We have prepared an overview of OpenSea, a marketplace for trading non-fungible tokens (NFTs). We discuss the capabilities of the marketplace and explain how to create, buy, and sell NFTs on OpenSea.
What you need to know about OpenSea
OpenSea is the first NFT marketplace, launched in 2017. The platform operates on the principles of a decentralized community: cryptocurrency wallets, addresses, and assets are controlled by users. The marketplace protocol supports Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn Blockchain, Avalanche, BNB Chain, Optimism, and Solana blockchains.
The OpenSea protocol uses ERC-721 and ERC-1155 (for collections) standard NFT tokens. Purchases can be paid for with any ERC-20 tokens. You can buy NFTs with a bank card through the MoonPay service.
The standard OpenSea transaction fee is 2.5% of the NFT value. The fee is charged to the seller and deducted from the NFT value upon sale. Also, blockchain gas is charged to the seller if they accept a purchase offer at auction. The buyer pays the gas if they purchase the asset at a fixed price.
When we create a token, we pay gas (commission) for creating the collection, since a smart contract is created along with the token. The commission depends on the size of the collection and the selected blockchain. When minting an NFT in an existing collection, we also pay a blockchain commission.
A distinctive feature of OpenSea NFT is its wide selection of categories. Popular categories include art, sports, trading cards, and projects from well-known artists. The platform also offers NFTs in the form of audio, domain names, or 3D objects.
Collections hosted on OpenSea are divided into verified and unverified. The former include NFTs that are in high demand among the audience and popular on social media. Such collections are marked with a blue check mark. Collection developers can apply for a check mark if their NFT sales exceed 75 ETH. Almost all popular collections are verified.
Unverified collections are considered more risky. Such assets may be created by amateurs and may not be supported in the long term. Investments in such NFTs require more caution and preliminary checks.
NFTs are divided into collections and sorted into categories, which can be accessed from the main page. The “Art” category combines “digital art” objects and artists’ works transferred to the blockchain. The ‘Gaming’ category includes assets intended for blockchain games and metaverses. Tokens in the “Gaming” section can be conditionally divided into three subcategories:
- Trading Cards – items for card games on the blockchain, regardless of the theme of the game (cards from a set have their own characteristics; depending on the characteristics, one card from a set can “beat” another in the game or simply complement the collection, without a gaming element)
- Utility – NFTs designed for metaverses and blockchain games (such tokens complement games, for example, by providing certain advantages, allowing players to modify characters, game terrain, etc.)
- Virtual Worlds – This category includes game items from metaverses and blockchain games: land plots, building blocks, characters, team members, in-game currency, and other “gaming” assets.
The “Memberships” section contains NFTs that allow the holder to join metaverses and closed investor communities organized by theme and offering exclusive social, gaming, and investment opportunities.
Filter in collections on the OpenSea website
With the filter, you can display tokens by trading status, sort NFTs by price, quantity (single NFT, several in a bundle), by collections, and by categories. You can also sort tokens depending on the blockchain on which they are created and by trading currency.
Drops
“Drops” are announcements of upcoming collection launches from verified developers and OpenSea partners. Each drop page describes the theme of the collection. It provides a brief description, the rules of the drop, the starting price of the assets, and other information.
Some drops allow you to participate in the launch of a collection and get the right to several new NFTs even before the full release. With the “Minting Now” button, you can mint tokens from the collection for yourself. The “Past” tab shows completed drops.
Stats
“Stats” is a section with marketplace statistics. The Rankings subsection shows statistics on collections. Data can be sorted by blockchain by selecting the desired one in the “All Chains” field, by date (1h, 6h, 24h, 7d, 30d, All), and by category. The table shows the name of the collection, trading volume, percentage change in volume, “lowest price” (the lowest sale price of an item from the collection), and number of sales.
The “Activity” subsection shows all transactions and placements that have taken place on the marketplace. The information can be sorted by asset price, quantity, rarity, collection, and blockchain.
