LooksRare Dangles Carrot for OpenSea NFT Collectors
opinion

LooksRare Dangles Carrot for OpenSea NFT Collectors

THELOGICALINDIAN - LooksRare hopes the airdrop will attract OpenSea users

LooksRare launched with an airdrop today. The NFT exchange is aiming to booty on OpenSea.

LooksRare Targets OpenSea Users

A new NFT exchange is acquisitive to topple OpenSea’s cartel over the space.

LooksRare launched today with an airdrop for OpenSea users. The platform’s LOOKS badge was broadcast to anyone who traded at atomic 3 ETH (worth about $9,100 at columnist time) on OpenSea amid 16 Jun. and 16 Dec., 2021. Per its tokenomics page, the airdrop accounts for 12% of the absolute accumulation of 1 billion.

Dune Analytics data shows that 185,223 Ethereum addresses are acceptable to affirmation amid 125 to 10,000 LOOKS tokens based on their trading volume. Soon afterwards it opened for trading on Uniswap, the LOOKS badge ailing at $4.71 afore cooling to about $1.75.

The airdrop is crypto’s latest “vampire attack,” a cardinal move in which a activity aims to allure users from a arch competitor. Projects usually backpack out vampire attacks by alms incentives such as tokens in hopes of alluring liquidity.

LooksRare is not the aboriginal activity that has attempted a vampire advance on OpenSea via an airdrop. In October, addition NFT exchange alleged Infinity launched an airdrop for OpenSea traders that met assertive accommodation conditions. However, it bootless to accretion cogent absorption afterward its launch.

LooksRare says it will accolade users on an advancing basis. Besides the antecedent airdrop, users will be able to acquire LOOKS badge rewards for trading absolute collections. Furthermore, anniversary transaction will backpack a 2% trading fee that will be paid to users who pale LOOKS tokens. By contrast, OpenSea takes a 2.5% cut from every transaction rather than advantageous annihilation aback to the end user.

Although several marketplaces like SuperRare, Foundation, and Zora accept benefited from growing absorption in NFTs, OpenSea was the big champ of the 2021 boom. It clocked about $14 billion in trading aggregate over the advance of the year. However, admitting its success, OpenSea has additionally appear beneath blaze from the NFT association for assorted reasons. In September, it suffered a above PR blooper back its again arch of artefact was caught application cabal advice to accumulation on NFTs listed on the marketplace. Following that, in aboriginal December, it faced a angry backfire back its new CFO Brian Roberts hinted that the close was because activity public. Many NFT association associates had hoped that OpenSea would decentralize the activity by ablution a badge with an airdrop for aboriginal users, but the IPO affairs appropriate otherwise.

As OpenSea currently has no token, it can not action incentives to users like decentralized projects can. That leaves amplitude for competitors like LooksRare to thrive. Whether it will accomplish charcoal to be seen.

Disclosure: At the time of autograph this feature, the columnist endemic ETH and several added cryptocurrencies.