OpenSea unveils Solana NFT launchpad

OpenSea, the most popular NFT marketplace, announced rolling out the Solana launchpad to allow creators to host a new mint from beginning to end on the NFT marketplace. The launch is part of OpenSea’s plans for a “multi-chain future” to enable access to NFTs across different blockchains.

According to its blog post, OpenSea will guide creators to navigate all pre-mint activities, and allowlist minting for their community and supporters, in addition to all post-mint and secondary sales. OpenSea aims to develop “the best Solana experience” in the NFT ecosystem by allowing users to have custody of their NFTs.

“We’re excited to start this program with two Solana creators as part of our launchpad experience. We are excited to launch and learn with these first drops, and we’re committed to expanding primary drops on OpenSea,” the statement read.

The NFT giant has been one of the top beneficiaries of the bull run that transpired in 2020 and 2021. OpenSea managed to score hundreds of millions in investor dollars at a $13.3 billion valuation.

However, after the significant depression in the crypto market, several top industry players chopped their headcount to prepare for the crypto winter. OpenSea was no exception, as the marketplace announced laying off 20% of its workforce last week.

This move comes three months after OpenSea activated support for Solana. This April, the NFT marketplace confirmed that it will start listing Solana NFTs. Solana became the third layer-1 and fourth blockchain network whose NFTs can trade on OpenSea (the previous three being Ethereum, Polygon, and Klaytn).