OpenSea Launches Free ‘Pro’ Marketplace with NFT Rewards
Leading for a long time NFT the OpenSea marketplace has launched a new tactic in its battle against upstart rival Blurannounce today launch of OpenSea Pro—a marketplace with more robust trading tools than the standard version, plus zero marketplace fees (for now) and plans for NFT-based trading rewards.
OpenSea Pro is a rebranded and expanded version of Gem V2, the upgraded version of the NFT marketplace aggregator that acquired in April 2022. At the time, co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer framed the move as a move to acquire “more experienced, ‘pro’ users.”
Under the new name, OpenSea Pro is still billed as a separate product from the standard market, but now under the same brand umbrella. According to one announcement postOpenSea Pro aggregates listings from more than 170+ NFT marketplaces, large and small, including notable platforms such as Blur, LooksRare, and X2Y2.
It also gives users more flexibility when searching for NFT listings and managing their holdings of digital assets, as well as aggregating open NFT collection offers across marketplaces.
OpenSea’s main marketplace recently cut the typical platform fee of 2.5% amid the rise of rival Blur, which surpassed OpenSea in terms of NFT trading volume in February. The firm announced today that OpenSea will reinstate its standard fee amid the launch of OpenSea Pro, while the Pro platform will instead offer a temporary 0% fee for traders.
In terms of creator royalties, OpenSea Pro will maintain OpenSea’s current model, which will require only a 0.5% minimum royalty on projects that do not use an on-chain enforcement method. Sellers can choose to pay more than 0.5% if they wish. A royalty is a fee paid to the original NFT creator and is typically set at 5-10% of the secondary sale price.
Blur’s rise to the top of the NFT space is largely driven by BLUR token rewards paid to traders, worth over $200 million in tokens when the first airdrop took place in February. OpenSea does not have a token, and does not appear to be going that way – but it will offer a different kind of reward to OpenSea Pro traders.
OpenSea will “[chart] a different course by presenting NFTs as rewards,” according to a blog post, although the company has yet to reveal details. Separate from the reward NFTs, OpenSea will also offer a free “Gemesis” NFT coin for users who purchased an NFT via Gem before 31 March.
Despite losing the top spot in terms of NFT trading volume, OpenSea still has more active users than Blur – nearly 91,000 unique Ethereum wallets in the past week compared to around 41,000 for Blur, per public blockchain data compiled by Dune.
OpenSea had NFT trades worth around $424 million in the month of March, according to data from DappRadar, compared to around $1.35 billion for Blur. However, the Blurs have massively elevated trade action in recent months drawn scrutiny and criticism to attract traders who quickly flip NFTs en masse in an attempt to generate token rewards.
