OpenSea CEO Says Era of ‘Pure Collectible NFTs’ Is Over

Earlier this year, artists such as Beeple made headlines for earning hefty sums through the sale of digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace by trading volume, was a beneficiary of these types of sales, handling $3.4 billion in transactions last month alone. 

Now Devin Finzer, CEO and co-founder of OpenSea, expects a shift to take place in the market for digital collectibles: artists and performers will increasingly sell NFTs paired with real-world perks or virtual experiences.

“The days of just pure collectible NFTs, without some sort of interesting layer on top of that, are certainly over,” Finzer said in an interview from New York. “With these future projects, there has to be something else associated with it. There has to be some reason to be excited about it.”