OpenSea Business Model — How OpenSea makes money?

Jonas Wald
Cryptocurrency Scripts
9 min readJan 18, 2024

Even after many innovations and creations in the crypto realm, the craze for NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) is still high among users. In this Competitive NFT realm, popular NFT Marketplaces like OpenSea, Blur, Okex, etc are racing to stay on top of the list.

Well, Have you ever wondered about how the OpenSea NFT Platform has taken the spotlight among various platforms?

Everyone says, among other platforms, OpenSea has the highest trading volume, crypto users, and community users. Yet, numbers do not play a major role here. It’s about the features offered by the OpenSea platform. This made OpenSea stand still at the top even after the rise of Blur, OKEX, and many more. OpenSea NFT marketplace competes with other NFT Platforms, on the flip side it also has huge profits. As of December 2022, OpenSea had made nearly $571.1 million with various revenue streams. Amazing, right?

How Does OpenSea Make money?

Being both a top star and a billionaire is not so easy in the dynamic crypto space. If you also want to know the secret of OpenSea’s revenue model, then this blog is designed for you. Scroll through it…

What is OpenSea Business Model?

The OpenSea NFT Marketplace is popular and presently the pioneer of all NFT Marketplaces. Even many may argue that new marketplaces like Blur, and Okex have beaten the various records of the OpenSea platform. Yet, it would not benefit the long-term success of OpenSea to the rising stars like Blur and Okex.

Ok, don’t confuse yourself, I will explain it in a precise way: Picture yourself on an energized dancefloor with a piece of rap music. This would synchronize with the vibrant dance movements of youngsters. Likewise, OpenSea delivers the same energy with numerous NFT collections, cost-efficient transactions, new innovative features, and security protocols for its users. This is the reason OpenSea tops in the NFT Marketplace battle with complete energy.

From my perspective, this has become a triggering point for many startups to choose OpenSea as the Perfect Business Model. So, OpenSea still rules the NFT realm with its strongest ecosystem. Increased user activity in the platform resulted in playing a main role in the marketplace’s success. If you are also eager to leave your footprints in the NFT world, without any secondary thoughts, choose OpenSea as your business model.

OpenSea comprises a unique set of audiences for its exemplary features and functionalities. So, it would be the biggest benefit for you to start your crypto journey with a power-packed business. Then, coming back to the point, when you want to start an unbeatable NFT Marketplace, resources are the important factor.

Hence, for integrating more resources you need a better understanding of the earning streams of the OpenSea platform. So, let’s get through the money-earning context of OpenSea.

How Does OpenSea make money?

Money Making strategies are the biggest and the most needed tricks for an enriched NFT Marketplace. OpenSea analyzed the basic needs of the crypto users and has succeeded in that also. I have included all the possible income streams of the OpenSea NFT Marketplace platform. If you want to integrate more, that’s your wish and convenience.

Revenue Streams of OpenSea NFT Platform

Transaction Fee

We all know that OpenSea is known for providing unique and rare NFT collections for its users. Additionally, it is a generic type of NFT Marketplace. So, users can buy all kinds of non-fungible tokens. Crypto users can trade all types of NFTs at an affordable cost on this platform. Hence, for trading NFTs, a certain amount of fees is collected in the name of Transaction Fees. This is one of the primary revenue streams of the OpenSea NFT Marketplace.

The platform collects nearly 2.5% of service fees for every NFT transaction between the buyer and seller. These are not the exact fees, this may vary according to the NFT collection, the number of NFTs bought, etc. Additionally, the price may vary in the future to increase the trading volume.

Listing Fees

In the ever-changing NFT Marketplace, rare, antique, and vintage non-fungible tokens get users’ attention. In that sense, OpenSea encourages every seller to list the most unique NFT in their platform. So, for listing the non-fungible token in the marketplace, OpenSea collects 0.5 percent of fees.

This is an add-on commission for the OpenSea NFT Marketplace which contributes to most of the revenue. OpenSea uses listing fee for the marketplace’s operational cost.

Premium Fees

Introducing more unique features, user-friendly aspects, and security protocols helps every marketplace to increase its community. Keeping this in mind, OpenSea has introduced ‘OpenSea Pro’ Premium for NFT users. This premium feature is to get the attention of crypto users who want to trade in a bulk manner. This is because the ‘OpenSea Pro’ acts as an NFT aggregator platform for its users.

For your understanding, I will give you a simple explanation. The transaction fee for every NFT in the OpenSea marketplace would be 2.5%. Rather if you are an OpenSea Pro user, you can pay only 0.5% of the transaction fee. Are you wondering how this helps OpenSea to earn money? To utilize this feature, users must pay Premium fees to the marketplace.

As much as the amount of customization, analytics tools, and NFT listings, the plan charges vary. Hence, this is a marketing strategy of the OpenSea marketplace to gain more revenue. Not only revenue but also helped the platform gain more users.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate Marketing is the common business strategy for every budding startup and entrepreneur. By promoting trusted products, and services, startups can earn enough amount. In that sense, OpenSea promotes trendy NFTs, artists, brands, and NFT collections to earn revenue.

With these, it also collaborates with popular NFT collectors or people to promote its services broadly. Based on the NFTs, OpenSea collects commission fees or revenue share. Hence, this Affiliate Marketing is considered as an additional income for the OpenSea platform.

Minting Fees

For Crypto users who want to tokenize their digital art, vintage collection, or sketch into an effective non-fungible token, OpenSea offers the minting option. With this feature, users can convert their art into a unique NFT. The Minting Fees is designed based on blockchain network fees, and platform fees. OpenSea NFT Marketplace collects a minimum of $1 to $1000 based on the digital asset to be tokenized.

