The NFT market is expected to reach nearly $41 billion in 2021, according to Chainalysis. Last year was a watershed moment for NFTs, as huge sums of money poured into the industry.
As sales grew to significant amounts, NFT marketplaces benefited as well. Last year, however, dissatisfaction with OpenSea grew on Twitter as a result of several factors.
Non-responsive customer service departments, insider trading scandals, and the freezing of stolen assets are all common obstacles for both the seller and the buyer. In general, however, NFT markets are appreciating in value and volume around the world.
Climbing a Ladder with NFTs
NFTs are racking up impressive numbers, with collectors sending more than $37 billion to NFT marketplaces through May 2022. Nearly 950,000 unique addresses bought or sold an NFT in Q1 2022, making it the most active quarter for NFT buyers and sellers.
Over 491,000 addresses had transacted with NFTs as of May 1, 2022, indicating steady growth. Since March 2021, the number of active NFT collections on OpenSea has steadily increased.
What Are the Different Models of NFT Marketplaces?
Despite the fact that there are several NFT marketplaces, collectible-oriented marketplaces are the most popular because collectible NFTs are the most traded and account for over 60% of total sales.
- NFT Marketplaces of the eBay Type
For peer-to-peer (P2P) trade, universal marketplaces bridge the gap between NFT buyers and sellers. Two popular NFT marketplaces, OpenSea and Raible, both have a large number of NFT collections.
- Marketplaces of a Single NFT Type
Single NFT marketplaces are limited to the sale of a single NFT, such as high-end digital art. A single NFT marketplace, such as super rare, ensures that NFTs are curated before being listed on the platform.
- Marketplaces for Non-Financial Transactions (Hybrid NFTs)
Hybrid marketplaces are designed for businesses that want to integrate marketplaces into their digital platforms. It provides users with digital experiences and allows buyers to create custom avatars to sell on the marketplace.
Companies are even offering NFT Marketplace Development Services specifically for platforms that are willing to adapt to their own marketplace.
Let’s take a look at some of the issues that are surfacing in the NFT marketplaces.
Niche Markets and Fragmentation
We expect more niche-oriented marketplaces to emerge as NFT collectibles become more popular. The NFT trends will continue, despite the fact that they have already played out with 1/1 art-focused marketplaces.
Play-to-earn gaming models are on the rise, and by 2022, they will be commonplace. It will almost certainly have in-game asset marketplaces. Some NFT communities can grow large enough to expand their marketplaces.
It also makes sense because major players like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Cryptokitties, and others would want the transaction fees to circulate within the project’s ecosystem.
Competitors who are owned by the community
OpenSea is attracting interest from both sides of the debate, making community-owned marketplaces inevitable. LooksRare is an example of a community that offers tokens as an immediate incentive.
Even marketplaces are using blockchain to track the activity of NFT traders in order to give them ownership of their NFT marketplace and an incentive to increase its value.
However, it is too early to say whether LooksRare will succeed in the current OpenSea marketplace demand.
Many other mainstream NFT marketplaces are in the early stages of development and will debut later this year. While some marketplaces have already failed to achieve escape velocity, OpenSea is a shining example of how it was able to achieve the top spot.
Aggregators’ Ascension
Everything in the Web3 world is on the blockchain, and anyone has access to public databases. On top of the existing building blocks, a person can create new ones (same as in DeFi).
Users were perplexed about choosing the platform for a perfect trade as more DEXs (decentralized exchanges) came up with varying liquidity pool depths between different trading pairs.
Users were able to avoid going to the DEX by using aggregators like 1inch Network, which sourced liquidity from multiple exchanges.
With the growing fragmentation of supply and demand for NFTs, we can apply the same model to NFT marketplaces. Genie is an example of the emergence of the aggregation layer because it began by complementing OpenSea with features that the latter lacked, most notably better multi-item selling and buying handling.
Conclusion
NFT marketplaces are an important part of NFT trading and could help NFTs gain widespread adoption. The growing use cases of NFTs will change the marketplace landscape in the coming years, as some ecosystems will integrate asset trading and aggregators will provide the best, most advanced tools for serious traders.
We will see trading in next-generation NFT marketplaces as platforms move toward scalable, cost-effective solutions and more mainstream players enter the space.
