The valuation of non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea has been slashed by 90% by asset manager Coatue Management, according to documents seen by The Information.

In 2022, Coatue and Paradigm led a $300 million round for the NFT marketplace, valuing the platform at $13.3 billion in its Series C. NFTs are a special type of crypto asset that allows holders to prove their ownership of real or digital items.

Earlier in November, OpeanSea announced a 50% reduction in headcount.

While the crypto winter has shown signs of thawing, however, NFT sales have been slow to recover. Weekly NFT sales have dropped to around 23,000 from about 176,000 at the start of the year, while the weekly sales value has declined from $118 million to $62 million, data shows market tracker.

Nansen.ai’s NFT-500 index has also fallen 55% year-to-date, while its royalties tracker has also shown a significant decline in volume.

OpenSea NFT Web3

Sam Reynolds

Sam Reynolds is a senior reporter based in Taipei. Sam was part of the CoinDesk team that won the 2023 Gerald Loeb award in the breaking news category for coverage of FTX's collapse. Prior to CoinDesk, he was a reporter with Blockworks and a semiconductor analyst with IDC.