Gate.io Blog Will OpenSea go public?

Will OpenSea go public?

22 December 09:55

Take away:
· the largest peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto products.
· No native OpenSea token yet.
· no IPO at the moment but at least the thought of launching one is there.
· earned over $50 million in revenue generated from transaction fees.

1.Who is OpenSea?

OpenSea is the first and for now the largest peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto goods, which includes collectibles, gaming items, and other virtual goods backed by a blockchain.

Fig 1 – OpenSea logo, play.google.com, Access Date:24. Nov.21

Some refer to it as the eBay marketplace for crypto assets. Anyone can buy or sell these items through OpenSea. And since it is accessible to everyone, OpenSea has earned around half a million dollars in volume in just last month.

And since OpenSea is the world’s top nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace, the idea of an IPO arose. But the launch of an IPO was recently denied as well the intends to pursue a public listing any time soon. Their community backlash followed promptly.

OpenSea’s CFO Brian Roberts sparked a public backlash when he told Bloomberg that “it would be foolish not to think about going public.” But after this comment and the following denial to go public he faced a blaze of complaints from the NFT community in which he stated for his defense, was “inaccurately reported” comments.

Users complained about the IPO and that it would be a chance to sell out the company to large institutional investors.

Fig 2 – OpenSea user reply from twitter

According to DappRadar, OpenSea had 398,638 traders this summer, doing $4.03 billion worth in trades.

The majority of OpenSea users execute transactions below $10,000 at a time. By launching the IPO, the OpenSea community fears that large institutional investors would flood the market with money and skyrocket the prices up, leaving them behind. The NFT marketplace recorded $2 billion in trading volume from 1.1 million transactions and nearly 250,000 users over the past 30 days alone. The NFT market is very promising and lucrative, attracting all sorts of investors as well. OpenSea platform takes 2.5% from every trade, meaning it earned over $50 million in revenue in that period. By going public, the focus would be increasing the profit and the community feared that it would be on the losing side.

But Roberts sees this backlash as a misunderstanding and blamed “inaccurate reporting on OpenSea’s plans” regarding going public in the following tweet.

Fig 3 – Tweet from OpenSea’s CFO

The newly hired CFO clarified that the company isn’t necessarily going public yet, but is looking at what an IPO would look like.

In some interviews, he had also hinted about the possibility of IPOs, with Roberts saying the company was growing fast and that going public was “very rational,” the report says.

Some of the critiques around the potential IPO are focused on the fact that if OpenSea did go public, the platform wouldn’t have a token. However, Roberts said the company might launch a token after all – nothing is set in stone.

Let’s see how OpenSea will try to manage the idea of an IPO and the community satisfaction. Is indeed a very tricky undertaking to keep both in balance.

Author: article_bot
This article only represents the views of observers and does not constitute any investment advice.
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