Billion-dollar NFT marketplace OpenSea is pulling away from its competitors, according to a New York crypto research firm.

Delphi Digital says OpenSea has “extend(ed) market share lead at the expense of, well, almost every other NFT marketplace despite not having a token”

“This further cements OpenSea’s position as the market leader for NFT marketplaces with no signs of slowing down,” the research firm wrote. “Arguably, OpenSea has developed the strongest network effect in the space, as evidenced by its surging volume and market share.”

OpenSea founder Devin Finzer tweeted yesterday that over the weekend that the open marketplace did US$95 million in transaction volume – more than four times what it did in all of last year.

It was a huge weekend for NFT sales as one anonymous investor purchased 88 CryptoPunks in one transaction for US$5.5 million, according to The Block. The NFT collections Bored Ape Yacht Club and Art Blocks also saw strong sales.

Meanwhile, Coin Telegraph reported that transactions on competitor platform Rarible have actually declined, possibly because it had been incentivising NFT sales with a token scheme. Some users reported getting more back in Raribles RARI tokens than they had actually spent.

CoinJar launches crypto Visa card

Australia’s longest-running crypto exchange has launched the country’s first cryptocurrency Mastercard, just beating to market a similar crypto-backed Visa card.

CoinJar launched the prepaid Mastercard in partnership with EML Payment Solutions (ASX:EML).

“CoinJar Card allows you to use the cryptocurrency in your CoinJar to make purchases, wherever Mastercard is accepted,” the company said in its announcement.

“All you need to do is choose which crypto you want to spend and it’ll be automatically converted to Australian dollars when you make a transaction – no need to preload.”

Users are charged a one per cent conversion fee.

CoinJar had offered a CoinJar Swipe eftpos debit card from 2015, but discontinued it in January to launch this new product.

Sydney-based startup CryptoSpend is working with Novatti (ASX:NOV) to offer a crypto-backed Visa card it plans to launch in September.

Crypto.com has a prepaid Visa card available in Australia, but it uses Singaporean dollars rather than the Aussie, so there are conversion fees involved. BTC.com.au also has an eftpos card on offer.

 

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