How NFT Marketplaces Have Adapted to Survive in 2025

NFT mania is a distant memory in 2025. It was an era – in 2021 and early 2022 – when Beeple sold a jpeg for $69.3 millionwhat CryptoPunks were going for tens of millionsand celebrities remained the Bored Ape Yacht Club.

The cumulative market cap of NFT has fallen 99% from an all-time high in 2023 of $184 billion to just $487 million, per year. CoinMarketCap. In what is now a relatively barren wasteland, NFT marketplaces have been forced to adapt, with industry titans like OpenSea and Magic Eden expanding their offerings to include tokens that are fully fungible.

“This move is largely a response to a structural slowdown in pure NFT activity and the need for marketplaces to defend relevance in a mature digital asset ecosystem,” said James Butterfill, head of research at asset manager. Coin sharestold Declutter. “In that environment, a marketplace that once thrived on the rapid trade in profile photo collections now needs a broader economic base.”

As such, OpenSea announced a “complete rebuild of its platform” in February this year to include cross-chain token trading via its platform own decentralized exchangeor DEX.

The new era for the platform, called OS2, enabled token trading across 19 blockchains with a new reward system called “To travel”, which many have speculated will play a role in the expected launch of SEA tokens.

“Adding tokens wasn’t about looking at the NFT market and pivoting,” Adam Hollander, CMO at OpenSea, said Declutter. “It’s an evolution of the company and an understanding of where things are going. Tokens, digital collectibles, real-world tokenized assets, perpetrators, prediction markets – whatever people value online, we want them to be able to trade it all on OpenSea.”

In October, OpenSea generated a new high for its DEX volume by reaching $2.41 billion in monthly volume. That standout month, however, proved to be an anomaly, with monthly volumes in November falling 75% to $581.48 million, according to DefiLlama.

These numbers look paltry compared to the big dogs of the DEX industry, with Uniswap generating almost $80 billion in November monthly volume.

As for Magic Eden, the marketplace has acquired the meme coin trading app Catapult in April – a move that saw Magic Eden enter the world of non-NFT trading. Magic Eden also offers multi-chain token trading his site and via the Wallet app. However, Magic Eden told Declutter that the expansion into token trading is not a problem.

“Token trading is not a real focus, nor a meaningful percentage of our business,” Chris Akhavan, Chief Business Officer at Magic Eden, told me. Declutter. “That market is incredibly commoditized with a lot of wallets, trading apps, DEXs and [centralized exchanges]etc. that meet the needs of users who want to trade tokens.”

CoinShares’ Butterfill said that despite Magic Eden’s reluctance, the platform has been “more aggressive” than OpenSea when it comes to integrating token trading – especially when it comes to Solana-based and gaming ecosystems. The analyst now sees Magic Eden as an “application layer” for digital culture, expanding the “strategic identity” so that it is no longer focused solely on NFTs.

“The changes have made this possible [both] platforms to stabilize engagement rates and diversify fee revenue in a year when traditional NFT volumes remained subdued,” Butterfill shared Declutter. “In that sense, the adjustments have worked.”

“For marketplaces to succeed in the long term,” he continued, “they must provide structural differentiation or seamless integration between NFT and token rails that users cannot easily replicate elsewhere. That is still an open question.”

That’s entertainment

That said, Akhavan said Magic Eden is focusing on what it calls its “crypto entertainment” offering – and not on token trading. The first of these offerings is it Packs platformwhich allows users to open virtual packs with real assets inside, currently Pokémon cards. There are also other packages for NFTs.

“We have already released tens of millions in volume on Packs and have a big roadmap in store for this product,” Akhavan said. Declutter. “Packs are just the beginning of a much broader crypto-entertainment ecosystem we are building.”

Part of this broader push includes the launch of Dangerousa crypto casino and sportsbook, for which Akhavan kept the details minimal, but did share Declutter that it will be an “important new product”. He added that Magic Eden aims to become the “world’s largest crypto entertainment brand.”

“In the broader digital asset landscape, both platforms are moving towards the role of cultural liquidity hubs, between creators, collectors and token communities,” Butterfill explains. “Their success will depend on whether these cultural economies continue to expand and whether users view them as essential infrastructure rather than optional front ends.”