According to a recent report by The Information, Coatue Management, a prominent investment firm, has substantially reduced its investment in the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea.
The stake, previously valued at $120 million, has been marked down to $13 million, causing OpenSea’s overall valuation to dip to $1.4 billion or lower.
Notably, OpenSea achieved a valuation of $13.3 billion in 2022 after successfully raising $300 million during a Series C funding round, which Coatue Management had co-led alongside Paradigm. This marked a significant increase from its $1.5 billion valuation during a $100 million Series B funding round in 2021.
Nevertheless, on November 3, OpenSea’s CEO, Devin Finzer, took to X (Twitter), indicating that the company was recalibrating its strategic priorities. The shift, which emphasizes reliability, technology, and user experience, entails a streamlined approach, resulting in a significant workforce reduction of nearly 50%.
Coatue Management’s decision to mark down its stake extends beyond OpenSea, as it has also done so for MoonPay, a Web3 payment infrastructure company, with a similar reduction of approximately 90%.
The exact reasons behind these stake reductions are not yet publicly disclosed and may be linked to ongoing changes in the NFT market.
Recent trends, however, suggest some positive developments, as November has witnessed a notable surge in NFT sales volumes. Data from Nansen, a leading on-chain analytics tool, indicates a rise in weekly NFT sales from 29,704 ETH (approximately $55 million) on October 9 to 68,342 ETH (about $128 million) by November 6, more than doubling in value.
Despite these recent positive trends, however, the NFT market has not fully rebounded from previous losses, particularly in comparison to the staggering 21,000% surge in sales observed in 2021.
