OpenSea explained

OpenSea
Type:Private
Location City:Miami
Location Country:United States
Area Served:Worldwide

OpenSea is an American online marketplace for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), founded in 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah. It facilitates the buying, selling, and minting of NFTs across a range of blockchains. Headquartered in Miami, OpenSea supports fixed-price sales and auctions for digital assets including artwork, music, gaming items, and domain names.

The company has evolved from a peer-to-peer platform into one of the largest NFT marketplaces.[1] [2]

History

Founding and initial growth (2017–2021)

Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah founded OpenSea in December 2017.[3] They were inspired by CryptoKitties, a blockchain-based game featuring non-fungible tokens that had been released earlier that year. Y Combinator accepted OpenSea into its accelerator program in 2018. After finishing the pre-seed round by Y Combinator, OpenSea raised $2.1 million in venture capital in November 2019.[4]

In March 2020, the platform had 4,000 active users completing $1.1 million in transactions a month.[5] In March 2021, OpenSea raised 23 million in Series A funding through Andreessen Horowitz, among other investors.[6] By July 2021, users were completing $350 million in transactions a month,[5] and the company was valued at $1.5 billion—meaning unicorn status—after a $100 million Series B venture round led by Andreessen Horowitz.[7] In August 2021, the value of monthly transactions spiked to $3.4 billion, and in November OpenSea had 1.8 million active users.[5]

Growth and acquisitions (2022–2024)

In early January 2022, OpenSea raised an additional $300 million in Series C funding through Paradigm and Coatue Management, among other investors. The company was valued at $13.3 billion.[8] [9] [10] Later that month, OpenSea acquired Ethereum wallet-maker Dharma Labs.[11] [12]

Towards the end of January, OpenSea reimbursed users about $1.8 million after a user interface bug allowed users to buy more than $1 million worth of NFTs at a discount.[13] [14]

On January 27, 2022, OpenSea announced it would limit how many NFTs a user could create using the free minting tool.[15] The following day, OpenSea reversed the decision.[16] The company stated that its initial decision was based on concern about theft, plagiarism, and spam,[15] as 80% of the NFTs removed from OpenSea for violations were minted using the tool.[17]

On February 19, 2022, some users began to report that some of their NFTs disappeared. OpenSea later revealed a phishing attack had taken place on its platform via an exploit in the Wyvern Platform.[18] The next day, The Verge reported that hundreds of NFTs were stolen from OpenSea users causing a huge panic among the platform community. The estimated value of the stolen tokens was more than $1.7 million. According to OpenSea, only 32 users had been affected. OpenSea later revised its statement to note that 17 users were directly affected, while the other 15 users had interacted with the attacker but had not lost tokens as a result.[19]

In March 2022, OpenSea confirmed that it was blocking accounts in countries that are subject to United States sanctions.[20]

On April 25, 2022, OpenSea announced the acquisition of the NFT marketplace aggregator company Gem.xyz.[21]

The daily trading volume on the OpenSea marketplace reached a peak of $2.7 billion on May 1, 2022, but had dropped by 99%, to just $9.34 million on August 28, with daily users down to 24,020.[22] [23] [24]

On June 30, 2022 OpenSea reported a major email data breach had occurred when a senior engineer at an email vendor, Customer.io, misused his employee access to download and share OpenSea user email addresses with an "external bad actor." Over 1.8 million email addresses are said to have been leaked.[25] In July 2022, Customer.io revealed that five other companies were also impacted by the employee's data leak.[26]

On July 14, 2022, chief executive Devin Finzer tweeted that the company was cutting one in five of its employees.[27] [28]

Recent developments (2025–)

In 2025, OpenSea launched OS2, a platform overhaul supporting token and NFT trading across 19 blockchains. The interface improved search capabilities, aggregated marketplace listings, cross-chain purchasing, lower fees, and a gamified rewards system called Voyages.[29]

In July 2025, OpenSea acquired Rally, a Web3 crypto wallet and NFT trading application.[30] In that same month, charges were overturned against former OpenSea head of product Nate Chastain,[31] who was convicted in May 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering and sentenced to three months in prison[32] after being accused of insider trading in September 2021.[33] [34] [33] [35]

Features

In December 2020, OpenSea announced that any user could mint NFTs on its platform for free. Later, in March 2021, OpenSea announced NFT collections would not need to be approved to be listed; this decision was later criticized for allowing rampant plagiarism on the platform.[36]

