<\/p>\n
The former NFT trading leader flipped Blur in volume and sales after incentives diminished.<\/p>\n
OpenSea flipped Blur in 24-hour volume and total sales Wednesday, and has commanded the majority of unique buyers over the last 90 days.<\/p>\n
OpenSea, crypto\u2019s first NFT marketplace, founded in 2017, narrowly flipped<\/a> Blur in terms of total sales count on June 26 for only the third time in the last 90 days, with 2,184 sales versus Blur\u2019s 2,138.<\/p>\n OpenSea also maintains a 39%<\/a> user-share with 177,565 unique buyers compared to Blur\u2019s 154,040 over the last 120 days.<\/p>\n This week\u2019s \u201cflippening\u201d comes after the launch of the Blast<\/a> token, which led to a decline in rewards for users, which had been driving activity in the last eight months. The diminishing incentives have led some of the largest market makers on Blur to take a step away from the protocol.<\/p>\n Despite OpenSea\u2019s recent success, and beating its competitor in 24-hour volume, Blur still commands 62% of the total volume over the last 90 days.<\/p>\n The impacts of Blur\u2019s decreased incentives are yet to be seen and market participants remain split.<\/p>\n Blur farmer Cbb0fe recently took to social media and said<\/a>, \u201cNFT bagholders [are] about to be in absolute tears when they realize that as Blur farmers, we have just been exit liquidity to the smart holders.\u201d<\/p>\n On the other end of the spectrum, NFT investor OGDFarmer recently said in a tweet<\/a>, \u201cno asset class with any maturity has ever evolved without multiple boom and bust cycles. NFT\u2019s and their illiquid, crypto-adjacent nature will have that on steroids. It\u2019s inevitable. Looking forward to the next couple of months.\u201d<\/p>\n OpenSea dominated the NFT marketplace scene throughout the 2021 bull run, processing over $100 million in sales per day during its peak. In January 2022, OpenSea announced<\/a> it raised $300 million at a valuation of $13.3 billion.<\/p>\n However, in 2022 Blur launched its trader-focused NFT marketplace, and caught the attention of the market by incentivizing users through its airdrop and slashing creator royalties to increase traders\u2019 profit margin. Blur also chose to penalize its users for interacting with competing marketplaces such as OpenSea.<\/p>\n After Blur\u2019s highly successful airdrop<\/a>, OpenSea drastically began to lose its market-share as participants moved<\/a> to Blur to farm the second phase of its token distribution.<\/p>\n By November 2023 OpenSea had laid off over 50% of its staff and its lead investor, Coatue Management reduced<\/a> the value it assigned to its $120 million investment into OpenSea by 90%, indicating the company’s updated valuation is below $2 billion.<\/p>\nImpact of Fewer Incentives<\/h2>\n
OpenSea Origins<\/h2>\n
NFT Market’s Blear Year<\/h2>\n