OpenSea vs SuperRare: Which is The Better NFT Marketplace?

Introduction‍

As technology develops rapidly, it has become increasingly intertwined with our everyday lives. Therefore, it is no surprise that Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are exploding in popularity and sales volumes globally. As a matter of fact, the global NFT sales volume almost touched $25 billion by the end of 2021, compared to just $95 million in 2020. NFTs are regarded by many as the new method of revenue generation, especially for artists and content creators. The magnitude of attention NFTs are attracting is eye-catching, which has led individuals and businesses worldwide to take action.‍

What is an NFT? A Non-fungible Token (NFT) is any non-interchangeable information stored on the blockchain that can be traded. NFTs provide proof of authenticity for any digital or physical asset, and unlike cryptocurrencies, they can not be exchanged or traded at equivalency. Much of the current market is centered around collectibles like sports cards, digital artwork, and rarities. Some of the most hyped projects include CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, and World of Women.‍

But where to buy NFT? As more and more people board the NFT bandwagon, more platforms are popping up to facilitate these new world assets' creation, promotion, and trading. If you have spent time learning about NFTs and finding the best NFT marketplaces, you have great chances to come across big players like OpenSea and SuperRare. While both are NFT marketplaces for creating and trading NFTs, certain key differences exist. Read along as we compare and contrast these two NFT marketplaces to determine which fits you best.‍

About OpenSea‍

Founded in December 2017, OpenSea is one of the leading NFT marketplaces that provides a platform for users to buy or sell NFTs. It all started when the founder duo, Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah, joined NFT related Discord groups after being inspired by CryptoKitties. The pair eventually began working on a platform to buy and sell NFTs. What started as a hobby project made the co-founders the first NFT billionaires by early 2022. To date, as the most popular NFT marketplace, OpenSea boasts over 80 million NFTs.

Not only is OpenSea the first peer-to-peer marketplace and the first peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto-based assets. Since its launch, OpenSea has held the title of the largest general marketplace for user-owned digital items. In its short four-year run, OpenSea has been used by more than 1.3 million users, and at the time of writing, it has a total sales volume of $22.73 billion. To put the enormous sales volume in perspective, OpenSea has a total sale of $21 million in all of 2020. The credit for its huge success goes to the creators and the rest of the OpenSea team; together, they have experience from Facebook, Google, Stanford, Pinterest, and Palantir. 

Like most popular NFT platforms, OpenSea is based on the Ethereum blockchain. However, it is now considered as a cross-chain NFT marketplace that supports both Polygon and Klatyn. The platform is powered by the Wyvern Protocol, a set of robust Ethereum smart contracts used for transactions of digital assets. The platform also hosts a clean and easy-to-use UI, allowing users to sort through millions of digital art pieces to find what they are looking for. Users can search by the type of art and by artist, currency, and specific collectibles. All in all, OpenSea is a great platform to create, sell, and buy digital assets.

About SuperRare‍

Created by John Crain, Charles Crain, and Jonathan Perkins, SuperRare is currently one of the premier NFT marketplaces. So premier that it has been recognized by big names such as Forbes, Vice, Fortune, and the New York Times. The Delaware-based company fosters an environment to showcase exclusive NFT art from talented digital artists. In addition, users can purchase and trade unique and single edition NFTs. The NFTs available on SuperRare are not available anywhere else, and this exclusivity has attracted some serious collectors with some serious cash. 

Launched back in early 2018, SuperRare is a fairly new platform compared to OpenSea. However, the platform has experienced exponential growth, while NFTs exploded in popularity. In early 2020, SuperRare was doing about $100,000 per month, and by the end of 2021, the platform grew to $30 million in sales volume per month. 

SuperRare has digitized the world of traditional art galleries, which has been the company's goal since the beginning. While the platform sees thousands of new collectors every month, SuperRare is sticking to its roots to make it a platform where artists can shine. With a total sales volume of $233 million to date, SuperRare has helped more than 5,800 traders find masterpieces for adding to their collection. 

SuperRare offers two ways in which artists can sell their artwork: instant transactions or auctions. However, for artists to get into SuperRare, they need to be established with contacts, have a portfolio, and most importantly, a selling history. New artists can also submit a form on their website to get on their radar.‍

OpenSea vs SuperRare: Audience

‍The success of any platform comes from targeting the right kind of audience. Similarly, the success of SuperRare and OpenSea comes from tapping into totally different audience bases. While OpenSea is a platform for everyone, SuperRare is much more exclusive.

As the first platform to operate as an NFT market, OpenSea didn't have to focus on a niche, and now it has an extensive collection of digital assets. In addition, anyone can sell an NFT on OpenSea, which is more accessible to individuals. All you need to have is an OpenSea account and a crypto wallet like Metamask, and you are all set to start selling. Most of the hype around OpenSea's trending NFTs comes from active discord servers, which has led to a growth of their supporters.

