Leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea announced that it had integrated NFTs from the Avalanche blockchain into its online market.
GM🔺! We’re excited to share that @avalancheavax #Avalanche is officially live on OpenSea!! pic.twitter.com/3nDP3zQGAx
— OpenSea (@opensea) October 11, 2022
The exchange currently offers NFTs from seven other blockchains, including Ethereum, Polygon, Klaytn, Solana, Optimism, Arbitrum, and now Avalanche. Last month, the exchange saw almost $350 million worth of Ethereum NFT transactions activities.
Avalanche is an open-source network featuring three distinct blockchains, one of which is known as the C-Chain, and the native token AVAX. NFTs can exist on either Avalanche’s C-Chain or X-Chain, although the C-Chain is intended for Ethereum interoperability and smart contracts, which are utilized by NFTs.
While OpenSea’s announcement bodes well for supporters of Avalanche NFT, it is unclear whether the NFT economy on the blockchain would benefit from the increased visibility. Even though some Avalanche supporters claim it to be an “Ethereum killer,” Avalanche hasn’t really had a significant effect on the NFT industry as a whole.
Despite the Avalanche NFT economy’s small size, it appears to be embracing it. The “Smol Joes” and the “Smol Lands” are Avalanche’s highest-ranked among its NFT collections overall, per OpenSea’s rankings. The top ten list also includes the “Smol Apas” and “Smol Creeps”.
The Crabada game and Yield Hunt Hunters, which have amassed $227 million and $81 million since their debuts, correspondingly, also helped to boost the Avalanche NFT market earlier this year.
Although NFTs based on memes presently dominate the market, Ava Labs’ Business Development Lead Dominic Carbonaro thinks Avalanche’s NFT makers are just getting warmed up.
“Avalanche’s NFT community has a unique identity and passion for experimenting with both the art and applications of NFTs. Creators here are still just scratching the surface,” said Carbonaro.
Even if OpenSea is not the first NFT marketplace to offer Avalanche NFTs, its competitors that do aren’t exactly seeing results. Only a few hundred unique users each day are transacting on Avalanche’s competing NFT marketplaces, including NFTrade, Kalao, Campfire, and JoePegs, as per Dune’s data.