As the minting process is the crucial step for entering into the NFT realm, OpenSea offers various features for that. In the year 2022, users suffered from the excessive gas fees for creating NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. To remove this circumstance, the OpenSea marketplace helps its users cover all the Ethereum gas fees with a bundle feature.

Gas Fees

The gas fees for creating NFTs, listing them in the platform, and making NFT purchases would directly contribute to the revenue. Rather, this helps to increase the ecosystem and community of users for OpenSea. For instance, to create a top-notch non-fungible token, the creator needs to pay gas fees for the miners. When one creates NFT in the Ethereum blockchain, they are expected to pay more fees.

Hence, to rectify these problems, OpenSea started to support the layer 2 solutions of the Polygon, Polkodot, and many other blockchains. Through this, users started to create an NFT at an affordable cost with reliable features.

Seller/Buyer Fees

The OpenSea NFT Marketplace would collect fees from both the NFT buyer and seller. This is also a revenue stream for the OpenSea Platform. The seller fees are calculated based on the sale price of the non-fungible token. This fee is directed as a commission fee to the OpenSea platform. The same applies to the NFT buyer and the fees are redirected to the OpenSea marketplace.

Through these various ways, OpenSea NFT Marketplace earns its revenue in a full-fledged way. Also, OpenSea platform integrates additional revenue streams as per the NFT market trend and user needs. Hence, from this, it is evident that OpenSea would stand still in height among NFT Marketplaces.

This is the only reason that made many startups and entrepreneurs choose the OpenSea NFT Marketplace as their Crypto Business model.

The higher the revenue streams, the higher the chances of getting fame in the game-changing crypto world. It is essential to launch the NFT Marketplace like OpenSea, as soon as possible to reap more profits. At the same time, it is important to develop an NFT Marketplace within your business budget.

Don’t worry! Where there is a will, there is a way.

The way is nothing but getting an OpenSea Clone script from a reputed NFT Marketplace development company. This clone software is a complete replication of the trading, revenue streams, features, functions, and effective back-end features of OpenSea. They are already well-developed, completely designed, and pre-coded software that takes only 15 days to 1 month to launch a complete and functional platform.

My primary suggestion for you is to pick a leading NFT Marketplace development company to purchase this OpenSea clone software.

Ok, if you are still in the dilemma of choosing OpenSea as your business model. Let me share the important facts of OpenSea’s current earnings, which may make you convinced to start an NFT Marketplace business now!

Approximate Earnings of OpenSea NFT Platform

Being a pioneer in the crypto realm, OpenSea’s journey is filled with more ups and downs. Starting the NFT Marketplace with only 4000 users, now OpenSea has over 2.5 million users all over the world (as of 2022). As OpenSea has started its crypto journey before the hype of NFTs, they are unbeatable even today.

In the year 2021, OpenSea generated the highest revenue of $365 million. And in 2022, OpenSea had the highest trading volume of $2 billion. The revenue accelerated the hype, fame, and popularity of OpenSea among crypto users. Year by year, the OpenSea NFT platform is focusing on providing numerous NFT collections for its users.

As per Layman’s data, nearly 80 million different NFTs are listed on the platform. The platform itself officially announced its worth in the market value. They have estimated the market value as $13.3 billion in 2022. This is 6* times higher than their previous market value. The marketplace is popular not only in a certain region, but they have a global set of potential investors.

Here is the glimpse of data for the traffic contribution of each country to the OpenSea NFT Marketplace.

Country Wise Traffic for OpenSea Website

Hence, the OpenSea NFT Marketplace is still popular among crypto users, who are reaping the highest revenue. If you want to reap more profit with a potential startup idea, then the OpenSea platform would be the best business model. Undoubtedly, even after many years, OpenSea would be the unbeatable power of the NFT realm.

Now that you have enough knowledge about OpenSea’s revenue ways, you will be curious what might be its future? Let me share my point on that too. So that you can proceed with your business confidently!!

Future of OpenSea NFT Marketplace

From the statistics, it is evident that the OpenSea NFT platform will rule the crypto realm for many more years.

‘Crypto world is the place of unpredictables’.

OpenSea NFT Marketplace is a great example in which it has been introduced without any expectations. But, see today they are the king of the NFT realm. If you want to develop your NFT Marketplace, then you can take this as your business model. Many argue that presently Blur and Okex are dominating the OpenSea platform with their trading volume. Yet, only with the numbers one cannot beat OpenSea. The platform is rooted in the minds of many NFT-enthusiastic users. So, better go with the idea of taking the OpenSea marketplace as your model.

Finally, this is the right time to seal your deal. As I said earlier, its my primary suggestion to choose the best OpenSea clone script from a reputable script provider. But..

How to find the Reputed OpenSea Clone Script Provider?

I suggest you find a renowned OpenSea Clone Software Provider by analyzing various factors. Like their portfolio, years of experience, and developer team. Through this, you can pick the best OpenSea Clone to build your NFT Marketplace. As per your business wish and needs, you can customize the features, front-end, back-end, trading options, functionalities, & security protocols. You can do these processes within a short span and launch as soon as possible.

If you want to stay ahead of 99 people, you need to do the things that the 99 of them fear to do.

If you want to build a long-term successful empire, then fear not to take the risk. So, with that, we’re done uncovering the blog here. As mentioned earlier, choose the best development company and launch your dream NFT Marketplace project. Seize the opportunity soon!!!

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Jonas Wald
Cryptocurrency Scripts

I’ve been exploring and helping people to figure various aspects for one to build an empire based on the blockchain technology and crypto.