OpenSea Releases App: Here's Why You Can't Buy Or Sell NFTs On It

One of the most popular platforms for the buying and selling of non-fungible tokens released an app. Users can use the app to browse but are not able to make NFT transactions yet.

What Happened: An app from OpenSea was released for Apple Inc AAPL iOS users and Alphabet Inc GOOGGOOGL Android users.

OpenSea customers can connect the app to their profile, browse NFTs, favorite NFTs and view stats on collections. Users can also share their NFT from the app.

Users can not purchase NFTs directly through the app. This could be due to no in-app payments being done with cryptocurrency directly.

OpenSea is a crypto native platform with Ethereum ETH/USD the cryptocurrency typically of choice.

Related Link: OpenSea Exec Resigns Over Insider Trading Allegations 

Why It’s Important: The release of the app leads to many questions about what's next for OpenSea.

To allow buying and selling of NFTs on the OpenSea app, OpenSea would have to change up its pricing model as NFTs are valued based on Ethereum and not the U.S. dollar.

With app companies like Google and Apple taking a cut of up to 30% on in-app transactions, OpenSea could also lose out on a lucrative revenue stream, which could cut into its growth or lead to charging more to use its platform.

OpenSea has been compared to many big technology giants as it's a leader in the NFT space as it offers a leading marketplace for the growing segment.

Another NFT platform, Rarible, released its mobile app last month.

OpenSea was valued at $1.5 billion in July and will likely see valuation rise when it decides to do new funding round or go public.

OpenSea had $3.4 billion in trading volume in August and over two million transactions.