NFT platform OpenSea adding Solana, could boost both
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Solana may pave the way for cheaper NFT mints and transactions on OpenSea and could see an influx in users because of its benefits.
Sometime in April, OpenSea will integrate Solana (SOL) within its ecosystem. This will bring cheaper NFT mints and transactions on the new network. It will also open up the way for Ethereum whales and Ethereum NFT enthusiasts to potentially grab lucrative NFTs on Solana.
Solana will become the fourth network on OpenSea in addition to Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC) and Klatyn (KLAY) networks.
OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace in the world
The marketplace boasts a total transaction volume of $23 billion overall. It lists popular NFTs like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), CryptoPunks and Azuki.
Currently, Solana has cheaper NFTs listed on its marketplace platforms and they may see a boost now that OpenSea will integrate the network. Popular NFTs on Solana are Degenerate Ape Academy and DeGods, both with a floor price of around 100 SOL ($12,900).
For comparison, the BAYC collection has a 109 ETH floor price ($370,600).
OpenSea becomes a direct competitor to Magic Eden
Magic Eden is the largest NFT marketplace on Solana with over 90% of all NFT sales, according to Dune Analytics. Even though these are impressive numbers, Magic Eden is dwarfed by OpenSea.
In the past 30 days, Magic Eden had a transaction volume of 2,026,990 SOL, which translates to $261 million at the current rate of $129 SOL. This is no match for OpenSea with its $2.5 billion in transaction volume during the same period.
One thing that Magic Eden has on its side, though, is the 2% transaction fee, 0.5% less than OpenSea. But that may not be enough to keep Solana NFT users from migrating to the larger platform.
Solana is likely to benefit
Solana is known as an “Ethereum killer” blockchain due to its fast and cheap transactions. For example, Solana has a theoretical throughput of up to 65,000 transactions per second (TPS) and it costs only a few cents to make a transaction.
For comparison, transactions can cost around $18 on Ethereum with around 30 TPS, making transactions much slower. Granted, this will change with the Ethereum 2.0 upgrade coming this year. It may still not be enough to beat Solana, though, which could potentially see an influx of Ethereum users once they see the benefit of the network.
Interested in cryptocurrency? Learn more about the basics with our beginner’s guide to Bitcoin, dive deeper by learning about Ethereum and see what blockchain can do with our simple guide to DeFi.
At the time of publication, Kliment Dukovski owned several cryptocurrencies.
