OpenSea Review

What is OpenSea?

OpenSea is a centralized marketplace for buying, selling, and collecting non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The tokens or digital assets available on the platform include but are not limited to: in-game items, crypto collectables, domain names, and more. OpenSea aims to provide the most comprehensive directory of digital assets on the blockchain.

OpenSea was founded in early 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA.  The company has raised over $300 million in funding from rounds led by Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from investors such as 1confirmation, Boost VC, Coinbase Ventures, Paradigm and Tribe Capital.

What NFTs are Available on OpenSea?

OpenSea has the world's widest variety of NFTs listed on its online marketplace. This is because the platform is available on multiple chains which include popular Layer 1 blockchains like Ethereum, Solana and Klaytn, as well as Layer 2 networks like Polygon and Arbitrum.

It is estimated that OpenSea currently has over 90 million tradable NFTs cross-chain. This includes popular collections like CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Azuki's, Moonbirds, DeGods, y00ts, Pudgy Penguins and many others. You can view the top collections here.

‍

OpenSea App

Another reason for OpenSea's growing popularity among traders, collectors and speculators is its intuitive iOS & Android App. The OpenSea app allows users to easily connect to their Web 3 wallet to buy, sell, trade, collect and discover the full range of NFTs available on the platform. It is the only NFT Marketplace in the world with a fully built out mobile app.

How to buy an NFT on OpenSea

The process to buy an NFT is incredibly simple thanks to OpenSea's industry-leading user interface and user experience. If you are a complete beginner looking to get started, you can follow our simple 5 step guide to buy your first NFT on OpenSea:

1. Download a MetaMask (Ethereum) or Phantom (Solana) web 3 wallet based on which network you want to use.
2. Visit opensea.io and select the Wallet icon to connect your web 3 wallet.
3. Select the 'Add Funds' button on screen that appears after connecting your wallet.
4. Deposit ETH, SOL or add new funds via a Credit Card or Debit Card deposit.
5. Find the NFT you want to buy on the platform and select 'Buy now' to complete your purchase.

Want to know which NFT Wallet is best? Read our comprehensive MetaMask and Phantom wallet reviews.

‍

OpenSea NFT Fees

The OpenSea marketplace offers a simple and transparent fee structure, with a 2.5% charge of the sale price of any NFT on the platform. Outside of this fee, users are also charged a 'network fee', which is essentially the price to execute a trade on a blockchain.

This fee will vary depending on the network you use. For example, Ethereum fees are generally between $5-10 per transaction because block space on that network is more expensive. Solana on the other hand is a little more friendly with block fees and averages at around 5 cents.

‍

What Crypto Wallets does OpenSea support?

OpenSea has integrated with a variety of secure crypto wallets, which means you can store NFTs in many different ways. They currently offer 15 different crypto wallets, these include:

• MetaMask
• Coinbase Wallet
• TrustWallet
• Phantom
• Glow
• WalletConnect
• Dapper
• Portis
• Solflare
• Venly
• Authereum + many more

‍

Is OpenSea Safe?

OpenSea is one of the most popular and well known NFT marketplaces in the space and is generally considered to be a safe place to buy, sell and trade NFTs. One key reason for this is that OpenSea does not custody any user funds or tokens. This means that you always maintain full control over your private keys and can never lose your NFTs due to an OpenSea hack.

OpenSea has also implemented a number of security features to help protect users from fraud. These include 2FA (2 Factor Authentication), IP Whitelisting, Fraud Alerts and more.

‍

OpenSea.io API

OpenSea has an API available for developers, which allows anyone to build applications on top of the OpenSea marketplace. The OpenSea API is RESTful and returns data in JSON format. You can find the OpenSea API documentation here.

‍

The Bottom Line

OpenSea is by far the best NFT Marketplace on Ethereum, Solana, Polygon and other major blockchains. Their platform has ossified a network effect and has become deeply entrenched within the NFT community, which means all of the latest and greatest collections are found on the Opensea.io marketplace.