Leading NFT marketplace, OpenSea, recently shared a teaser on Twitter – confirming a months-old speculation that OpenSea will be listing Solana-based NFTs on their platform from April. Captioned as ‘the best kept secret in web3’, it spoke about the months of anticipation and inquiries made by NFT enthusiasts across the Solana blockchain.
The best kept secret in web3🤣 pic.twitter.com/xuZn64cZ4U
— OpenSea (@opensea) March 29, 2022
Famous hacker and blogger, Jane Manchum Wong, leaked screenshots of the details of the merger back in January. Her suspicions of the integration were further amplified this week when she came across more evidence. After posting another leaked screenshot, she tweeted,
“OpenSea adds “Solana Beta” label and Solflare Wallet support for Solana integration that they’re wrapping up.”
What does it mean for the Solana community?
The news is being positively received by the Solana community. OpenSea is the biggest marketplace for NFT sales with nearly $24 billion worth of total sale volume. According to CryptoSlam, Solana is the second largest blockchain in terms of trade volume after Ethereum.
Magic Eden is expected to be the biggest loser in this deal. It hosted a whopping 90% of all Solana NFT trades in the previous week. It is now expected to take the fall from the OpenSea merger but posted a vote of confidence on Twitter.
bring it
— Magic Eden 🪄 Solana’s Leading NFT Marketplace (@MagicEden) March 29, 2022
Can Solana finally “kill” Ethereum’s NFT market?
Most NFTs are listed on Ethereum but Solana is also home to some major collections. Some of the most popular NFT collections on Solana are the Degenerate Ape Academy, Solana Monkey Business, Aurory and Boryoku Dragonz. All of these are expected to be listed on OpenSea as soon as the merger is underway in April.
The frightening part for the Solana community is NFT market capitulation by Ethereum. According to data from CryptoSlam, Ethereum boasts a near $1.8 billion in NFTs sales volume in the previous 30 days. Solana comes at second, with a trade volume of $170 million, less than a tenth than that of Ethereum’s.
However, the Solana blockchain provides a higher throughput and scalability in a growing ecosystem. With lower gas fees along with cheap NFT minting, Solana has created a strong foundation to accelerate its NFT market. The new merger with OpenSea is expected to instigate a renewal of the Solanians as they approach April.