OpenSea plans comeback with 2.0 overhaul

OpenSea co-founder Devin Finzer claims the new OpenSea is being rebuilt “from the ground up”

article-image

OpenSea and Adobe stock modified by Blockworks

share


This is a segment from the 0xResearch newsletter. To read full editions, subscribe.


OpenSea dropped a cryptic tweet yesterday, hinting at a “new OpenSea” coming in December 2024.

What’s OpenSea cooking? No one knows, but a waitlist to the new version of OpenSea has racked up about 308k wallets sign-ups so far.

Initial speculation is pointing to an OpenSea airdrop token, despite the NFT platform’s strong hints historically at taking the IPO route.

Of all the major NFT marketplaces, OpenSea is the only player that has yet to launch a token. Blur, LooksRare, X2Y2, Tensor and Sudoswap all have a live token, while Magic Eden announced plans to launch one in August.

A user leaderboard that tracked rewards for usage was also spotted in OpenSea’s private beta, which the official OpenSea X account has retweeted.

If OpenSea is indeed launching a token, that’s cool, but it feels far too little, too late. NFT markets are down bad, with total NFT market caps down about 97% from their 2022 peaks.

The points meta was hot in early 2024, but it’s since faded off, so a points program built on NFT trading seems highly unlikely.

For these reasons, it’s hard to imagine OpenSea doubling down on an NFT-only strategy.

In Solana land, Magic Eden has already pivoted to fungible token trading of BTC and ETH with a mobile-centric strategy on its own Magic Eden wallet.

Based on its X account, Tensor seems to be persisting with an NFT product. The Solana NFT marketplace is still seeing an average of $3 to $6 million weekly trading volumes.

Blur’s last tweet was almost four months ago and Zora has pivoted to capitalize on memecoin trading with its new “ERC-20z” token standard that allows NFTs to be tokenized into fungible tokens.

Most other NFT trading marketplaces have negligible daily trading volumes of no more than $22k, and are pretty much dead.

OpenSea hasn’t had a great year. The once-dominant player was brutally outcompeted by Blur, laid off 50% of its staff in November 2023, and then received a Wells notice from the SEC in August that alleged its NFTs were securities.

Keep an eye out for details on OpenSea 2.0 at Devcon next week.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (1).jpg

Research

Jupiter has emerged as the undisputed liquidity backbone of Solana, commanding over 90% of spot DEX aggregation and 80% of perp trading volume. But behind the numbers lies a far more ambitious play: a cross-chain, vertically integrated super-app spanning swaps, synthetics, NFTs, memecoins, and launchpads. This report explores Jupiter’s rapid rise, the monetization upgrades reshaping its revenue profile, and the risks that could unwind its dominance, from token dilution to competition. With annualized revenues nearing $300M, the upside is undeniable, if it can navigate the turbulence.

article-image

Curve founder Michael Egorov is working on a new protocol designed to eliminate impermanent loss, rethink token emissions, and capture BTC-native yield

article-image

Mining outfits have gone bust in the wake of prior halvings. Not so this time around.

article-image

Zora’s announcement that its token is for “fun only” sparked a debate about the need for such tokens

article-image

In recent weeks, Helium has hit new all-time highs while passing major protocol milestones

article-image

Financial advisers in a January survey said equity ETFs were their top choice for gaining crypto exposure in 2025

article-image

“Why put a target out there that’s really speculative, not knowing exactly where this environment is going to go?” CarMax CEO Bill Nash said