On September 17, 2021, OpenSea released an app for Android and iOS. The app allows for browsing the marketplace, but as of March 2023, the app does not allow buying or selling NFTs.[37] [38]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Ehrlich . Steven . NFT Marketplace CEO Explains Why The Industry Is Moving Beyond Ideological Purists . Forbes . 29 November 2021 . 6 July 2021.
  2. News: Kauflin . Jeff . Former NFT Specialist OpenSea Is Remaking Itself Into A Crypto Trading Aggregator . Forbes . 15 October 2025.
  3. News: Brandom . Russell . How one company took over the NFT trade . The Verge . September 20, 2023 . February 2, 2022.
  4. Web site: July 4, 2022 . OpenSea Co-Founder Alex Atallah to Leave Company End of July . November 1, 2023 . Pandaily.
  5. News: Kauflin . Jeff . What Every Crypto Buyer Should Know About OpenSea, The King Of The NFT Market . Forbes . September 20, 2023 . November 23, 2021.
  6. Web site: Matney. Lucas. 18 March 2021. NFT marketplace OpenSea raises $23 million from a16z. 29 November 2021. TechCrunch.
  7. Web site: Matney . Lucas . 2021-07-20 . NFT market OpenSea hits $1.5 billion valuation . 2023-03-22 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  8. News: Isaac . Mike . 2022-01-05 . OpenSea valued at $13.3 billion in new round of venture funding. . en-US . The New York Times . 2022-04-30 . 0362-4331.
  9. News: Isaac. Mike. 4 January 2022. OpenSea valued at $13.3 billion in new round of venture funding.. The New York Times. live. 15 January 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220110071919/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/04/business/opensea-13-billion-valuation-venture-funding.html. 10 January 2022.
  10. Web site: Matney . Lucas . 2022-01-05 . NFT kingpin OpenSea lands monster $13.3B valuation in new raise . 2024-02-08 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  11. Web site: OpenSea acquires ethereum wallet Dharma Labs as the NFT marketplace's trading boom continues after landmark 2021. 2022-01-18. uk.news.yahoo.com. 18 January 2022 . en-GB.
  12. Web site: Matney . Lucas . 2022-01-19 . OpenSea buys DeFi wallet startup Dharma Labs, appoints new CTO . 2025-10-29 . TechCrunch . en-US.
  13. Web site: Egkolfopoulou . Misyrlena . 2022-01-28 . OpenSea reimburses users $1.8 million after bug led them to sell NFTs at a discount . 2022-01-28 . Fortune . en . 2022-10-27 . https://web.archive.org/web/20221027180938/https://fortune.com/2022/01/28/opensea-reimburses-users-1-8-million-bug-sell-nfts-bored-ape-yacht-club/ . dead .
  14. Web site: Faife. Corin. 2022-01-24. An OpenSea bug let attackers boss Apes from owners at six-figure discounts. 2022-01-28. The Verge. en.
  15. News: Escalante-De Mattei . Shanti . After Announcing NFT Limit, OpenSea Reverses Course Amid User Uproar. ARTnews . September 22, 2023 . January 28, 2022.
  16. Web site: Over 80 percent of NFTs minted for free on OpenSea are fake, plagiarized or spam. 2022-02-02. Engadget. en-US.
  17. News: Sato . Mia . OpenSea is adding NFT copy detection and verification features . The Verge . September 22, 2023 . May 11, 2022.
  18. Web site: McCarthy . Adam Morgan . OpenSea confirms hackers made $1.7 million on NFTs stolen in a phishing attack at the weekend . 2023-03-22 . Markets Insider . en-US.
  19. Web site: $1.7 million in NFTs stolen in apparent phishing attack on OpenSea users . 2022-02-20 . The Verge . 20 February 2022 . en.
  20. News: Gordon . Nicholas . March 4, 2022 . December 17, 2023 . NFT marketplace OpenSea confirms it will block accounts hit by U.S. sanctions, reviving debate over how decentralized blockchain really is . Fortune.
  21. News: NFT aggregator Gem.xyz acquired by OpenSea shortly after ousting co-founder for sexual misconduct . 2022-04-26 . TechCrunch . 25 April 2022 . en-US. Ramaswamy . Anita .
  22. Web site: Quiroz-Gutierrez . Marco . 2022-08-29 . Trading volume on top NFT marketplace OpenSea down 99% since May . https://web.archive.org/web/20220829170925/https://fortune.com/2022/08/29/nfts-opensea-crypto-winter-bubble-blockchain-web3/ . 2022-08-29 . 2022-09-10 . Fortune . en.
  23. Web site: Trading volume on top NFT marketplace OpenSea down 99% since May . 2023-03-22 . Fortune Crypto . en.
  24. Web site: 2022-09-05 . NFT marketplace OpenSea's trading volume nosedives 99%. Is the bubble bursting? . 2023-03-22 . Music Business Worldwide . en-US.
  25. Web site: NFT giant OpenSea reports major email data breach . 2022-06-30 . TechCrunch . 30 June 2022 . en-US.
  26. Web site: Spencer . Malia . Customer.io finds more clients affected by data leak . 2024-01-05 . PORTLANDINNO - BizJournals.
  27. News: 2022-07-15 . FT Cryptofinance: Celsius's fall into bankruptcy and the future of crypto . Financial Times . 2023-04-06.
  28. News: Richard Lawler. July 14, 2022. Giant NFT marketplace OpenSea lays off about 20 percent of its staff. The Verge.
  29. Web site: Wright . Liam 'Akiba' . 2025-06-09 . OpenSea’s OS2 launch brings 44% increase in user activity amid 2 million NFT sales . 2025-06-17 . CryptoSlate . en-US.
  30. News: Shen . Lucinda . Pro Premium: First Look . Axios . 8 July 2025.
  31. News: Stempel . Jonathan . US appeals court overturns first NFT insider trading conviction . Reuters . 31 July 2025.
  32. News: Godoy . Jody . Ex-OpenSea manager sentenced to 3 months in prison for NFT insider trading. Reuters . September 22, 2023 . August 22, 2022.
  33. News: Matney . Lucas . OpenSea admits incident as top exec is accused of trading NFTs on insider information . Tech Crunch . September 22, 2023 . September 15, 2021.
  34. News: Matney . Lucas . Former OpenSea exec arrested and charged with insider trading of NFTs. Tech Crunch . September 22, 2023 . June 1, 2022.
  35. News: Kharif . Olga . OpenSea says employee resigned over NFT insider trading scandal . Fortune . September 22, 2023 . September 16, 2021.
  36. Volpicelli. Gian M.. Why OpenSea's NFT Marketplace Can't Win. en-US. Wired. 2022-02-11. 1059-1028.
  37. Web site: Silberling . Amanda . OpenSea released an app — but it's for browsing, not buying and selling . TechCrunch . 29 November 2021 . 17 September 2021.
  38. Web site: Campbell . Ian . OpenSea has an app, but you can't buy NFTs on it . The Verge . 29 November 2021 . 20 September 2021.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "OpenSea".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2026, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.