After a long period of ceding the playing field to Blur, OpenSea has made a spectacular comeback by reclaiming the majority of the NFT trading market share on Ethereum right after announcing the SEA token.

OpenSea's Explosion After SEA Announcement

According to data from The Block, OpenSea's market share has increased sharply to 71.5%, marking an impressive increase from 25.5% on January 26, 2025. In just one week, the platform has broken out from 42.4% to a recent high, regaining the advantage from Blur - a competitor that had dominated since early 2023.

The main driving force behind this breakthrough is the announcement of the SEA token issuance and the airdrop program for loyal users. Just days after the announcement on February 13, OpenSea saw a surge in NFT trading as investors rushed to trade to capture the airdrop rewards.

The impressive numbers

- Daily trading volume: Increased by nearly 1000%, from $3.47 million before the announcement to over $32 million on February 16.

- Daily trading volume: Spiked from 6,100 to over 28,500 in the same period.

These figures show the strong level of fomo in the community for SEA, as many people hope that trading NFTs on OpenSea will help them receive more tokens during the airdrop.

XP mechanism and airdrop farming controversy

Alongside the token announcement, OpenSea also launched the OS2 update with an XP point system. This is the mechanism that determines the amount of SEA tokens that users can receive in the upcoming airdrop. Users can earn XP points through NFT listing or bidding. In particular, high-value and actively traded NFT collections will bring more XP points.

However, the XP system quickly faced criticism from the community. Many people believe that it encourages wash trading - fake trading to accumulate reward points. This can distort the market and cause damage to real NFT creators. In response to the backlash, OpenSea decided to suspend the XP system for review and adjustment.

The future of OpenSea and SEA tokens

Although OpenSea has not announced the details of SEA's tokenomics model, the airdrop information alone is enough to spur a wave of active trading on the platform. This move not only helps OpenSea regain market share but also creates an important stepping stone in the race with other NFT marketplaces.

The launch of the SEA token is considered an important strategy for OpenSea to regain its leading position in the NFT market, when Blur and many other competitors have made strong moves over the past two years. If OpenSea can maintain this growth momentum and properly address the issues related to airdrops, the SEA token can become a driving force for the platform to develop more strongly in the future.