OpenSea chief says FTX collapse offers an opportunity to reshape the industry

The collapse of the FTX exchange was a “tragic event” for the industry, but it also opened an opportunity to restructure it with a focus on trust and further decentralisation. OpenSea NFT marketplace CEO Devin Finzer said this in an interview with Decrypt.

“We are all feeling the collateral damage across the industry. There is no doubt that this is a setback for the crypto industry,” he said.

According to Finzer, the NFT platform did not interact with FTX or Alameda Research, the trading company affiliated with it.

However, according to Crypto Fund Research, the bankruptcy of the exchange affected about 25-40% of industry structures. According to court documents, FTX and related companies owed $3.1 billion to the 50 largest creditors.

“I think this crisis is a real opportunity for the broader crypto ecosystem and, in particular, for NFT to invest in strong and lasting user trust,” Finzer noted.

In his view, the industry’s recovery after this cascading crisis could take up to two years.

“I am completely confident in the overall resilience of the community and the ecosystem, as well as in the willingness to move forward and build,” Finzer emphasised.

He also commented on the practice of refusing to collect royalties by NFT marketplaces. OpenSea in early November rolled out a new tool for collecting licensing fees. Finzer confirmed that the platform has pledged to continue paying creators of collectible tokens.

He called this a “first step” toward maintaining trust with creators. Decentralisation also plays a key role in this, the OpenSea chief added. The marketplace does not assume responsibility for users’ assets, unlike some other marketplaces.

Earlier, the NFT platform Magic Eden on Solana faced criticism for storing assets in a custody wallet, which some Web3 developers deemed risky. FTX’s NFT marketplace likewise assumed responsibility for users’ assets — and now, as the bankruptcy process unfolds for the group, they have lost the ability to operate them.

“We operate using a system of decentralized smart contracts and do not store users’ funds or their NFTs. This approach has many advantages over centralised authority, where everything is far less transparent,” Finzer said.

In November, OpenSea added support for BNB Chain, which became the eighth network integrated by the marketplace.

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