Although NFTs have been around for several years, their popularity exploded during the early days of 2021. OpenSea managed to capitalize on the growing trend by accumulating an estimated ten billion dollars in sales last year. However, the recent launch of LooksRare, a new NFT marketplace, has emerged as stiff competition for OpenSea.
Launched on January 10th, LooksRare is an NFT marketplace that hopes to differ from others by rewarding its users and improving the customer experience. LooksRare says it was founded to give back to the community and create a self-sustaining business that rewards its users. The team has promised it will design and install new features over time, giving LooksRare unique flexibility to respond to its community’s needs. They have racked up $394 million in sales within its first few days.
Rewards and Benefits of LooksRare
LooksRare has already successfully drawn a large number of early adopters through its many rewards. When users create, buy and sell NFTs on its marketplace, they are eligible to earn $LOOKS, a crypto token worth about $4.00 at the time of writing.
Token holders can also stake their $LOOKS, earning more tokens with compounding interest (roughly 1000% APR) and WETH from a portion of the sales transactions. This creates a circular economy. By trading and selling on the LooksRare platform, you earn more money to buy and sell more NFTs. It’s pretty brilliant.
Another way LooksRare is distinguishing itself from the competition is the lower fees. OpenSea is notorious for nickel and diming the NFT experience. It currently charges a 2.5% fee on every sale on the platform, both public and private. LooksRare, however, charges only a 2% trading fee for public trades and offers zero fees on private sales. The difference in fees can add up quickly especially when you look at examples of large sales from projects like the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
LooksRare also offers features that OpenSea does not, like the collection offer, which allows users to make an open bid across an entire collection, rather than having to make individual offers per NFT.
Another announced feature is a trait offer, which would allow for the purchase of any NFT with a specific trait. One of the most exciting yet understated features coming soon is multi-cancellation, which will allow users to cancel multiple listings in a single transaction. This saves gas fees and makes the marketplace more efficient.
The $LOOKS Airdrop
The big draw to the LooksRare platform was the buzz they created with their massive token airdrop. To be eligible for the $LOOKS tokens, users must have bought or sold 3 ETH worth of NFTs on Opensea between June 16th and December 16th of 2021. The minimum number of tokens an eligible wallet can receive is 125, with the maximum being ten thousand. At the current price, this puts the airdrop at a value of anywhere between $500 and $40,000.
In a strategic move to populate its marketplace and get users on the platform, the only way to claim the tokens is to list an NFT for sale on LooksRare. This also minimizes the pool of users receiving free tokens while building hype, buzz, and need for the platform. $LOOKS token is set to grow in value as the platform increases its popularity, so early adopters can be rewarded handsomely for their support of the marketplace.
The Future of LooksRare
The platform launch has not been without its hiccups. The airdrop has already been the target of a thwarted DDoS attack. Some key features, like the ability to sort NFTs in a project according to price, have not been implemented as of yet. This makes the platform feel a bit incomplete. But with a climbing token price, high sales volume, and many NFT users willing to support LooksRare in protest to OpenSea’s poor user experience, the new platform may be here to stay.
