OpenSea has been the dominant decentralized platform for users looking to mint, buy, sell and trade nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Serving more as an NFT aggregator than a gallery, OpenSea locked in $3.25 billion in volume for December 2021 alone, according to data from Dune Analytics and from December 2020 to December 2021, the total volume increased by a whopping 90,968%.

No stranger to contention and criticism, OpenSea has had its fair share of perils and pitfalls. Most notably, its former head of product, Nate Chastain, found using insider information to front-run and profit from selling the platform’s front page NFTs.

Adding to the overall feeling of distrust, the community felt devalued after newly appointed chief financial officer (CFO) Brian Roberts hinted at going public. However, he quickly reaffirmed that OpenSea has no intention to go public anytime soon.

OpenSea might be the top NFT marketplace by transaction volumes at the moment, but in 2022, there are bound to be a handful of competitors aiming to unseat the giant.

Here are five NFT marketplaces that could potentially shake the top contender from its spot in the coming months ahead. 

Coinbase NFT

Coinbase seems to be leaning on elements of centralization as the primary driver for mass adoption. Tapping into the growing popularity of NFTs, Coinbase rivals OpenSea in launching its NFT marketplace, Coinbase NFT. According to reports, the waitlist has exceeded 1.1 million, which is more than OpenSea’s total active user-base alone. 

Announcing its launch of…