OpenSea, one of the leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces in the world, has announced the completion of a successful Series B funding round.
The NFT marketplace OpenSea has become the latest crypto unicorn after raising $100 million in a Series B funding round. The round, led by a16z, made it clear that despite dwindling interest for NFTs, many believe the future of the industry is still bright. Since the NFT explosion in early 2021, the industry has seen a drop in the volume of transactions, but also the number of users involved in the genre.
The success of this latest round of funding now puts OpenSea at $1.5 billion valuations after similar wins from its $23 million Series A round in March. The initial round of funding was also led by a16z, which is managed by Andreessen Horowitz.
While a16z has been leading the charge as far as investing in OpenSea goes, they are not the only ones who see the potential for the NFT marketplace. Other participants in the Series B round include Coatue and Creative Artists Agency. Individual investors include Michael Ovitz, Kevin Hartz, Dylan Field, along with celebrities Ashton Kutcher, Kevin Durant, and Shawn Mendes.
Next steps for OpenSea
According to the press release from OpenSea, the first and most important goal is to continue their quest to build the best NFT marketplace in the world. As it stands, OpenSea is the largest and most influential NFT marketplace. OpenSea expressed its desire to help create the systems and standards that enable the conversion of all types of digital wealth into forms that are truly ownable and freely exchangeable. The idea is to “turn the internet from an information transfer machine into a value transfer machine.”
OpenSea also stated its intentions to evolve the underlying technology that NFTs currently run on. The company announced officially new cross-blockchain support that starts with a gas-free marketplace that lives on the Polygon blockchain. The new venture will allow NFT buyers to forgo any blockchain fees while conducting business on OpenSea. The marketplace hopes the new system will allow more creators to explore the crypto and NFT space for the first time.
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