- Leading NFT marketplace Opensea is losing its grip on the market to Magic Eden, Looksrare and other competitors
- Opensea’s market share dipped from 90% to 60% in Q3 While Magic Eden’s moved from 9% to 22%
- NFT transaction volume across the board significantly lower compared to previous quarters
Leading NFT marketplace Opensea is having a hard time maintaining its grip on the NFT market in the face of strong competition from the likes of Magic Eden and Looksrare. Opensea has lost over 30% of the market share to upcoming NFT marketplaces, although its declining fortunes are partly due to the declining NFT appetite in Q3 in general.
Overall NFT Sales Drop by 77%
An analysis by popular crypto exchange Binance revealed that NFT sales dropped by 73% in Q3 2022, which it says is down to the bear market that started in June. Despite the current winter in the NFT market, new NFT marketplaces like Magic Eden, Cryptopunks, X2Y2 and Looksrare are determined to grab the market from Opensea’s monopoly and turn it into an oligopoly.
Of all of these competitors, Solana-based NFT marketplace Magic Eden has outpaced the rest to become the most worthy competitor to dethrone Opensea.
Binance’s findings were similar to crypto aggregator CoinGecko’s observations. In its Q3 2022 Cryptocurrency Report, CoinGecko noted that the “NFT winter is here,” since the quarter-over-quarter (QoQ) trading volume had dipped by 77%. According to CoinGecko, the trading volume across the top five marketplaces dropped from $13.5 billion in Q1 to $9.3 billion in Q2 and later to a meagre $2.1 billion in Q3.
Magic Eden’s Dominance Increases by 13%
Of the five marketplaces, Magic Eden is the only one that registered notable growth in September “doubling its mom (month-over-month) volume and dominance while the rest of its competitors continued to slip.” Available data shows that it increased its dominance from 9% to 22% while Opensea’s grip fell from 90% to 60%.
This impressive growth comes at a time when the marketplace has shifted to optional loyalties which has divided the community.
