Cash.Tech Newsletter #12: OpenSea has new rival as NFT trading volume booms
Despite a slow start to the new year for Bitcoin and other crypto assets, the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is booming. Trading volumes are surging back to their highest levels since last year and demand for user-friendly wallet solutions such as Cash.Tech’s is also on the rise.
This week’s Cash.Tech Newsletter reviews the latest developments in the NFT market, including the rise of a new rival for popular marketplace, Opensea. The numbers suggest that NFTs are being set up for a big year and Cash.Tech is poised to play a key role in onboarding new investors into the space. First, we’ll bring you some exciting updates from our development team.
Cash.Tech development update
The Cash.Tech development team is pleased to reveal that it has deployed the latest version of the Cash.Tech app to the Google Play Store. The latest version includes features for storing collected NFTs, as well as sending and receiving functionalities. These features are designed to deliver a superior user experience than existing wallet solutions and we highly recommend you try them!
The team has also completed technical research for the highly-awaited Merchant Protocol planned for release this year. In the coming weeks, the team will diligently work on developing UX on the Merchant Protocol and also design teasers for upcoming updates.
With many of the features being built for the wallet and our native $CATE tokens set to go live in 2022, the development team is extremely excited for what lies ahead. We will continue to share regular updates with the community and reiterate our goal to build a fully self-custodial and user-friendly solution for users to tap into the numerous opportunities within the crypto economy.
NFT Market Booms Again
Following a stellar performance in the past year, public interest in NFTs appeared to cool off at the tail-end of 2021. Daily trading volumes dropped as low as $200 million, a significant decrease from the $1.02 billion daily volume reported in August.
However, the new year has brought about a resurgence that now leaves the NFT market on the threshold of new record highs by the end of January. According to the chart below from TheBlock, over $1 billion worth of NFTs were traded between January 3rd and 9th, a record last seen during the August highs.
(Source: TheBlock)
Popular Ethereum-based NFT marketplace OpenSea has been the biggest beneficiary generating over $2.8 billion in volume within the first-half of January. OpenSea has notched up at least $150 million in daily trading volume since January 1st, and looks set to surpass the $3.4 billion total volume record that it reported last August.
(Source: Dune Analytics)
Amid the surge however, OpenSea has welcomed a new rival in the form of the newly launched decentralized NFT marketplace, LooksRare. The platform airdropped its new $LOOK tokens (worth a handful of dollars) to a majority of existing OpenSea users that satisfied certain conditions.
LooksRare is also charging lower fees on basic sales (2% instead of OpenSea’s 2.5%) and additional $LOOK rewards for buyers and sellers on the platform. So far, multiple tactics to detract users from OpenSea seem to be working. LooksRare has recorded more trading volume than OpenSea in the past seven days, despite having much fewer users.
(Source: DappRadar)
OpenSea currently does not offer token rewards to users and has already come under the spotlight for certain questionable activities including insider trading and underpaying a bug bounty. Overall, the NFT community seems to welcome the presence of a competitor to OpenSea, and the tussle for supremacy will probably benefit the market in the long-run.
The past week also saw popular American non-profit news agency, the Associated Press (AP), announce its entry into the NFT market. AP is partnering with blockchain tech company Xooa to launch a new marketplace to sell its photojournalists’ work as NFTs. The platform will feature NFTs covering “space, climate, war and other images to spotlight the work of specific AP photographers.” AP’s involvement further legitimizes the NFT market as a new frontier for artists and collectors.
Will NFTs have another stellar year?
NFTs have had a strong start to 2022, leading to early talks that it could become the first sector in the crypto industry to decouple from the broader market. The rise of more competitive markets, the involvement of more legacy institutions and the sustained increase of public interest in NFTs suggest a stellar year ahead.
Cash.Tech is in line to profit immensely from the NFT boom through its superior infrastructure that supports assets across different networks such as Ethereum, Polygon, and Binance Smart Chain. The Cash.Tech NFT infrastructure includes an NFT Display option, as well as an in-built browser for users to trade NFTs using their favorite marketplaces including OpenSea and LooksRare. Cash.Tech is already live on Testnet and Mainnet for Android and iOS users and will be available on the respective app stores in the coming weeks!
