Without a doubt, August was one of the most consequential months for the non-fungible token (NFT) space. NFT prices and trading volume were bleeding out as Ethereum (ETH) continued to pull back from all-time highs throughout the summer. However, with the resurgence in the crypto markets, the very concept of non-fungible tokens seems more poised for success than ever before. 

The NFT market set new records last month, posting an impressive $3 billion in trading volume — up from $325 million in July — largely thanks to the explosive growth in popularity in projects such as CryptoPunk, BoredApe, and Parallel Alpha, among others. 

Amidst all the frenzy, however, OpenSea, a peer-to-peer NFT marketplace, has emerged as the clear winner. With no other true competitors as of yet, the platform has grown exponentially while nearly monopolizing the still-fledgling NFT space. 

But now, with more revenue to be made than ever before, competition may just have begun to flood in. 

Cryptocurrency Exchange OKEx Unveils Latest NFT Marketplace to Rival OpenSea

Following reports of the NFT space’s historic month, crypto exchange OKEx announced today that it had launched its own platform to mint and trade NFTs.

Offered in the “DeFi” section of its platform, the major exchange will enable users to mint and sell NFTs created on the Ethereum blockchain and OKexChain. On OKeX, users and creators are able to select their own royalty fee.

According to OKEx, its users can move their NFTs from other supported platforms to the OKEx NFT Marketplace and buy, sell or trade their JPEGs with zero commissions or fees paid out to the platform. 

This new feature can be accessed by all OKEx accounts connected to the OKEx Wallet, which is a decentralized wallet offered by the exchange as a browser extension — similar to that of MetaMask. 

As the NFT and DeFi space continues to evolve, OKEx director Lennix Lai stressed the need to develop an effective system that could meet the growing demand, and stated that OKEx’s latest offering would propel further mainstream adoption of non-fungible tokens.

“We’re also thrilled to launch DeFi Dashboard to bring much-needed improvements to users visualizations of their crypto portfolios,” he said.