Regaining Market Share from Blur OpenSeas Comeback

The news reported by Coin World:
On Wednesday, OpenSea surpassed Blur in 24-hour sales and total sales, attracting the majority of unique buyers in the past 90 days.
OpenSea, the first NFT marketplace for cryptocurrency, was established in 2017. In the past 90 days, the total sales on June 26th were the third time it narrowly beat Blur, with 2184 transactions compared to Blur’s 2138.
NFT market. Source: DappRadar
OpenSea also maintains a 39% user share, with 177,565 unique buyers, while Blur had 154,040 in the past 120 days.
The “flip” this week occurred after the launch of the Blast token, leading to a decrease in user rewards, as user rewards have been driving activity for the past eight months. The reduction in incentives caused some of the largest liquidity providers on Blur to abandon the protocol.
Despite recent success and beating its competitors in 24 hours, OpenSea still holds 62% of the total sales volume in the past 90 days, while Blur has been in the lead.
Impact of reduced incentives
The impact of Blur’s reduced incentives remains to be seen, with market participants still divided.
Blur farmer Cbb0fe recently stated on social media, “When NFT bag holders realize that as Blur farmers, we only provide exit liquidity to smart holders, they will burst into tears.”
On the other hand, NFT investor OGDFarmer recently tweeted, “No category of assets has developed without multiple boom and bust cycles. NFT and its non-fungible, adjacency to crypto nature will be affected by steroids. It is inevitable. Looking forward to the next few months.”
Origin of OpenSea
During the bull market in 2021, OpenSea dominated the NFT market, with daily sales exceeding $100 million at its peak. In January 2022, OpenSea announced a $3 billion raise at a valuation of $13.3 billion.
However, in 2022, Blur launched a trader-centric NFT market and incentivized users through airdrops, significantly reducing creator royalties to increase trader profitability, attracting market attention. Blur also chose to penalize users who interacted with competitive markets such as OpenSea.
After a successful airdrop by Blur, as participants moved to Blur for the second phase of token distribution, OpenSea began to lose market share significantly.
As of November 2023, OpenSea has dismissed over 50% of its employees, and its main investor, Coatue Management, has reduced the value of its $1.2 billion investment in OpenSea by 90%, indicating that the company’s latest valuation is below $20 billion.
A dismal year for the NFT market
On June 17th, Blur’s largest liquidity provider Cbb0fe withdrew, and after the initial sell-off, the NFT market is rebounding overall. NFT floor prices have risen, with Pudgy Penguins, Bored Ape Yacht Club, and Milady all increasing by over 5%. After sales dropped to 22 ETH earlier this week, the floor price of CryptoPunks has risen to 27 ETH.
The NFT market in 2024 has been bleak. Top collections such as Cryptopunks, Pudgy Penguins, and Bored Ape Yacht Club have dropped by over 50% from their annual highs, with sales also significantly decreasing.
Blur’s rapid rise as the dominant market occurred within a few months in 2022, but this week’s activity may signal early signs of OpenSea’s comeback.