OpenSea announces NFT aggregator Gem acquisition: Here’s what will change

OpenSea, one of the largest NFT marketplace has announced the acquisition of NFT aggregator company Gem, to better serve its users. According to a blog post, OpenSea says it will integrate “the best of Gem’s features,” giving its users a “pro experience.”
Gem allows users to buy NFTs across several NFT marketplaces in a single transaction, and with any ERC-20 token rather than only Ethereum. Users can also view analytics, such as sales volume, floor prices and rarity-based ranking for NFT collections. The rarity index ranks an NFT based on how rare it is, making it easier for users to choose the right NFT.
Further, Gem claims that users minting NFTs on its platform can save up to 40 per cent on gas fees. A gas fee essentially is the transaction fee required to ‘mint’ or create an NFT. It would be interesting to see whether this functionality will be available in the OpenSea NFT marketplace.

“The acquisition will provide Gem with resources to accelerate its product vision and roadmap,” OpenSea said in a blog post. After the acquisition, Gem will continue operating independently from OpenSea as a stand-alone product and brand.
This development comes after one of Gem’s pseudonymous core developers “Neso” was dismissed from the team after being accused of sexual assault.
“During our diligence, we learned about and immediately surfaced, some deeply concerning allegations against a now-former member of Gem’s leadership team who operated under the pseudonym Neso. Upon investigating the allegations, the employee was immediately exited before the close of this deal. This individual has never and will never be affiliated with OpenSea,” the NFT marketplace added.

Touted as the largest NFT marketplace, you can find digital art, there are collectables including game items, domain names, and even digital representations of physical assets at OpenSea. Essentially, the platform is like an eBay for NFTs with millions of digital assets organized into hundreds of categories.
The NFT marketplace also surpassed the all-time high of $3.42 billion set in August 2021 to establish a new all-time high, surpassing the $3.5 billion mark in Ether trading volume, as per data from Dune Analytics. OpenSea witnessed its trading volume hit an all-time high of $261 million. And in January alone, OpenSea set $169 million in trading volume for each day.