OpenSea Reclaims NFT Crown Despite Market Slowdown

OpenSea also attracted almost 70% of active NFT wallets, according to NFTScan. This resurgence happened after the launch of OpenSea's revamped OS2 platform, hints at a native SEA token, and the favorable resolution of a past SEC investigation. Meanwhile, Polygon NFTs recently turned a few heads by overtaking Ethereum in weekly sales volume, largely thanks to the success of the Courtyard RWA collection.

However, not all projects fared well. RTFKT’s CloneX NFTs faced a major disruption after Cloudflare restricted access to their content, sparking backlash among holders. RTFKT’s leadership has since promised to decentralize CloneX through Arweave. For now, it seems like the broader NFT sector is still under pressure, with several marketplaces, including Bybit and GameStop, shutting down.

OpenSea Surges Back to the Top

OpenSea reclaimed its position as the leading non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace, despite a broader decline in the overall NFT market. According to NFTScan, OpenSea has commanded more than 40% of the trading volume across NFT platforms in the past 30 days. This allowed it to outpace its closest rival Blur, which holds 23% of the market share. Magic Eden and OKX NFTs trail behind with 7.69% and 5% shares, respectively.

NFT marketplace volumes and distribution (Source: NFTScan)

User engagement data also reflects OpenSea's resurgence. Almost 70% of wallets transacting with NFTs in the last month interacted with OpenSea, totaling more than 610,000 wallets. Over a three-month period, this figure surpassed 2.1 million. In stark contrast, Magic Eden, Blur, and OKX NFT together attracted only 103,000 wallets in the past month and a combined 380,000 over the last three months.

30 day wallet distribution (Source: NFTScan)

The platform's renewed dominance happened after certain strategic developments. In late 2024, OpenSea launched its revamped marketplace OS2, after a beta phase that culminated in a public release on Feb. 13, 2025. CEO Devin Finzer hinted that OS2 will “reimagine everything,” and the platform also teased the introduction of its own token, SEA. 

Additionally, OpenSea broadened its scope to include cryptocurrency trading. On April 19, the marketplace opened Solana token trading to all users, bypassing a planned closed beta phase. This includes support for well known Solana-based meme coins like Bonk and Ai16z.

Regulatory clarity also played a role in boosting OpenSea’s position. On Feb. 22, Finzer announced that the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) dropped its investigation into the platform, which certainly helped lift the cloud of uncertainty that hovered over the company.

OpenSea’s gains come at a time when the broader NFT market is experiencing contraction. According to CryptoSlam, NFT sales volume in Q1 of 2025 dropped to $1.5 billion, which is a 61% year-over-year decline from $4.1 billion in Q1 of 2024. However, interest in NFTs is still somewhat evident. 

In the past seven days alone, there were more than 359,000 NFT buyers, reflecting a 52% increase from the previous week. The CryptoPunks collection even saw a massive 82% jump in sales over the same period, and accumulated nearly $20 million in sales volume over the last 30 days.

(Source: CryptoSlam)

Despite the downturn in overall sales, OpenSea's innovations, expanding user base, and regulatory relief suggest that it is well-positioned to lead the next phase of NFT marketplace growth.

Polygon Topped NFT Market

Earlier this week, Polygon-based NFTs climbed to the top of the digital collectible market, fueled by a surge in trading activity. According to NFT data tracker CryptoSlam, Polygon NFTs recorded $22.3 million in sales volume for the seven days ending April 22, surpassing Ethereum’s $19.2 million during the same period. Polygon’s weekly volume accounted for about 24% of the total NFT sales, which reached $92.9 million across all networks.

Top blockchain by weekly sales volume (Source: CryptoSlam)

The increase in Polygon’s dominance was also reflected in user activity, with more than 39,000 NFT buyers recorded for the week. This was an 81% jump compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, Ethereum maintained its position as the second-largest network by sales volume, followed by Mythos Chain with $14.3 million and Bitcoin-based collections with $14.1 million.

The sudden rise in Polygon’s NFT sales was largely driven by the success of a single real-world asset (RWA) NFT collection. RWA tokenization involves minting tangible assets such as art, real estate, or stocks onto a blockchain, enabling broader accessibility and tradability. 

CryptoSlam data indicated that Courtyard NFTs were the primary catalyst behind Polygon’s breakout performance, and generated $20.7 million in sales. It was also able to outperform other well-known NFT projects over the week.

Polygon’s Courtyard NFTs (Source: OpenSea)

The strong showing by an RWA collection is yet more proof that the narrative of tokenizing real-world assets is beginning to reshape the NFT landscape.

CloneX NFTs Return After Cloudflare Blackout

While the past few days have been good for some companies and NFTs, the same can certainly not be said for all of them. More than 19,800 CloneX NFTs that were developed by RTFKT Studios briefly disappeared after Cloudflare restricted access to the content for allegedly violating its terms of service. 

On April 24, users trying to view their CloneX avatars encountered a message from Cloudflare mentioning a terms of service violation. However, RTFKT’s head of tech, Samuel Cardillo, denied that the disruption was due to a missed payment and instead attributed the issue to changes in RTFKT’s existing Cloudflare setup.

(Source: X)

NFT content creator Wale Swoosh suggested that the problem may have stemmed from RTFKT using an inadequate Cloudflare plan that is not optimized for high-traffic image hosting. While some of the NFTs started to reappear, the incident sparked a lot of outrage among CloneX holders, including one individual who reportedly spent $1.25 million on a CloneX avatar.

In response to the disruption, Cardillo announced plans to decentralize CloneX and Animus collections by partnering with ArDrive and migrating the assets to Arweave’s decentralized storage platform. He explained that after April 30, CloneX holders should not experience any more downtime issues. 

Cardillo also shared that he is currently managing all aspects of RTFKT operations single-handedly, after Nike’s decision to shutter RTFKT’s operations in January of 2025. Despite Nike’s ambiguous statement at the time claiming RTFKT would evolve into an ”artifact of cultural revolution,” the studio has seen no major developments since.

The CloneX outage happened amid the broader struggles in the NFT space, with several marketplaces closing in recent months. DraftKings, GameStop, and crypto exchange Bybit have all shut down their NFT platforms. Bybit specifically pointed to the declining NFT trading volumes as the reason for its decision. Similarly, X2Y2 announced that it will close its marketplace by April 30.