Newly Launched NFT Market Place LooksRare Is Hot on the Heels of OpenSea

Following a surge in NFT activity, it was only a matter of time before a new player entered the NFT market place.

Going into the New Year, OpenSea has been the main player in the NFT market place. News had hit the wires earlier this week that the NFT market place had seen $2.1bn in NFT sales within the first 10-days of the year. In 2020, NFT trading volume had reportedly been just $21.7m. Forecasts are for OpenSea’s transaction volumes to reach $6bn for January alone. In 2021, NFT trading volume had reportedly hit $14bn.

LooksRare Enters the NFT Space to Compete with OpenSea

News hit the wires this week of a new player entering the NFT space. LooksRare launched this year and has already seen trading volumes rocket.

Key to drawing interest from the NFT market is a more favorable fee structure and an attractive rewards program for buyers and sellers as well as for creators.

• Buying or selling NFTs awards users with LOOKS tokens.
• LOOKS stakers earn all trading fees and can earn up to 828.07% APR by staking LOOKS tokens.
• Royalty payments are made to creators upon the sale of an NFT.

Other features of the platform include:

• Buyers can make an offer covering an entire NFT collection.
• Users are able to make an offer to buy NFTs that have particular characteristics, e.g., BAYC w/ Gold Fur.
• Additionally, LooksRare enables multi-cancellation. Users may cancel multiple orders in a single transaction.

Since launch, LooksRare has reportedly seen daily trading volumes in excess of $390m.

At the time of writing, the Meebits collection was at the top of the LooksRare NFT market place, with Loot at #2 and CryptoPhunksV2 at #3. Bored Ape Yacht Club sat at #9.

Regulatory Oversight

Following recent hacks and rug pulls on the OpenSea market place, greater interest from regulators has picked up. This is largely due to the rapid growth in the NFT space. When considering the current size of the crypto market and lack of a global regulatory framework, early oversight may therefore be more likely for the NFT market.

Earlier in the week, news had hit the wires of India’s central bank creating a FINTECH division to keep pace with evolution of the crypto market. India’s regulator is not just planning on looking at exchanges, but also NFTs and new crypto launches.

The RBI is unlikely to be alone, with certain areas of the U.S government and the UK’s Bank of England keen to roll out a global regulatory framework. Aligned with the Bank of England is the IMF, which also raised concerns over cryptos and the risks that cryptos pose to the global financial markets.