NFT market share The battle is increasing between OpenSea and Blur
2023 has been marked by increasing competition in the NFT (non-fungible token) space as various marketplaces vie for creators and collectors.
OpenSea has been the frontrunner in the NFT marketplaces since its launch in December 2017. It continues to dominate the NFT scene: Last week, it had over 34,000 ETH in trading volume worth around $56 million, according to blockchain data analytics platform Nansen. But competing marketplace Blur has gained significant momentum among JPEG slingers since its debut in October.
Known for its zero trading fees and “floor sweeping”, Blur has climbed to become the second largest NFT marketplace in just a couple of months by volume. For the week ending February 6, Blur’s NFT volumes were over 9,200 ETH worth around $15.2 million, representing more than 25% of OpenSea’s volume, per Nansen.
OpenSea’s top five NFT projects by volume in the last 30 days include Sewer Pass, Memes by 6529, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Checks – VV Edition.
In comparison, Blur’s top five NFT projects by volume over the past 30 days include MAYC, Azuki, BoredApeKennelClub, BAYC and Otherdeed for Otherside, all high-volume collections.
While OpenSea and Blur have two overlapping NFT projects, namely BAYC and MAYC, the average market cap of Blur’s top five is 270,109 ETH, while OpenSea’s average market cap of the top five is 94,400 at press time on Tuesday. Blur has a higher mean market cap for its top five NFT collections, suggesting that professional NFT traders use Blur more often than OpenSea.
Nansen’s “Simian Psychometric Enhancement Technician” Andrew Thurman told CoinDesk over Telegram, “Blur wins certain high-volume collections, like monkeys and derivatives, and dominates with Azukis. OpenSea has wider reach with new collections and things like the sewer passes.”
Blur has achieved more than 25% of OpenSea’s volume, yet the number of NFT sales and wallets on Blur’s marketplace is decreasing compared to OpenSea, indicating that NFT traders with large holdings prefer Blur’s free marketplace more.
The number of sales on Blur for the week ending February 6 was 20,603, about 9% of OpenSea’s total number of sales, which is about 228,000, according to Nansen data. And when looking at the number of wallets interacting with the two NFT marketplaces, a similar trend emerges: the number of wallets interacting with OpenSea is 11 times larger than those connected to Blur, showing how OpenSea dominates Blur.
“Together this tells me [OpenSea] dominates with retailers and volume still, but big-budget whales looking to flip more expensive parts are taking business to Blur, Thurman told CoinDesk via Telegram.
An OpenSea spokesperson declined to comment, while Blur did not return a request for comment by press time.
