These 5 NFT marketplaces could disrupt OpenSea by 2022

OpenSea has been the dominant decentralized platform for users looking to mint, buy, sell and trade non-fungible tokens (NFT). OpenSea is not so much a gallery as it is an NFT aggregator. According to Dune Analytics, OpenSea locked in a transaction volume of $3.25 billion in December 2021 alone. From December 2020 to December 2021, the total Transaction volume increased by a staggering 90,968%.

OpenSea is no stranger to controversy and criticism, and it has its dangers and pitfalls. Most notably, its former head of product Nate Chastain was found to be using insider information to pre-empt the sale of the platform’s front-page NFT and profit from it.

The overall distrust in the community was heightened after newly appointed chief financial officer Brian Roberts hinted at a listing. However, he was quick to reiterate that OpenSea has no intention of going public anytime soon.

OpenSea may be the largest NFT marketplace by volume right now, but in 2022, there are sure to be some contenders looking to unseat the giant.

Here are five NFT marketplaces that could shake up this top contender in the coming months.

Coinbase NFT

Coinbase seems to be leaning towards the centralization element as the main driver of mass adoption. Capitalizing on the growing popularity of NFTs, Coinbase competes with OpenSea to launch its NFT marketplace, Coinbase NFT. The waiting list has reportedly exceeded 1.1 million, which is more than OpenSea's total active users.

OpenSea monthly active traders Source: Dune Analytics

The announcement of Coinbase NFTs is a signal that NFTs can capture more and more value as digital collectibles continue to go mainstream. Knowing how NFTs connect culture and commerce, Coinbase NFTs could change the order of things. Meanwhile, the project has established partnerships with series like World of Women, DeadFellaz and Lazy Lions.

While the marketplace hasn't launched yet, its waitlist alone suggests that many investors are either eager to get their first exposure to the technology, or want an alternative to one they're already using.

According to Coinbase’s statement, Coinbase NFT will be peer-to-peer (P2P) “…with an intuitive design based on a decentralized marketplace.” The product initially follows the ERC-21 and ERC-1155 standards, with plans to support multi-chains in the future.

Coinbase NFT will primarily function as a marketplace, but the company hinted that it will also serve as a place to "facilitate connections." To date, Coinbase operates in more than 100 countries and reports more than 73 million active users, while quarterly trading volume for Coinbase customers is $327 billion, proving that there is a considerable amount of liquidity in circulation.

In addition to transaction volume, Coinbase touts its strong user experience (UX) and streamlined, user-friendly and seamless user interface (UI) design. While many people complained about OpenSea's UX/UI design on Twitter, many other platforms have barriers to entry that OpenSea does not.

FTX NFTs

Contrary to Coinbase NFT, FTX Marketplace launched a Solana-based NFT series in October and extended its series to the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike OpenSea and Coinbase NFTs, FTX NFTs are not a P2P platform, which means it is centralized and custodial, and users’ data is recorded and stored on its specific network. This means that users and collectors give up ownership to some extent.

It is a centralized platform, meaning the platform tends to impose less autonomous privileges on its owners, and more restrictions and constraints stemming from securities law considerations. Users of OpenSea have full autonomy over their digital assets before they are sold, while FTX NFTs implement a bidding mechanism. Brett Harrison, president of FTX.US, explained in a statement: “By not requiring gas fees to bid on things like that, we’ll see more price volatility and price discovery on the platform, which we hope will lead to better prices in general. Attract liquidity."

Its law-abiding approach had such a huge impact on the Solana NFT family that many projects had to withdraw previously promised royalties as FTX NFTs announced that they would no longer support projects that gave their owners this privilege.

The outcome came amid concerns from U.S. regulators. Projects on the Ethereum network are also vetted to ensure they comply with securities laws and to ensure they are not knockoffs.

Therefore, OpenSea retains its value as it maintains a fairly extensive collection of NFTs.

Despite some hiccups, the marketplace has gained traction and has a lower fee structure than its competitors. The fee structure for FTX NFTs is 2%, while Coinbase’s fee structure is 2.5%.

The platform does not seem to exclude users who end up using non-custodial wallets, but its main focus is value in terms of availability.

Rarible

Long before OpenSea jumped to the top spot, Rarible's monthly transaction volume was higher than OpenSea's. Despite opening its platform to the community through its governance token RARI (something OpenSea users have been looking forward to), Rarible has failed to maintain its lead over OpenSea.

In November, the total transaction volume on the platform was 4% higher than in October, with an average estimate of $18.2 million. However, its total monthly transaction volume pales in comparison to OpenSea.

For Rarible, like the FTX NFTs marketplace, it understands the benefits of multi-chain strategic partnerships. Rarible has already launched support for NFTs on the Flow and Tezos blockchains, and plans to support Solana and Polygon in the near future.

Monthly trading volume (in primary and secondary) Source: Dune Analytics

With its decentralized philosophy and multi-chain support for NFTs, Rarible could be a strong contender in 2022.

Zora

Zora calls itself a champion of Web 3.0 and decentralization, as it touts its own fully "on-chain" permissionless platform. Since the DAO favors these principles, the platform maintains its value across historical purchases.

Zora uses a zero-fee structure and focuses most of its efforts on being the cornerstone of a permissionless protocol. Many crypto experts are drawn to the idea of artists and creators having more autonomy and ownership over their work. If these issues remain a concern in 2022, Zora could see an influx of new users.

Magic Eden

Magic Eden is currently the largest NFT marketplace on the Solana network, and according to DappRadar, it is one of the top ten NFT marketplaces, with a transaction volume of $267.14 million since its launch in mid-September 2021.

The number of unique wallets has rebounded over the past two months and has been growing steadily, making it a serious contender for OpenSea. Although it should be noted that users are known to hold more than one wallet address, which may mean that there may be fewer unique active users.

Data source on the OpenSea chain: DappRadar

Low transaction fees of 2% give the platform a competitive advantage compared to other markets, and, like FTX NFTs, users can list NFTs for free. As shown in the chart below, the number of transactions in Magic Eden is usually double or even triple that of OpenSea.

Data on the Magic Eden chain: Source: DappRadar

Although Magic Eden has a higher number of transactions, the amount per transaction is less than that of OpenSea. According to DappRadar, Magic Eden has amassed more than 4.5 million transactions in the past 30 days, while OpenSea has processed less than half that number of 1.7 million transactions, but its total transaction volume is a little more than five times that of Magic Eden.

As the pace of NFT development is set and digital collectibles continue to become mainstream, 2022 may see more people entering, and their preferences may not line up with OpenSea. By valuing accessibility, regulation, and a better user experience, these 5 NFT marketplaces are strong contenders for the top spot.

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