The rumor has been floating around for a while in the crypto community: Solana’s (SOL) non-fungible tokens (NFT) were finally going to arrive on OpenSea. This has finally been confirmed by the marketplace, which released an announcement yesterday. Will the NFT giant crush the competition
Solana NFTs coming to OpenSea
According to OpenSea, Solana’s NFTs are expected to arrive as early as April this year. The company revealed the news in an ironic announcement:
The best kept secret in web3 pic.twitter.com/xuZn64cZ4U
– OpenSea (@opensea) March 29, 2022
As a reminder, the platform is currently compatible with Ethereum(ETH), Polygon (MATIC) and Klaytn (KLAY) blockchains. The arrival of Solana among these is therefore notable.
On the one hand, because Solana is among the best placed of the “Ethereum killers” who wish to compete with the King. On the other hand, because Solana’s NFT ecosystem is beginning to be established. In March this year, NFTs sold on this blockchain totalled $140 million, according to data published by Cryptoslam.
Unsurprisingly, this is still well below perennial rival Ethereum, which totalled $1.6 billion in sales over the same period. But some are betting on the emergence of a real alternative “made by Solana”. This is the case of JP Morgan analysts, who stated in January that Ethereum could well be threatened by its competitor’s NFTs during the year 2022.
The implications for other marketplaces
For existing marketplaces, such as Magic Eden, the arrival of the OpenSea behemoth in the NFT Solana sector is of course not exactly good news. The latter currently accounts for 90% of the sales of non-fungible tokens created on Solana. A market share that could well collapse given OpenSea’s considerable position in the NFT ecosystem.
For the time being, however, Solana’s NFT collections do not benefit from the hype that carries projects like Cryptopunks or the Bored Ape Yacht Club. Imitations of Ethereum’s larger projects are still very much in evidence, such as the Degenerate Ape Academy, or the Pesky Penguins. So will Solana’s NFTs really manage to stand out and grow? That remains to be seen.
