OpenSea Launches Solana Integration

Last month, it was speculated that OpenSea, one of the biggest NFT marketplaces in the world, was planning to move forward with Solana integrations. This move would mean that NFTs minted on the Solana blockchain could be listed and bought on the platform. While there was no official confirmation outside of a few teases at the time, it made headlines across the NFT space. 

Now, it seems all those speculations were correct as at April 6, 2022, OpenSea formally confirmed that Solana-based NFTs are now supported in beta mode. In view of this, OpenSea created an official FAQ page to answer all Solana-related questions. 

Solana on the OpenSea

According to the official announcement of Solana’s listing, a number of factors contributed to the decision to approve the integration, including its transaction speeds and gas fees.

“Solana’s low gas fees and fast transaction speeds make NFTs accessible to all. And, an OpenSea, you don’t have to choose between liquidity and control – when you list, your NFTs stay in your wallet until they’re sold,” the announcement said. 

According to the OpenSea help centre, the current beta version means there will be some restrictions on how Solana-based assets can be used. 

For starters, while users can buy and list Solana NFTs with a fixed price, auctions are not yet supported for them. In total, OpenSea currently supports 165 Solana-based collections, though hundreds of thousands of NFTs have been minted on the blockchain thus far.  

Additionally, Solana NFTs that have been bought from collections that are still in the minting phase might not be visible on OpenSea. Users can, however, transfer and view Solana-based NFTs. 

All these issues are expected to be sorted out over time by OpenSea. Fans of Solana have been petitioning OpenSea to support assets based on the blockchain for a long time now and this victory will certainly be a welcome one, hiccups aside. 

The Larger Implication 

While Solana lovers have been excited at this news, the integration of assets based on the blockchain to OpenSea has much wider implications. For a long time, OpenSea was an Ethereum-focused, platform, mostly listing NFTs that were minted on it, along with Polygon and Klatyn.

The issue with this is that Solana is the second-largest blockchain by NFT volume. And with one of the biggest NFT marketplaces not listing assets from Solana, some market division was created. Now that Solana is listed on OpenSea, the platform can play host to popular collections like DeGods and Aurory and can further increase its influence in the industry.

For NFT buyers, this means they don’t have to shop on multiple platforms to get assets minted on the Ethereum and Solana blockchain. For the NFT space as a whole, this could be seen as a sign of cohesion. 

The sector is on its way to becoming even bigger and as it does, consumers will not want to have large marketplaces that list one type of NFT and not the other. But since an industry leader like OpenSea has taken such a bold step, others may follow.