OpenSea has been the dominant decentralized platform for users looking to mint, buy, sell and trade non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Not so much a gallery as it is an NFT aggregator, OpenSea locking According to Dune Analytics, December 2021 alone saw $3.25 billion in transaction volume, and from December 2020 to December 2021, total transaction volume increased by 90,968%.

No stranger to debate and criticism, OpenSea Fair Share Dangers and PitfallsMost notably, its former head of product Nate Chastain discovered the use of insider information to preempt and profit from selling the platform’s front page NFTs.

Community feels devalued after newly appointed Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Brian Roberts adds to overall distrust hint to go publicHowever, he was quick to reiterate that OpenSea has no plans to go public anytime soon.

OpenSea may be the most traded NFT marketplace right now, but in 2022 there are bound to be a handful of competitors aiming to replace the giant.

Here are five NFT marketplaces that could shake the number one contender from their place in the coming months.

Coinbase NFTs

Coinbase seems to be leaning towards the centralized element as the main driver of mass adoption. Taking advantage of the growing popularity of NFTs, Coinbase is competing with OpenSea to launch its NFT marketplace, Coinbase NFT.According to reports, the Waitlist has exceeded 1.1 million, which exceeds OpenSea’s total active user base.

Announcing the launch of Coinbase NFTs is a signal that as digital collectibles continue to go mainstream, the value that can be captured by NFTs continues to increase. See how NFTs connect culture and commerce, and Coinbase NFTs may change the order of things. The project also has partnerships with collections such as World of Women, DeadFellaz and Lazy Lions.

Although the market has yet to launch, its waitlist alone shows that many investors are either eager to get their hands on the technology for the first time or want to replace the technology they already use.

We are very proud to announce our partnership with the Kings and Queens of Lions Den.we love us some @LazyLionsNFT. #roar pic.twitter.com/5Od1d77dPm

– Coinbase NFT (@Coinbase_NFT) December 7, 2021

According to Coinbase’s statement, Coinbase NFT will be peer-to-peer (P2P) “…with an intuitive design on top of a decentralized marketplace.” The product initially follows the ERC-21 and ERC-1155 standards, with plans to support it in the future Multiple chains.

Coinbase NFT will primarily function as a marketplace, but the company has hinted that it will also serve as a place to “facilitate connections.”To date, Coinbase operates in over 100 countries and reports more than 73 million active users And Coinbase’s clients traded $327 billion per quarter, proving that there is considerable liquidity in circulation.

Aside from trading volume, Coinbase also touts its robust User Experience (UX) and seamless User Interface (UI) design that is smooth and user-friendly.Although many people use Twitter and complaint Regarding OpenSea’s UX/UI design, many other platforms have barriers to entry that OpenSea does not.

FTX NFT

Unlike Coinbase NFTs, the FTX marketplace launched a small set of Solana-based NFTs in October and expanded its collection to those on the Ethereum blockchain. Unlike OpenSea and Coinbase NFT, FTX NFT is not a P2P platform, which means it is centralized and custodial, and users’ data is recorded and stored on their specific network. This means that users and collectors give up ownership in a sense.

The implication of it being a centralized platform is that due to securities law concerns, the platform tends to enforce less autonomous privileges and more restrictions and restrictions on its owners. Unlike OpenSea, where users have full autonomy over their digital assets before selling, FTX NFT implements a bidding mechanism. As FTX.US president Brett Harrison explained in a statement: “By not needing gas to do things like bids, we will see more price action and price discovery on the platform, and we hope that the total to attract liquidity,”

Its law-abiding approach has had such a powerful effect on the Solana NFT collection that many had to revoke their previously promised royalties as FTX NFT announced that it would no longer support projects that gave its owners this privilege.

The result is a result of US regulatory issues. Projects on the Ethereum network are also vetted to ensure they comply with securities laws and to ensure they are not fake knockoffs.

As such, OpenSea retains its value as it maintains a fairly extensive collection of NFTs.

Solana nft developer
Last week: “We need to increase royalties for our projects”

This week: “No royalties. We need to be on FTX”.

– Ayofinance (@Ayofinance1) October 11, 2021

Despite the hiccups, the market has gained traction and undercut its rivals in fee structure. FTX NFTs have a 2% fee structure, while Coinbase has a 2.5% fee structure.

The platform also doesn’t appear to be dismissive of users who end up using non-custodial wallets, but its main focus is the value of accessibility.

rare

Long before OpenSea hit the top, Rarible’s monthly transaction volume outpaced its peers. Despite opening its platform to the community using its governance token, RARI – something OpenSea users have been waiting for – Rarible was unable to maintain the lead it once had on OpenSea.

In November, the platform’s total trading volume was 4% higher than in October, with an average estimate of $18.2 million.However, its total monthly transaction volume pales in comparison to OpenSea, at least considering its daily average transaction volume five times higher.

For the benefit of Rarible, just like the FTX NFT market, it understands the benefits of multi-chain strategic cooperation. Rarible has already launched support for NFTs on the Flow and Tezos blockchains, and plans to support Solana and Polygon in the near future.

With its decentralized spirit and multi-chain support for NFTs, Rarible could be a serious contender in 2022.

Zola

Zora claims to be a proponent of Web 3.0 and decentralization, as it touts its completely “on-chain” permissionless platform.Since Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) tend to follow these principles, the platform has maintained its value in historical purchases of $4 million such as PleasrDAO Buy the original dog meme NFT.

web3 means that ? 1 of the following conditions are met:

– Mostly owned/controlled by the user
– permissionless access/forkable
– Anti-censorship@rainbowdotme is open source -> web3
Coinbase wallet is closed -> not web3@ourZORA Open NFT auction standard -> web3
Offshore?No

-. ? (@nir_III) December 15, 2021

Zora has a zero-fee structure and focuses most of its efforts on being a cornerstone license-free protocol. Many crypto experts are drawn to the idea of ??artists and creators having more autonomy and ownership of their creations. If these issues persist in 2022, Zora could see an influx of new users.

Magic Eden

Magic Eden is currently the top NFT marketplace on the Solana network and according to DappRadar it is ranking Ranked among the top 10 NFT markets with $267.14 million since its launch in mid-September 2021.

The number of unique wallets has rebounded and steadily increased over the past two months, making it a serious contender for OpenSea. While it’s worth noting that users are known to have multiple wallet addresses, this may indicate that unique active users may be declining.

Low transaction fees of 2% give the platform a competitive advantage compared to other marketplaces, and like FTX NFTs, users can list coins for free. As shown in the chart below, the number of transactions on Magic Eden is often double or even triple the number of transactions on OpenSea.

While Magic Eden has higher transaction volumes, the amount per transaction is lower than OpenSea. According to DappRadar, Magic Eden has amassed more than 4.5 million transactions in the past 30 days, while OpenSea processed less than half of that at 1.7 million, but its volume was larger than Magic Eden’s total volume A little more than five times.

As the pace of NFTs is set and digital collectibles continue to become mainstream, 2022 may see a larger crowd whose preferences may not align with OpenSea. With an emphasis on accessibility, governance, and better user experience, these five NFT markets are strong contenders for the lead.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trading move involves risk and you should do your own research when making a decision.