NFT marketplace OpenSea estimated value surpasses $13 billion

Constantly increasing in popularity, the metaverse and everything associated with this new digital world has become somewhat of a regular theme in terms of collecting assets and investing millions of dollars in NFTs (non-fungible tokens). Looking to take the reigns from cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, this latest NFT function has the main difference of actually allowing people to invest in real life products, prominently art and music. In order to sell your own acquired NFTs, a broader knowledge of the blockchain is required, where different platforms allow you such access, and in turn promise to sell your NFT assets at the most profitable outcome(s) possible.

Enabling the trade of NFTs is one thing, with online marketplace OpenSea being among the most popular of websites in doing so. Recently evaluated at a staggering $13.3 billion, OpenSea have registered a trades rise of up to 600% in the last year, a valuation estimated by the marketplace itself. Allowing buyers to get their hands on a digital asset that can never be revoked from their ownership, it comes to no surprise that this particular trading method has caught the eye of businesses, sports clubs and celebrities worldwide. Ranking among the most popular NFTs, The Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) have seen their total value of trades just surpass the $1 billion mark, as they offer a collection of digital illustrations of anthropomorphic apes.

Figures that are reaching extraordinary heights, this latest hype surrounding the metaverse has well and truly entered our lives. With blockchain data firm, Chainalysis, calculating an estimated $40.9 billion of the total value of NFT trades, it has come to a point where the market in digital art and collectables is edging ever-closer to that of the actual global art trade. Taking into account the different parameters surrounding the metaverse, OpenSea would “look to bring NFTs to a broad consumer audience this year,’ however, the risks involved in unregulated crypto-asset investments, the expert data showcasing that in fact most of the money is made by expert investors, as well as the considerable demand of electricity in order to store assets on the blockchain, will all contribute in a negative manner towards the actual impact of the metaverse.

With this in mind, it is more often than not that we stumble across news of artists within our community heavily investing in this new digital world, as some of the biggest names in the dance scene, such as Steve Aoki and Don Diablo, have become vocal ambassadors of the metaverse and everything that comes with it. Gearing up for the future, such investments hold their risks, just like most things in life, but for the time being, marketplaces such as OpenSea are most likely to keep on increasing their estimated trade value, as NFTs continue to rise in sales and not only. For any further information on OpenSea, be sure to check out their official website here.

Image Credit: OpenSea