Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea could soon be offering support to Solana NFTs. The marketplace has recently uploaded on teaser on Twitter confirming its plan to add Solana NFTs on the platform.
Earlier, the speculations concerning OpenSea adding support for Solana went rampant when a reputed hacker and blogger Jane Manchun Wong shared screenshots suggesting that OpenSea will soon integrate Solana NFTs into its marketplace.
OpenSea revealed the news with a short teaser video posted to its official Twitter account, poking fun at the barrage of tweets pointed its way about plans to add Solana. The video, which OpenSea tweeted is about “the best kept secret in Web3,” notes that Solana support is coming in April. No date was mentioned, but the month starts on Friday.
Solana is the second-largest NFT ecosystem behind Ethereum, with an estimated market cap of $1.5 billion across its myriad collections. The Solana NFT space grew rapidly last fall on the back of rising collections like Solana Monkey Business, Degenerate Ape Academy, and Aurory. Solana offers faster, cheaper, and more energy-efficient transactions than Ethereum’s mainnet.
A reputed hacker and blogger, Jane Manchun Wong, leaked screen images from the OpenSea website revealing that the marketplace is integrating Solana-based NFTs with support for the Phantom wallet.
On Tuesday, before the video promo launch, Wong posted a tweet that proved evidence of the launch, suggesting Solana integration is approaching with a “Solana Beta” tag besides the OpenSea logo.
The sales of NFTs reached $25 billion (roughly Rs. 1,84,700 crore) in 2021 as the speculative crypto asset exploded in popularity, data from market tracker DappRadar showed.
In recent days, the competition in NFT sales has risen with the launch of other NFT marketplaces. In January, newly launched LooksRare marketplace had recorded a sales volume of $394 million (roughly Rs. 2,912 crore) within just three days of its launch.
The all-but-confirmed announcement represents the latest attention-grabbing move for the marketplace, which earlier this year raised a $300 million funding round at a $13 billion valuation. Backers include crypto VC Paradigm and the fund launched by Katie Haun, a former general partner at a16z.
In February, OpenSea moved to launch a venture program of its own, with the idea of investing in startups and projects within the NFT ecosystem. Social and gaming-focused projects are also within the venture arm’s remit, as reported at the time by The Block.
