Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea acquires a $13.3 billion valuation

OpenSea just announced its successful Series C funding. This round values the leading NFT marketplace at a $13.3 billion post money valuation. Paradigm and Coatue led this funding round, joining a list of noteworthy investors such as Coinbase, Animoca Brands, Mark Cuban, Kevin Durant, and various others.

OpenSea has upgraded itself to the elusive Decacorn status, merely 5 months since receiving its Unicorn title. To put this into perspective, this valuation is even larger than the market capitalization of some of the largest cryptocurrencies such as Uniswap, Chainlink, and Algorand.

Onwards and Upwards!

OpenSea has come a long way since its inception in 2017. The leading NFT marketplace has certainly seen its fair share of turbulence in the past year. Moving forward, the company will allocate the investments in 4 key areas to solidify its position:

1. Accelerating product development and user experience: OpenSea will continue to lower the entry barriers so that more people can participate in the booming NFT space. The platform should see fewer gatekeepers, more privacy, and more sustainable economics.
2. Improve customer support and safety: OpenSea plans to double its 60-man customer support team this year. In addition, they are looking to increase the protection and empowerment for all users simultaneously.
3. Make meaningful NFT and Web3 community investments: OpenSea’s grant program will invest in developers, builders, and creators to grow the broader NFT ecosystem.
4. Grow the team: This move is essential seeing that the company’s transaction volume experienced a 600x increase throughout 2021. The company needs a more complete team to scale further as the NFT industry continues its bullish momentum.

It will be exciting to see how these objectives take shape in 2022. For more details, the full announcement can be found here.