, given that the Ethereum-centric marketplace is the largest in the overall NFT space. From August 2021 to May, OpenSea add up to billions of dollars of NFT trading volume each month, though recent crash in the crypto market has also affected NFT sales and values.

However, OpenSea has so far not made a significant inroad into the Solana market, as Magic Eden routinely has maintained a share of 90% or more of trading volume in the Solana area, based on public blockchain data. The rival marketplaces’ official Twitter accounts traded barbs and memes yesterday in the middle of the Zoonies launch, just like they did then OpenSea first enabled Solana NFT trading on its platform.

Whether Zoonies eventually sell off the entire 8,888 NFT supply or reduce the total remains to be seen, but we won’t have to wait long to see OpenSea’s next launch. Monkaian anime-inspired Solana profile picture project, will use OpenSea’s launch pad starting July 26.

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