The NFT epidemic created the first millionaire.
The founders of the vibrant blockchain startup OpenSea have joined the 3 Comma Club following a new funding round announced on Tuesday. With an estimated 18.5% stake in OpenSea, co-founders Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah are each worth about $ 2.2 billion. Forbes Estimate. ((((Forbes Due to limited liquidity, we will apply discounts to the value of private companies. OpenSea officials declined to comment. )
Established 4 years ago New York City-based startups were early players in the NFT market that took off in early 2021... NFT, an abbreviation for “non-fungible token,” is a computer file used to track ownership of unique digital assets such as art, music, and even virtual sports cards on ledgers called blockchains. OpenSea is proud to be a peer-to-peer platform that allows users to create, buy and sell all kinds of NFTs. This is in exchange for a 2.5% reduction in each sale.
OpenSea has grown rapidly over the past year. In March 2020, the Five Costumes counted about 4,000 active users running $ 1.1 million in monthly transactions. Monthly income of about $ 28,000.. Fortunately, platforms like the Winklebos Twin Nifty Gateway changed in February 2021. Generated buzz By auctioning high-end digital art. By July, OpenSea had completed a $ 100 million funding round led by venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, recording approximately $ 350 million worth of transactions that month. The following month, transactions reached $ 3.4 billion. That’s a staggering 10-fold increase, with $ 85 million in revenue from commissions.
The NFT market cooled slightly in the months that followed and then rose again in December.High seas Processed over $ 3.3 billion in sales last monthIn itself, it generates about $ 82.5 million in revenue. Currently, the company employs more than 70 people.
Finzer and Atallah, about 30 years old, respectively Have a well-known resume for young tech billionaires.. CEO Finzer grew up in the Bay Area, studied at Brown University, and worked as a software engineer on Pinterest. In 2015, he co-founded the first startup, a search engine called Claimdog, and sold it to Credit Karma a year later for a private amount. Colorado-born Chief Technology Officer Atallah has proven to be a spreadsheet expert from an early age. According to his LinkedIn profile, he worked for Palantir while a student at Stanford University, and after graduating he worked for Silicon Valley startups Zugata and Whatsgoodly.
In January 2018, the duo worked with the Y Combinator startup accelerator to come up with the idea of paying users crypto to share Wi-Fi hotspots. But CryptoKitties, a cartoon-like virtual cat that was one of the earliest examples of NFTs, captured their imagination. Finzer and Atallah quickly pivoted to launch OpenSea and move to New York.
Since its inception, OpenSea has raised more than $ 420 million from investors, according to PitchBook data. The $ 300 million Series C Hall, announced Tuesday, was led by venture capital firms Paradigm and Coatue. OpenSea says it will focus on the “trust and safety” team to increase staff and invest in making the product accessible to more users.
OpenSea faces intensifying competition, including competition with crypto giant Coinbase, which announced plans to launch its own NFT exchange in October. Critics have also pointed out fraud and potential fraud in the NFT world. During September Finzer has requested the resignation of OpenSea’s product manager After it was discovered that he was buying an NFT just before it hit the market, and last week, an art gallery in New York. He reportedly stole a $ 2.2 million worth of NFTs. And it is listed in OpenSea.
If the company can navigate the volatile waters, even greater wealth may be on the horizon.In 2021, approximately $ 23 billion worth of NFTs exchanged (virtual) hands, according to data tracked by DappRadar– And the market is still in its infancy.
“Our vision is to be a destination for these new open digital economies to thrive,” Finzer said in an email statement.
Forbes staff, Eliza Haverstock
