OpenSea

In December 2021, OpenSea appointed Brian Roberts, the former CFO of Lyft, as the NFT Platform’s first CFO. Roberts said while he “loves Lyft”, the growth in web3 companies and in particular in OpenSea’s marketplace for NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, made it an easy choice. Roberts previously worked at Microsoft and Walmart. Roberts, known for shepherding Lyft through rapid growth to a successful IPO and adjusted profitability, noted that OpenSea was already profitable. Brian Roberts thinks that although it doesn’t need to raise more cash, it could use the financing to acquire companies, strike partnerships and create joint ventures to further expand the use of NFTs into new industries.

“I’ve seen a lot of P&Ls (profit and loss statements) but I’ve never seen a P&L like this,” said Roberts, adding that although he still feels it’s “day one” for the NFT industry in general and OpenSea in particular, he’s already planning its IPO. “When you have a company growing as fast as this one, you’d be foolish not to think about it going public,” he said. It “would be well-received in the public market given its growth.”

The intention to go public has received significant backlash from the OpenSea community, who argue this would in effect be a ‘recentralization’ event, which goes against the founding principle of decentralization that many crypto natives hold true. 

While Brian Roberts clarified that the IPO would not occur in the short-term, this series of events begs the question of how truly decentralised many crypto applications will be going forward. There are of course decentralised-friendly fundraising alternatives for companies like OpenSea. Most prominently is the use of ICOs, allowing firms to issue tokens instead of stock to raise capital. Similarly, airdrops have become extremely popular in 2021. This occurs when a token is launched by issuing free tokens to a project’s early adopters. The firm is then able to raise capital via the token’s price appreciation. 

Sure there is another opinion: an IPO may help with NFT adoption and public awareness.

09/2022 10:1

The share prices are adjusted to 10:1 due to the shares split. The weighted average price per share is given.