The NFT market is worth tens of billions of dollars and saw rapid growth throughout the crypto bull run. NFT exchange OpenSea, led by CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer, emerged as a clear market leader, earning a $13.3B valuation in January and controlling an estimated 90% of the overall NFT market.
Since then, it’s been a bumpy ride for NFTs. Trading volumes have fallen over 90% from their January peak, forcing exchanges, including OpenSea, to conduct steep layoffs. And for OpenSea specifically, competition is mounting, as newer entrants such as Magic Eden threaten its dominance and rumors of an OpenSea IPO have fizzled out. Big tech could stifle long-term growth in the space, too, as Apple’s and Google’s high marketplace fees challenge the idea that NFT trading can ever reach mobile adoption.
There are plenty of challenges on the horizon, but there’s also tremendous potential for OpenSea to capture long-term growth in the NFT market if it does indeed occur. There are undeniable pockets of excitement in the space, so the question is whether that excitement will be realized and whether OpenSea is well-positioned to capture it.
These are some of the topics we’ll discuss with Finzer onstage at TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto. We’ll ask him about what use cases for NFTs he sees the most potential in and will hear about how the company plans to sustain its first-mover advantage and seize new growth opportunities through a bear market.
The event takes place on November 17 in Miami. Save $150 with early bird pricing and buy your pass today, and then join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities to keep up with the ever-evolving and always exciting crypto world.
