In a remarkable turn of events, OpenSea has staged a significant comeback in the non-fungible token (NFT) landscape, reclaiming an impressive 71.5% of the Ethereum NFT market share within just one week. This notable rise can be attributed to the recent buzz surrounding the launch of its native token, SEA, which was officially announced on February 13, 2025.
Only a month prior, OpenSea’s market share was at a mere 25.5%, with its chief competitor, Blur, holding the reins of the NFT market. According to recent reports, this surge in market participation aligns perfectly with the hype surrounding SEA. Immediately following the token reveal, OpenSea experienced a staggering increase in its daily trading volume, which skyrocketed to an average of $17.4 million, nearly five times its pre-announcement volume of only $3.47 million.
Moreover, the number of daily transactions surged dramatically, more than doubled from approximately 6,100 to a robust 14,700 trades. This impressive growth is largely attributed to OpenSea’s market share leap from 42.4% to 71.5%, predominantly at the expense of Blur’s user base.
However, amidst this growing momentum, OpenSea has faced criticism regarding its incentive structures. Users have raised concerns about the potential facilitation of wash trading, leading OpenSea to recently pause its XP-based incentive system. The company’s CEO, Devin Finzer, acknowledged these criticisms and indicated that the team is reassessing their strategy, even though they maintain that liquidity incentives are still a critical component of their approach.
In place of the previous XP system, OpenSea now offers a new model dubbed “XP shipments”. This model specifically targets early adopters of the OS2 marketplace. Initial rounds of XP rewards have already been distributed to users who provided feedback through Discord, with future distributions planned for users who have purchased NFTs on the OS2 platform. Additionally, multipliers are available for users holding high-volume NFT collections for over three months.
At the current stage, information about the SEA token remains somewhat limited. However, OpenSea has confirmed that U.S. users qualify for the anticipated airdrop, which will be allocated based on their activity on the platform. This move could serve as compensation for traders who actively participated during the NFT bull market of 2021.
As the NFT space continues to evolve, all eyes will be on OpenSea to see how these changes affect their position and user engagement in the weeks to come.
