In Brief:
- OpenSea acquires Ethereum Wallet developer, Dharma Labs.
- “We believe this union will be a force multiplier for NFTs and web3 adoption,” the company said.
- Dharma Labs’ app would be shutting down on Feb. 18, 2022.
OpenSea, the world’s largest marketplace for non-fungible tokens, is acquiring Dharma Labs, an ethereum wallet developer, to assist it in achieving a milestone in 2021.
After the market for NFTs, or digital works of art linked to the blockchain, exploded last year, OpenSea said it’s in “build mode” in a blog post on Tuesday. The company plans to considerably expand its personnel as well as invest in the NFT and Web3 ecosystems.
“We believe this union will be a force multiplier for NFTs and web3 adoption, and help us dramatically improve the experience of buying, minting, and selling NFTs on OpenSea — whether you’re a beginner, or a pro,” the company said in its statement.
Nadav Hollander, co-founder and CEO of Dharma Labs, will become OpenSea’s new chief technology officer as part of the agreement. Dharma Labs said that the app, which has been active for two years, will be retired as part of a deal to avoid “jamming square pegs in round holes” at OpenSea.
OpenSea said its current CTO Alex Atallah would step into a new externally facing role overseeing the company’s web3 and NFT ecosystem development.OpenSea further acknowledged that Dharma Labs’ app would be shutting down within 30 days and it thus, urges its users to withdraw or sell their funds before Feb. 18, 2022 and clarifies that they will not have to pay any fees to do so.
“Our teams share a vision that NFTs will be the cultural focal point of crypto’s adoption for years to come — and that vision can only be realised if using NFTs becomes easy & delightful for the average person,” OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer wrote.
As digital economies grow, so does OpenSea’s ambition to be the dominant non-fungible token host (NFTs). OpenSea in 2021, has made an attempt to do so and even reached an epic valuation of $13B after a $300M funding round. This year too, the largest marketplace for non-fungible coins plans to considerably expand its personnel.
