The Solana market for non-fungible tokens (NFT) is starting to take off. Daily transactions on the ecosystem's leading marketplace, Magic Eden, now surpass OpenSea, Ethereum's counterpart.
According to weekly data from DappRadar, Magic Eden has seen about 275,000 daily transactions (which include purchases, bids and listings) compared to OpenSea's 50,000.
At CoinDesk's request, Magic Eden provided data showing that 330,000 real sales (not also bids and listings like the DappRadar data) took place last week; that equates to about 47,000 daily transactions.
However, the number of unique users trading NFTs on each platform remains in favor of OpenSea; in the last 24 hours, Magic Eden hosted 24,000 traders, while OpenSea hosted 41,000, according to DappRadar.
While Magic Eden users transact more than on OpenSea, the lack of top-tier NFT projects on Solana has resulted in a lower overall volume of transactions, even though more transactions have been made.
In terms of capital employed, OpenSea remains far ahead with $35 million in sales volume compared to $10 million on Magic Eden. The average price for an NFT traded on OpenSea was also over $700, well above Magic Eden's average price of $123.
Magic Eden emerges
The difference in how NFT traders interact with the two platforms is likely in part a result of network fees on the different blockchains. At the time of writing, gas fees for buying a single Ethereum-based NFT on OpenSea are around $30, while fees on Solana are less than a cent.
Usage statistics over a 30-day period tell a similar story, although total trader volume on OpenSea is down 1% month-over-month, while it is up 316% on Magic Eden.
On-chain data of this nature can also be misleading, as metrics such as transactions and sales volume are subject to different definitions and even manipulation.
All in all, the NFT market is seeing a shift away from its previous Ethereum dominance, with traders spreading more evenly across alt-chain marketplaces and the average number of user transactions increasing with fewer fees.
OpenSea, of course, offers Solana NFT trading and announced integration in early April. But usage of the platform has so far lagged behind the hype, with Solana NFT sales on OpenSea accounting for about 9% of Magic Eden sales since launch, according to Magic Eden data.