OpenSea to launch new platform next month, CEO says

Non-fungible token marketplace OpenSea will launch a new platform next month, as announced in the latest update on Monday, November 4.

OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer announced the timeline for the launch on X, stating that the NFT platform is being redesigned with a new OpenSea built from the ground up.

This announcement comes just weeks after the NFT market received the Wells Notice from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Finzer noted the following about what will happen next on the platform:

“We were quietly cooking at OpenSea. To truly innovate, sometimes you need to take a step back and reimagine things. So we built a new OpenSea from scratch. “He’s leaving in December.”

Founded in 2017, OpenSea has established itself as the world’s first peer-to-peer marketplace for non-fungible tokens and collections of digital assets. The project was successful as the NFT ecosystem boomed in the last bull market, with significant growth pushing volumes to new heights.

However, there has been a steady decline in sales volumes over the last few years, causing the bear market to worsen. OpenSea went on to halve its headcount in November 2023, as the platform announced plans for ‘OpenSea 2.0’.

As interest in NFTs grows again, OpenSea recently received a Wells Notice from the SEC, adding to its difficulties.

The Wells Notice signals that the regulator could potentially take legal action against the platform, viewing NFTs as securities. In September, a16z Crypto and OpenSea collaborated with the Stand With Crypto initiative to create an NFT legal fund.

Despite these challenges, the launch of the new platform has been ongoing since the initial announcement, and Finzer’s post about X has created excitement in the community.

A waiting list is now open ahead of launch, according to OpenSea.