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NFTs are unique assets that can’t be replaced with something else and are verified and stored using blockchain technology. They can include everything from music to a website domain, but the current craze is really around digital artwork.
They operate, unlike the other regular cryptocurrencies or tokens. The regular crypto coins and tokens are fungible. This means that the Bitcoin in the possession of one person isn’t any different from the Bitcoin in the possession of another person. They can easily be interchanged.
That is not the case with NFTs. The NFT with one person is unique and can never be held by another person unless it is transferred between the two parties. Over the past few months, the NFT space has experienced massive growth.
In the third quarter of the year, the total transaction volume of NFTs topped the $10 billion mark for the first time in history. This represents a 704% increase from the previous quarter when the tally was under $2 billion. Much of that growth came from popular blockchain-based video games that use NFT collectibles, with names like Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.
As a result of the surge in the transaction volume of NFTs, more companies are entering the space. One of the companies is Yearn.Finance.
Andre Cronje, the man responsible for the creation of Yearn, has launched an NFT marketplace in a bid to compete with the market leaders OpenSea. The platform, dubbed, Artion, is the latest NFT marketplace to be launched in the space following the impressive growth recorded over the past few months.
The Artion platform has gone live on the Fantom blockchain in beta. Although it resembles OpenSea in terms of appearance and functionality, it has a few differences. Unlike OpenSea, the Artion platform does not accept payment in exchange for services.
By launching its marketplace on the Fantom blockchain, Artion hopes to attract more digital artists and users to its platform. On Fantom, it only costs 1 FTM (approximately $1.1) to issue an NFT, which will support the same ERC-721 tokens as OpenSea. Minting NFTs on the Ethereum network costs a lot of money, thanks to the high gas fees on the blockchain. This is a key advantage of the Artion marketplace over OpenSea.
Artion has some features that make it an enticing marketplace. Its NFTs are stored on decentralized web hosting network IPFS, won’t be larger than 15MB, and are priced according to feeds from decentralized oracle network Chainlink. With Artion on the Fantom blockchain, it is faster and cheaper than the Ethereum-based OpenSea.
The NFT space has grown massively over the past few months. Some of the leading companies in the crypto space, including Coinbase, Binance and FTX.US, have launched NFT marketplaces. This is expected to increase the competition within the NFT space.
However, OpenSea remains the largest NFT marketplace in the world. It currently accounts for more than 60% of the total transaction volume of the NFT sector. OpenSea has captured most of the market and could dominate for a few months or years.
The likes of Artion are expected to provide stiff competition to OpenSea in the coming months. However, a major drawback of the Artion NFT platform is its lack of selection. At the moment, Fantom NFTs make up the vast majority of Artion’s NFT population (more than 50,000).
The NFT space has experienced tremendous growth in recent years. However, Ethereum remains the leading project on the ecosystem. Most of the popular NFT projects are built on Ethereum. However, Artion’s current collection may be expanded in the near future.
Cronje is looking to list more NFTs from other blockchains on his Artion marketplace. First on Cronje’s list of blockchains to integrate into his marketplace are Ethereum, Avalanche, Polygon, and Arbitrum; he intends to add one additional blockchain every week.
The Solana and Cardano blockchains have also been gaining traction in the NFT space. Over time, the Artion marketplace will support more NFTs developed and launched on those blockchains. The ultimate goal for Artion is to surpass OpenSea and become the number one NFT marketplace in the world.
Artion has a lot of work to do if it is to attain that status and overtake OpenSea as the number one NFT marketplace in the world. In addition to OpenSea, Artion will face tough competition from other marketplaces, including Rarity. Binance NFT, Coinbase NFT and the FTX.US NFT platforms.
While the first half of the year saw NFTs grabbing headlines with multimillion-dollar artwork sales, the third quarter NFT trendsetters have been collectible avatars such as Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks.
Artion will also need to focus more on the unique set of NFTs if it wants to provide stiff competition to the likes of OpenSea.