How NFT Marketplaces Adapted to Survive in 2025

NFT mania will be a distant memory in 2025. In 2021 and early 2022, Beeple was selling jpegs for 1 yen. $69.3 millionCryptoPunks aimed to tens of millionsand celebrities kept peeking at it boring ape yacht club.

Cumulative NFT market capitalization fell 99% from its all-time high of $184 billion in 2023 to just $487 million. coin market cap. In what is now a relatively barren wasteland, NFT marketplaces have been forced to adapt, with giants in the space such as OpenSea and Magic Eden expanding their offerings to include fully fungible tokens.

“This move is primarily a response to the structural slowdown in pure NFT activity and the need for marketplaces to protect their relevance in a maturing digital asset ecosystem,” said James Butterfill, head of research at the asset manager. coin sharesaid decryption. “In such an environment, a market that once thrived on high-velocity transactions in profile photo collections now requires a broader economic base.”

In this way, the open sea announced In February of this year, it underwent a “complete re-platforming” to include cross-chain token trading through its platform. Unique decentralized exchangeor DEX.

This new era of the platform, called OS2, has enabled token trading across 19 blockchains with a new reward system called “OS2”.voyage” has been speculated by many to play a role in the anticipated SEA token launch.

“Adding the token was not about pivoting to focus on the NFT market,” said Adam Hollander, CMO of OpenSea. decryption. “This is an evolution of the company and an understanding of where things are going. Tokens, digital collectibles, tokenized real-world assets, PERP, prediction markets, whatever people are valuing online, we want to make it all tradeable on OpenSea.”

In October, OpenSea achieved a new record for DEX trading volume with monthly trading volume reaching $2.41 billion. But that standout month turned out to be an anomaly, with monthly trading volume rebounding 75% in November to $581.48 million. Defilama.

Uniswap's revenue is approximately $80 billion in November monthly volume.

Magic Eden Marketplace Acquires Meme Coin Trading App slingshot In April, Magic Eden will be moving to the world of . Non-NFT transactions. Magic Eden also offers multi-chain token trading. the site Through the wallet app. But Magic Eden said. decryption Expansion into token trading is no big deal.

“Token trading is not a real focus or a significant proportion of our business,” said Chris Akhaban, chief business officer at Magic Eden. decryption. “The market is incredibly commoditised, with a plethora of wallets, trading apps, DEXs, (centralized exchanges), etc. that meet the needs of users looking to trade tokens.”

CoinShares' Butterfill said that despite Magic Eden's shyness, the platform is “more proactive” than OpenSea when it comes to integrating token trading, particularly when it comes to working with the Solana-based gaming ecosystem. Analysts now view Magic Eden as an “application layer” of digital culture, which expands its “strategic identity” and no longer focuses solely on NFTs.

“This change allowed (both) platforms to stabilize engagement numbers and diversify fee income during a year when traditional NFT trading volumes remained subdued,” Butterfill said. decryption. “In that sense, the adaptation has been successful.”

“For marketplaces to be successful in the long term, they will need to provide users with structural differentiation or seamless integration between NFTs and token rails that cannot be easily replicated elsewhere. That is still an open question.”

that's entertainment

That said, Magic Eden is focused on what the company calls “crypto entertainment,” rather than token trading, Akhavan said. The first of these products is pack platformThis allows users to open virtual packs containing real-world assets (currently Pokemon cards). There are also other packs for NFTs.

“We've already sold tens of millions of packs and we have a big roadmap ahead of us for this product,” Akhavan said. decryption. “Puck is just the beginning of the broader crypto entertainment ecosystem we are building.”

As part of this broader push, dangerousabout crypto casinos and sportsbooks, Akhavan kept details to a minimum, but said: decryption That means it will be a “major new product.” He added that Magic Eden aims to become “the world's largest crypto entertainment brand.”

“In the broader digital asset landscape, both platforms are moving toward the role of cultural fluidity hubs that sit between creators, collectors, and token communities,” Butterfill explained. “Its success will depend on whether these cultural economies continue to expand and whether users see them as essential infrastructure rather than an optional front end.”