Nonfungible tokens (NFTs) def had a moment earlier this year with a $69m digital art sale and an NBA highlights craze.
While the hype has slowed, that sweet, sweet cheddar is still pouring into the industry.
The latest: OpenSea — a peer-to-peer marketplace to buy and sell digital NFT art — just raised $100m at a $1.5B valuation (making the startup the 1st official NFT “unicorn,” a private company worth $1B+).
NFTs are built on top of Ethereum
Despite the broader crypto sell-off in recent months, OpenSea is still en fuego, posting a record $160m in sales in June. (OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut of all transactions on the platform.)
CEO Devin Finzer claims the growth is due to a shift from digital art to “weird” use cases like gaming, event ticketing, and domain names.
3 NFT collections are thriving on OpenSea…
… according to a recent tweet from Gen Z whisperer Tiffany Zhong:
- CryptoPunks: One of the 1st nonfungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain
- Bored Ape Yacht Club: NFTs that double as a membership card for online communities
- Cool Cats: NFTs that give holders access to exclusive events
This is only the beginning
OpenSea plans on expanding beyond the Ethereum blockchain, which has become expensive for casual users.
Other blockchains would make low-value projects like event ticketing and gaming more accessible, opening NFTs to a wider market.
To celebrate its new valuation (in the most meta way possible) OpenSea has a wide range of unicorn NFTs to choose from. Very on brand.
