According to Bloomberg, OpenSea co-founder Devin Finzer has discussed the changing trends in the non-fungible token (NFT) market and the company's plans for an upcoming platform upgrade. Finzer noted that the focus has shifted from driving high trading volumes to building compelling use cases for NFTs. OpenSea, a New York-based NFT marketplace, had a $13 billion valuation after raising $300 million in January 2022 but faced challenges during the recent crypto winter.
Finzer mentioned that trading volumes can be misleading, as some marketplaces incentivize activity using their own tokens as rewards. Instead, OpenSea is working on a platform upgrade called OpenSea 2.0, which aims to provide users with a better experience and improved differentiation between NFT categories. The company plans to customize the marketplace interface to suit different use cases, such as displaying ticket NFTs on a calendar and sorting them by date.
Other NFT marketplaces like Blur and Tensor have also emerged, offering different features and incentives for creators. Finzer declined to comment on OpenSea's termination of required royalties for NFT creators or whether the company planned to reinstate a mandatory royalty program in the future. He also noted the rising usage of the Solana blockchain for NFTs and the limitations of building applications on Bitcoin, stating that it would likely be limited to art-type use cases.