In November last year, NFT marketplace Opensea announced that the Binance Smart Chain Chain (BSC) was one of the several blockchains it was adding support for. However, that collaboration seems to be ending less than a year after.
OpenSea To End Support For BSC NFTs
In an announcement on the X (formerly Twitter) platform on August 17, the NFT marketplace stated that users would no longer be able to list or buy NFTs minted on the BSC chain. However, users “will still be able to view, discover, and transfer BSC NFTs” on the platform.
According to OpenSea, this decision was made as part of its cost-reduction efforts. Apparently, the cost of maintaining BSC NFTs “outweighs” the company’s profits from this venture.
This decision will undoubtedly surprise many, considering that Binance Smart Chain has, over time, continued to gain attention from the NFT community and is seen as a cheaper alternative for anyone looking to mint an NFT.
Interestingly, as part of the announcement, OpenSea revealed that it had recently added support for the newly-launched blockchain Base. Base happens to be a layer-2 network owned by crypto exchange Coinbase.
On the other hand, BSC (which OpenSea just ended support for) is a layer-1 blockchain owned by the world’s largest crypto exchange Binance.
OpenSea Losing The Plot?
OpenSea used to be the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume. However, data from the analytics firm DappRadar shows that the platform has lost its crown to newcomer BLUR.
Many have accused OpenSea of being the architect of its downfall as the company has been known to make several key decisions that have received harsh criticisms from the NFT community.
One such decision has been whether or not to enforce creators’ royalties. While other marketplaces (including BLUR) have, from inception, taken a stance, OpenSea has always tried to gauge sentiments from divides (Creators and Users) and caved to whichever side seems to offer more profitability to its business model.
In a recent development, the NFT marketplace announced that starting from August 31, it would terminate its Operator Filter feature which it used to enforce creator fees. According to the platform, this decision was made due to its non-acceptance by the entire NFT ecosystem. Consequently, it will adopt “optional creator fees on all secondary sales for new collections.”
This undoubtedly looks like a move to regain a huge chunk of the NFT trading volume. However, there is reason to believe that the company may be going about it the wrong way. The foremost NFT company Yuga Labs (creators of BAYC and MAYC), in response to OpenSea’s announcement, stated they will begin the process of ending support for OpenSea’s SeaPort in a move that could further see OpenSea’s trading volume decline significantly.
According to YugaLabs’ CEO Daniel Alegre, this move is part of his company’s commitment to protecting creators’ royalties and ensuring they are “properly compensated for their work.”
