OpenSea, the largest peer-to-peer NFT marketplace on Ethereum, launched on Avalanche (AVAX) proof-of-stake blockchain on Tuesday, 11 September 2022.
OpenSea traded roughly $350 million in Ethereum volume traded last month. It now supports NFTs from seven diverse blockchains; Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, Solana, Optimism, Arbitrum, and Avalanche.
OpenSea adds NFTs from the Avalanche blockchain to its online marketplace.
The Unexpected Turn on NFTs
NFT activity is slow, but some significant players have joined forces to expand their reach. The latest launch has been the one on the layer-1 blockchain, Avalanche.
The future of web3 is multichain, and it has been a goal of many players to connect people with projects and creators on chains they prefer.
The advantage of NFTs is that they are accessible to everyone, and anybody can invest in them. NFTs also offer a gateway to digital assets with fewer maintenance costs and greater asset security. They offer markets with the potential to become efficient.
What Does OpenSea Support for Avalanche Mean?
Avalanche operates as an open-source network with the native token AVAX and three blockchains, including C-Chain. The C-Chain is optimized for Ethereum compatibility and smart contracts, which NFTs use.
As a result, all Avalanche-based NFT collections will be featured on OpenSea, and the rolling out will also happen over time.
“We want to make sure that Avalanche creators who will now have collections on OpenSea set up their creator fees.”
Avalanche has had customers from clients in Web 2.0 enterprises, such as business and consumer brands and sports teams. They have always wanted OpenSea as a choice on Avalanche.
What Does it Mean for OpenSea?
After the support, OpenSea, the largest marketplace, will function along existing platforms and other Avalanche-based NFT marketplaces. Some existing platforms include NFTRade, and the Avalanche-focused NFT marketplaces have Joepegs and Kalao.
Thus, Avalanche will allow OpenSea users to settle NFT transactions in under a second with low transaction fees.
Over $20 billion in volume has been traded across about 80 million NFTs on OpenSea. In January, the platform hit a $13.3 billion valuation when the subsector exploded in popularity.
The Ticker by Avalanche
With about $404.6 million in sales, Avalanche is the seventh-largest blockchain by NFT sales volume. This is according to data from CryptoSlam.
While OpenSea’s announcement is good news for Avalanche NFT fans, it remains to be seen if the increased visibility will bolster the blockchain’s NFT economy.
Some Avalanche proponents might call it an “Ethereum Killer.” However, regarding NFTs, Avalanche has barely made a dent. For instance, compared with Solana, Avalanche made fewer NFT-related funds. Even if the Avalanche NFT economy is small, it seems to be leaning into this.
OpenSea ranks Avalanche’s top two NFT collections of all time to be Smol Joes and the Smol Lands. Smol Apas and Smol Creeps also make a list in the top ten.
Avalanche also pumped earlier this year with the Crabada game and Yield Hunt Hunters, ranking at $227 million and $81 million, respectively.
Final Thoughts
While meme-based NFTs dominate the landscape, it looks like Avalanche’s NFT creators are at a starting point. While OpenSea is not the first NFT marketplace to offer Avalanche NFTs, OpenSea’s Avalanche-supporting competitors are not exactly seeing numbers.
Perhaps OpenSea will send Avalanche NFTs to the big leagues, or perhaps not; only time will tell.
