⛔ Deal-killer

GM — is it still cool to say that? 

I’ll be speaking on the X Space “Gamified” today, talking about the gaming industry more broadly, plus touching on a few specific crypto titles like Sparkball and The Bornless.

We’ve also got some news on what’s happening with OpenSea and Sui.

— Kate Irwin

OpenSea kills ‘Deals,’ sparking trader concern

Not all OpenSea users are happy about its plans to kill some features, as the company sets a date for its newly-launched OS2 to fully replace its predecessor.

OS2, which primarily splits users into “Collectors” and “Pros,” was first teased back in November but saw its full public launch late last month. 

In a post, OpenSea revealed yesterday that it won’t rollover all OS1 features to the latest marketplace version and will sunset OS1 come June 16, giving traders no choice but to use OS2. 

Deals, English auctions, testnet support, and the Shopping Cart feature are all going away in less than a week from now. OpenSea said in its post that Deals and English auctions simply weren’t being used by enough traders to justify making those features part of OS2.

“While there are no immediate plans to bring this functionality into the new OpenSea, we plan to listen to feedback and could decide to include it in a future product roadmap,” the crypto firm said of Deals.

On Crypto Twitter, I tracked over a dozen users specifically taking issue with OpenSea ditching the Deals feature. Deals was first launched back in July 2023 and was advertised as a way to do custom, make-your-own deals like three NFTs for one NFT plus some ETH, for example, without having to risk it in the DMs.

“Without a ‘Deals’ feature (which isn’t available in V2) it poses major scam risks for collectors,” wrote one trader.

“I loved using the 'Deals' feature—it was fun, engaging, and led to plenty of interesting trades,” explained another.

“We need [the] deals feature to keep us safe please,” added NFT artist Justin Aversano.

A response from OpenSea CMO Adam Hollander added another layer to the reasons behind the feature’s shutdown.

“The functionality simply doesn't work with ERC 721-C contracts where royalties are enforced,” he said of Deals. “As more and more of these contracts have been deployed, the product felt increasingly broken and inconsistently useful.”

Hollander emphasized, however, that OpenSea will continue to encourage — and listen to — user feedback as they update the marketplace.

OpenSea’s Deals feature is still unique among NFT marketplaces and caters to traders looking to swap more than just one NFT for some crypto. 

Deals has also been home to some strange blockchain incidents, like when one collector apparently lost his Bored Ape in an $80,000 whoopsie.

But not everyone’s against OpenSea killing Deals. Yuga Labs Director of Art Eli Scheinman argued that the decision actually “makes a lot of sense.”

“It is a relatively niche product feature used mostly for high-end art. This will be a continued trend — marketplaces will have to get more verticalized and focus on specific user audiences,” Scheinman said.

Originally launched on Ethereum, OpenSea has been expanding its scope in other areas lately, with an increased focus on adding support for more and more blockchains, plus Solana memecoins and crypto gaming assets. 

Ethereum NFT trading volumes have largely stagnated so far this year following a short-lived surge in February. This month so far, OpenSea has seen anywhere from roughly $1.4 million to $2.4 million in daily ETH NFT volume traded.

The NFT industry more broadly is facing pressure to shake up strategies as total annual sales last year were down 62% from 2022 all-time highs.

Permissionless IV is the definitive gathering for crypto's technical founders and builders.

Infra, incentives, interop, enterprise: It’s all on the table. If you're building for scale, or trying to fix what’s broken, you’ll want to be in Brooklyn.
 
📅 June 24–26 | Brooklyn

SUI spot ETF goes under review

Financial firm 21Shares is looking to add another crypto ETF to its existing pair. A Sui spot ETF is in the works.

The Nasdaq has now filed form 19b-4 with the SEC regarding the proposed ETF. That means the ETF is being considered, and the SEC is open to comments.

21Shares is behind the existing Bitcoin Spot ETF ARKB and the Ethereum Spot ETF CETH.

For those less familiar with crypto ETFs, it’s worth noting that these funds maintain exposure to their namesake tokens but don’t speculate on price or actively trade them.

SUI is the 15th-largest cryptocurrency by market cap despite only being a few years old (its price is up 246% in the past year, but down about 14% in the past month). The Sui mainnet launched in 2023.

Sui, which I’ve primarily known as a gaming-focused blockchain until recently, has been expanding into the infrastructure and institutional spaces. Sui builder Mysten Labs’ decentralized storage protocol Walrus is just one example of that. 

That said, Sui has continued its gaming push too with an upcoming handheld console, the SuiPlay0x1, that can natively run both crypto and non-crypto games. Hardware is a risky play, but I’m looking forward to seeing how it’s received.

Prediction markets are, essentially, gambling. But this isn’t what crypto really needs right now.