OpenSea softens crypto winter.

Devin Finzer, 32, CEO of OpenSea, said that the crypto industry had seen «some setbacks», referencing the fall of FTX. This cryptocurrency exchange collapsed into bankruptcy in November, helping to trigger a fall in the value of digital assets. Conversely, OpenSea soared in value as NFTs, which can be online collectables and digital art built on the same blockchain technology as cryptos, became a hype-fuelled market over the past two years. But the head of the New York-based company insisted that NFTs have a bright future, and consumers will continue to spend to acquire digital images. «It is not necessarily the case that NFTs will always be bought and sold denominated in cryptocurrency, as they are today,» he said.

«There are a variety of reasons why that makes sense in the current ecosystem, but, as we get broader and more accessible, there is no reason that NFTs could not at least be denominated in US dollars». OpenSea has seen monthly trading volumes in crypto ether fall 95 per cent from a $4.9bn peak in January last year to $253mn in November, according to data from a user on Dune Analytics, information that OpenSea directed the FT towards as the private company does not disclose its figures. The daily number of NFTs sold in the ether on the platform has dropped 68 per cent from a peak of 2.3mn in January to 740,000 last month. The company cut 20 per cent of staff in July, with Finzer anticipating a «prolonged downturn» and leaving OpenSea with about 300 employees.

Finzer maintains the company has a «healthy runway», having raised $423mn over several funding rounds since 2021, which saw investments from venture capitalists Coatue and Andreessen Horowitz. NFTs use blockchain technology to certify ownership of a digital asset, which is recorded on an immutable ledger of transactions.

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