SuperRare differs from OpenSea in its exclusivity. By entering the NFT marketplace business a bit later than OpenSea. SuperRare is more like a gallery for digital art, and they only collaborate with high-caliber artists to make their website look like an art collection. It compares itself with Christie's, a famous gallery known for its prestigious auctions and private sales. The platform is very selective of who they work with and only adds a few new artists to their database every month. The target buyers generally have a knack for collecting art and have previously collected physical art. ‍

OpenSea vs SuperRare: Supported Currencies‍

Different NFT marketplaces accept different currencies, and if your wallet doesn't support the kind of currency accepted, you would need to pay a conversion fee. While the conversion fee doesn't look like much, adding transaction fee and gas to the mix makes it a pretty significant amount. So before you go on to select your preferred platform, it is essential to have the right kind of wallet with the correct currency. 

SuperRare only allows trade in ether (ETH) and wrapped ether (wETH). The platform also has its own native cryptocurrency, RARE, that was used to create the SuperRare DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization). The RARE token is used to oversee the future of the SuperRare platform by helping make decisions about treasures and how the platform operates. 15% of the total token supply was airdropped to loyal customers in July 2021, and the rest will be mined during platform transactions. However, the future of the RARE token seems slightly concerning. Previously Rarible introduced a similar token, RARI, that led to a tremendous amount of wash trading to generate more tokens. The wash led to the devaluation of the token. 

On the other hand, OpenSea allows trade in ETH/ wETH, DAI, and over 150 Ethereum-based cryptocurrencies. Unfortunately, neither platform allows trade in fiat, bitcoin, or any non-Ethereum based cryptocurrencies. While there has been a great demand for a native token for OpenSea, no announcement has been made yet for the same. However, almost all OpenSea competitors have their governance token, which can pressure them into releasing their own. ‍

OpenSea vs SuperRare: Supported Wallets‍

Digital wallets are integral to any NFT trading platform because it serves to receive or pay cryptocurrency once you have sold or bought an NFT. But, of course, there are also the gas and transaction fees for processing your purchase. 

OpenSea allows transactions in Ethereum, DAI, and a vast number of Ethereum based cryptocurrencies. So obviously, it also supports several cryptocurrency wallets. Apart from MetaMask, which is the recommended and one of the oldest wallets in the space, OpenSea supports:

• Coinbase Wallet
• Dapper wallet
• Trust Wallet
• Portis
• Authereum
• Kaikas
• OperaTouch
• Torus
• WalletConnect
• Formatic
• Bitski
• WalletLink
  

Since SuperRare only supports transactions in Ethereum, the marketplace is only compatible with Ethereum wallets. However, there are plenty of Ethereum wallets that you can choose from:

• MetaMask
• Formatic
• WalletConnect
• Exodus
• Ledger Nano S
• Trezor One
• Mist
  

OpenSea vs SuperRare: Platform, Royalty and Gas Fees

Platform Fees: OpenSea charges a transaction fee of 2.5% on all purchases from the buyer. On the other hand, SuperRare charges a 15% artist gallery commission on all primary sales, followed by a 3% transaction fee on all secondary sales. 

Royalty Fees: OpenSea gives artists the option to choose how much royalty they want to charge on secondary sales, and it is mostly between 5% to 10%. In SuperRare, there is a default 10% royalty levied on all secondary sales. It means that the artist can earn continuously from their work even after it is sold. 

Minting and Gas Fees: OpenSea allows lazy minting where users can upload NFTs to the marketplace without any gas fees until it's sold. However, this concept is not supported on SuperRare, and artists need to pay the gas fee upfront.

OpenSea vs SuperRare: Smart Contract

The OpenSea NFT marketplace works with both ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards, whereas SuperRare only works with ERC-721 smart contracts. ERC-721 is the common standard for Ethereum-based NFTs, where the metadata is stored on the blockchain itself. This makes ownership of digital assets easy to track along with other information. But the gas fees for minting an ERC-721 token are ten times higher than an ERC-1155 token. 

Final Thoughts

If you are a new artist or collector, finding the best platform for you can be challenging. After analyzing and comparing both platforms, OpenSea would be more suitable for new NFT artists or collectors. This is primarily due to the lower fees and larger user-base. You will also find it easier to mint an NFT on OpenSea than on SuperRare. However, if you are an established artist and get accepted in SuperRare, you can easily get discovered on the SuperRare platform. 

That being said, with the growing user base, OpenSea has been subject to significant criticisms recently. Not long ago, the leading NFT marketplace was a victim of a major attack that led to a loss of $200 million worth of NFTs. Despite people claiming it to be a vulnerability on the OpenSea platform, OpenSea CEO claimed it to be a phishing attack. In addition, the NFT ecosystem is riddled with a number of scams, and as a user, you need to tread carefully in this space. For a good head start towards NFT safety.