OpenSea Launches New ‘Polished’ Zero-Fee NFT Aggregator

OpenSea’s new offering is a rebranding of an existing product – Gem v2.

In the wake of fierce competition from rival Blur for the top spot, NFT giant OpenSea announced a new aggregator platform that boasts zero fees for a promotional period, advanced order types, as well as “deepest liquidity, and fastest speeds.”

Dubbed “OpenSea Pro,” the marketplace was previously known as Gem, acquired by OpenSea last April. The move is an attempt to appeal to the pro-traders, a demographic that Blur is known to cater to.

OpenSea Pro
According to the official announcement, OpenSea Pro will enable users to benefit from a new level of optionality, selection, and control for pro collectors. The company said the “polished” marketplace will roll out a vastly improved suite of features that will let collectors discover the “best deals and insights” across 170 marketplaces. Collectors will also be able to tap sophisticated tools that meet their need for automation.

In addition to “live cross-marketplace data” and advanced orders, the “pro” version also boasts powerful inventory management, instant sales, most optimized gas fees. Other new features, such as a watchlist, live mints overview, batch transfer, etc., have also been incorporated.

“We built OpenSea to serve a range of users – super fans, avid collectors, and crypto n00bs alike. OpenSea Pro, on the other hand, exists primarily to serve the power user community, who represent an important part of today’s ecosystem.”

To that end, OpenSea Pro said it will focus on catering to the different needs of different users with respect to its user interfaces, features, and fee structures. The new marketplace will be accessible via mobile devices.

The Blur Threat
OpenSea has enjoyed the position as the leading NFT marketplace for both creators and traders since the boom in 2021. But the emergence of a new rival, Blur, challenged OpenSeal’s dominance and forced the company to stir up new features to retain its historical supremacy.

Blur’s presence has steadily grown since its launch last year. The upstart marketplace significantly boosted NFT sales in the first quarter of the year. However, it wasn’t until the aftermath of its token launch on February 14 that activity on the platform skyrocketed. This helped Blur to emerge as a legitimate contender for the title of NFT marketplace leader. It even surpassed OpenSea in NFT trades on Ethereum in February.

OpenSea, on the other hand, resorted to axing its 2.5% fee on sales, as well as cutting down creator royalty protections for a brief period.