The NFT community has been hollering for an OpenSea token, as well as a functioning marketplace, since its inception.
The site is constantly down, fees are high, and there are no rewards for its users. Never mind the bug issues they’ve had in the past. Yet still, they constantly had the highest market share and total volume in the space.
Until this week. In walks LooksRare.org to the scene.
#LooksRare NFT Marketplace Now Live!
🪂 $LOOKS airdrop claim open
⏰ Staking starts at block 13977012
💰 Trading reward calculations start tomorrowLFG! 💎👀https://t.co/Y1jt9Kmqt6
— LooksRare 👀💎 – NFT Marketplace (@LooksRareNFT) January 10, 2022
Recently, the community has taken it into their own hands instead of waiting for OS to fix their platform. First announced in September of last year, LooksRare has been in the works for a while. The site launched to the public on January 10th of this year, with an interesting twist for users.
Anyone who had traded over 3 ETH in volume on OpenSea and posted a sale on LooksRare was eligible for a $LOOKS airdrop. (This is still open by the way. Connect your wallet to the website here to see if you’re eligible!)
Additionally, holders can stake $LOOKS directly on the platform for a share of trading fees made by the platform. Currently, APR for staking is at 962% and compounds automatically.
What Sets LooksRare Apart?
This new community-run marketplace has a lot of features not yet seen on the most popular platforms. This includes:
- Buy and sell NFTs in ETH, WETH, or a mix of both
- Make offers on NFTs in WETH
- Make an offer on all NFTs in a selected collection: “Collection Offers”
- Earn daily trading rewards
- Earn a share of the platform’s trading fees by staking your $LOOKS
Nearly $6.6M USD in $WETH fees collected today so far.
Just under 6 hours left of this trading period. $LOOKS rewards for the same period are currently worth around $12M USD.
What're you trading?
👀💎 https://t.co/zxhULIq0af pic.twitter.com/x2WrxP2SWV
— LooksRare 👀💎 – NFT Marketplace (@LooksRareNFT) January 13, 2022
The platform also only takes a 2% fee from each transaction. Where this marketplace really sets itself apart is that 100% of these fees go back to their users. Users receive $LOOKS for buying and selling NFTs, and by staking for WETH and $LOOKS rewards. Additionally, creator royalties are paid instantly. This is opposed to competitors, like OpenSea, who can take up to a month to pay these fees.
Wash Trading Galore Causing Inflated Numbers?
Not even a full week after release, the system has already been gamed. When incentives are tied to monetary rewards, people will look for ways to farm these incentives/rewards. Projects like Meebits, for example, have 0% royalties on their transactions. Users could, in theory, trade these collections back and forth between wallets, generating $LOOKS rewards.
Meebit sold for 14,700 ETH on LooksRare.
I do hope they tackle washtrading rather than embrace it. This user can be blacklisted and lose out all that ETH from the 2% fee, and I don't think he will ever try it again. pic.twitter.com/keTwkZigqd
— Loopify 🧙♂️ (@Loopifyyy) January 12, 2022
soooo we just gonna ignore all the Meebits washtrading on LooksRare to manipulate trading rewards orrr…? pic.twitter.com/bik6699YGH
— djo.eth (@dylanorrelI) January 11, 2022
With these trades going on, is this volume accurate?
According to dune analytics, on January 11, LooksRare’s single-day transaction volume exceeded $322 million, surpassing OpenSea’s $142 million. LooksRare can trade NFTs on Ethereum chains, and has introduced transaction mining rewards to subsidize users. pic.twitter.com/RldsEdi9Tt
— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) January 12, 2022
This is something to watch with this platform, and something to consider when looking at sales volumes and floor prices. Go take a look through the Meebits sales activity and see if there is anything fishy going on. Every sale is 1000%-3000% over floor price, and all offers are in WETH (meaning they are custom P2P offers). Some call this yield farming; some call this wash trading. How LooksRare handles this is, in my opinion, the most pivotal issue they’ve faced so far. Either the platform turns into an overinflated mess, or it turns into a platform that puts its customers before individual profits.
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