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OpenSea surpassed $10 billion in total trading volume a few months ago [1] Their valuation is essentially equivalent to their total trading volume at this poin

OpenSea surpassed $10 billion in total trading volume a few months ago [1] Their valuation is essentially equivalent to their total trading volume at this point. Both are absurdly large numbers. What's really wild, though, is how hard NFTs have been pushed as decentralized, democratized, and so on. Yet again we have a huge centralized company cleanup up in the space and, apparently, skimming enough money off of the top of the trades to warrant a $13 billion valuation. [1] https://decrypt.co/85507/nft-marketplace-opensea-hits-10b-total-volume https://decrypt.co/85507/nft-marketplace-opensea-hits-10b-to...

paulpauper 5y ago
$9.7 billion of it laundering or churn
abledon 5y ago
after reading this post on the workings of NFT scams[1], i just can't imagine these valuations lol Its like Opensea is really just a startup to modernize Tax Loops for the wealthy. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/rqg0fh/forgive_me/hqaehse/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/rqg0fh/forgive_me/...
WoahNoun 5y ago
Well it's easy to inflate trading volume when your business model is comprised of money laundering and wash trading to generate FOMO.
- CyrusL 5y ago
  lol, the conspiracy theories keep getting wilder. So it's OpenSea wash trading or their users? Pretty hard to do with a 2.5% loss on every transaction.
  - WoahNoun 5y ago
    Both: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/15/22676075/opensea-insider-information-nft-trading-nate-chastain https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/15/22676075/opensea-insider-...
    - CyrusL 5y ago
      Yeah, one employee swindled about $50k. He was immediately let go. OpenSea does $200m/day in volume. So about 20 seconds of their tx volume (not 100% sure I'm doing the math right).
quickthrower2 5y ago
NFT's are based on finding a greater fools, so ironically platforms like this become a "fool's market" which makes the NFT's themselves more valuable, and in turn the platform more valuable. And now NFT's are becoming the Rolex/Tesla/Ferrari where rich people buy them and they don't care if they make money on them, it proves they can afford them.

paulpauper 5y ago

$9.7 billion of it laundering or churn

abledon 5y ago

after reading this post on the workings of NFT scams[1], i just can't imagine these valuations lol Its like Opensea is really just a startup to modernize Tax Loops for the wealthy. [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/rqg0fh/forgive_me/hqaehse/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Bitcoin/comments/rqg0fh/forgive_me/...

WoahNoun 5y ago

Well it's easy to inflate trading volume when your business model is comprised of money laundering and wash trading to generate FOMO.

CyrusL 5y ago
lol, the conspiracy theories keep getting wilder. So it's OpenSea wash trading or their users? Pretty hard to do with a 2.5% loss on every transaction.
- WoahNoun 5y ago
  Both: https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/15/22676075/opensea-insider-information-nft-trading-nate-chastain https://www.theverge.com/2021/9/15/22676075/opensea-insider-...
  - CyrusL 5y ago
    Yeah, one employee swindled about $50k. He was immediately let go. OpenSea does $200m/day in volume. So about 20 seconds of their tx volume (not 100% sure I'm doing the math right).

quickthrower2 5y ago

NFT's are based on finding a greater fools, so ironically platforms like this become a "fool's market" which makes the NFT's themselves more valuable, and in turn the platform more valuable. And now NFT's are becoming the Rolex/Tesla/Ferrari where rich people buy them and they don't care if they make money on them, it proves they can afford them.