OpenSea

OpenSea
Company typePrivate
Founded2017 (2017)
Headquarters
Miami
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Websiteopensea.io

OpenSea is an American digital asset platform founded in 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah. It facilitates the trading of cryptocurrencies and the buying, selling, and minting of non-fungible tokens (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.

Originally launched as a peer-to-peer platform, OpenSea grew into one of the largest NFT marketplaces,[1] further expanding with its 2025 release of OS2, a rebuilt version of the platform, allowing the trading of cryptocurrencies.[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.[3] Y Combinator accepted OpenSea into its accelerator program in 2018.[3] 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 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.[15] 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.[16]

In March 2022, OpenSea confirmed that it was blocking accounts in countries that are subject to United States sanctions.[17]

On April 25, 2022, OpenSea announced the acquisition of the NFT marketplace aggregator company Gem.xyz.[18]

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.[19][20][21]

On June 30, 2022, OpenSea reported an email data breach after a senior engineer at an email vendor, Customer.io, misused access to share 1.8 million OpenSea user email addresses with an "external bad actor."[22]

On July 14, 2022, chief executive Devin Finzer tweeted that the company was cutting one in five of its employees.[23][24]

Recent developments (2025–present)

In 2025, OpenSea launched OS2, a platform overhaul supporting token and NFT trading across 22 blockchains.[2] The interface improved search capabilities, aggregated marketplace listings, cross-chain purchasing, lower fees, and a gamified rewards system called Voyages.[25] Finzer credited his wife, Yu-Chi Lyra Kuo, with having the idea to expand OpenSea into a crypto-trading application, and considered her to be "a silent cofounder of OpenSea 2.0".[2]

In July 2025, OpenSea acquired Rally, a Web3 crypto wallet and NFT trading application.[26] In that same month, charges against former OpenSea head of product Nate Chastain were overturned.[27] He had previously been convicted in May 2023 of wire fraud and money laundering, having been sentenced to three months in prison[28] after being accused of insider trading in September 2021.[29][30][29][31]

In September 2025, OpenSea announced plans to spend more than $1 million building a "Flagship Collection" of NFTs, beginning with the acquisition of a CryptoPunk. The works were to be selected by a group of OpenSea staff and external art advisors, with the goal of including culturally significant pieces and highlighting emerging digital artists.[32]

Through the first two weeks of October 2025, following the release of OS2, OpenSea processed $1.6 billion in cryptocurrency trades and $230 million in NFT transactions.[2]

In December 2025, OpenSea was an official partner of Art Basel Miami Beach, sponsoring a curated section of digital art titled Zero 10. The section was curated by Eli Scheinman, and featured multiple exhibitors, including Beeple and his installation, Regular Animals, which displayed humanoid robots with hyper-realistic heads of prominent individuals in tech and art, like Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Picasso.[33]

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.[34] On January 27, 2022, OpenSea moved to limit its free minting tool over theft, plagiarism, and spam concerns (80% of removed NFTs used it), but reversed the decision the next day.[35][36][37]

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.[38][39]

Upon the release of OS2 in 2025, OpenSea enabled token trading across multiple blockchains. While the company does not follow know your customer guidelines, it does use TRM Labs to cross-reference user wallets against lists of sanctioned addresses, flagging potentially suspicious activities for money laundering.[2]

References

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