On March 17, OpenSea co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer tweeted that the OpenSea Foundation decided to postpone the SEA token issuance event originally scheduled for March 30.
In October 2025, Finzer first announced that SEA would launch in Q1 2026, and now that Q1 is about to end, the new timeline is still uncertain.
Finzer attributed the postponement to the current harsh environment of the cryptocurrency market and emphasized that 'SEA will only be launched once', with the foundation choosing to wait until everything is ready rather than forcing to meet the original date.
Refund or keep the rewards, users must choose one.
For users who participated in the Wave3 to Wave6 reward activities after the Q1 timeline was announced, OpenSea proposed a set of optional compensation plans.
The core logic is refund for treasure rewards. Users can apply for a refund of the transaction fees charged by the platform during these rounds of activities. However, if you choose a refund, the corresponding treasure rewards for that wave will be removed from your account.
If users choose not to refund, existing treasure rights remain unchanged. The foundation promises to prioritize these rights during the TGE, and this portion of rights is independent of the distribution quota of historical activities.
This design responds to community dissatisfaction with the reward mechanism. Previously, Wave1 distributed a prize pool of $12.2 million, including NFTs and tokens, but community feedback indicated that obtaining higher-tier chests required extremely high transaction volumes, and the reward distribution was criticized for being highly random, effectively encouraging wash trading. OpenSea had previously suspended the new XP reward system for this reason.
60 days of zero fees and product roadmap.
In addition to the refund plan, OpenSea announced it will implement a 60-day zero fee policy starting March 31, covering the platform's own token trading fees. After the period, a new fee system will be introduced. Finzer stated that the rates will be more competitive for high-frequency trading users.
On the product front, although the event originally scheduled for March 30 is canceled, the team will hold another event focusing on product updates in the coming months. OpenSea's OS2 platform officially exited Beta in May 2025 and currently supports cross-chain token trading on 22 chains.
Mobile applications have entered a closed testing phase, with an AI trading assistant tool called OpenSea Intelligence built-in, and perpetual contract trading functionality is also on the roadmap.
The NFT industry is stagnating, and OpenSea chooses to wait again.
The postponement of the token issuance is rooted in a shrinking industry environment. CryptoSlam data shows that NFT sales for the entire year of 2025 are $5.63 billion, down 37% from $8.9 billion in 2024, while the supply side has expanded to 1.34 billion tokens, dropping from $124 to $96, with the total market value of NFTs expected to be around $2.4 billion by the end of 2025.
OpenSea's market share has actually increased in this context, but the supporting figures are no longer NFTs. According to The Block data, OpenSea currently holds about 71% of the Ethereum NFT trading market share. After the announcement of the SEA token, the market share surged, but in October 2025, out of $2.6 billion in monthly trading volume, over 90% came from token trading, while NFT trading volume itself remains weak.
In May 2025, after OS2 exited Beta, the monthly active users of OpenSea rebounded to 467,000, the highest since 2023. However, as the entire market cooled, the trading enthusiasm in the NFT market significantly waned.
This also explains why OpenSea is eager to transform; perpetual contracts, cross-chain token trading, and mobile applications are all looking for new traffic entry points outside of NFTs. The SEA token was originally the climax of this transformation narrative, but now it has been postponed, leaving the momentum for transformation suspended.
50% of the token supply is promised to be allocated to the community. After launch, 50% of platform revenue will be used to repurchase SEA. Users can stake SEA to support specific collections or token projects. This token economic model, when announced in October 2025, spurred a wave of trading volume growth, and the current delay may deplete the community expectations accumulated at that time.
Finzer mentioned at the end of the tweet that the last announced timeline was 'too early,' creating unnecessary uncertainty. He promised that the next time the foundation sets a new timeline, it would be 'well thought out and very specific.'
Before that, how much confidence the community has in SEA may depend on whether the 60-day zero fee period can lead to substantial user retention growth.
Appendix
OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer tweeted.
Latest updates on SEA.
The team has been fully committed to development. The foundation originally planned to launch the first step at the event on March 30, but the foundation has postponed the release date.
Postponement is postponement; I won't sugarcoat it. I know what the outcome will be.
The reality is that the entire cryptocurrency market environment is currently challenging, and the SEA project only has one opportunity for release. We can either force the original date or ensure everything is ready, making this moment a celebration that this community deserves. We have given this a lot of thought, for which I am deeply grateful.
Hollander Adam stated that to incorporate the community's voice into every dialogue, we will take the following measures:
There will be no more task batches: the current reward batch will be the last one.
Optional fee refund: Considering our initial commitment to complete reward distribution in the first quarter, we will refund you the platform fees paid during the reward batches (3-6). If you wish, you can choose to refund these fees plus the treasure rewards, effectively meaning we cover all your transactions during this period. If you choose to refund, the treasures you earned in these batches will be removed from your account, with specific processes to be announced later.
Retain existing treasures: For the treasures you continue to hold, our previous commitments remain valid - the foundation will seriously consider these treasures during the TGE, independent of historical transaction activity distributions.
60 days of 0% fees: Starting March 31, OpenSea will reduce our own token trading fees to 0%. We hope to allow everyone to easily experience our new platform - cross-chain token trading, mobile applications, payment platforms, etc. After this 60-day trial period ends, we will enable a new system that significantly reduces OpenSea platform trading fees, allowing all users who continue to trade on OpenSea to enjoy more competitive fees.
Product update: Although we have postponed the event originally scheduled for March 30, we will hold a dedicated event in the coming months to introduce product updates. We are excited to see everyone's early feedback on our mobile application and can't wait for more people to experience it.
So, if not now, then when? When we announced last year, it was too early, causing unnecessary confusion and passive reactions. Therefore, when the foundation sets a new timeline, it will be well thought out and very specific.
Here are the reasons I believe this is the right move: I have been involved in building OpenSea for nearly ten years. Initially, there were only two of us, and the only thing that could be traded on OpenSea was CryptoKitties. I've witnessed this field evolve from a niche hobby to a multi-billion dollar trading volume.
The key to getting us through every cycle is our willingness to make tough choices at critical moments. When the market crashes, we rebuild from scratch: a brand new tech stack, a brand new product, a brand new team culture. This brought shocks in the short term, but today, OS2 is undoubtedly the most powerful market solution and the cornerstone of everything we do.
As a company, we have ambitious goals and are focused on long-term development. Ensuring a pleasant user experience for all non-custodial cryptocurrencies on mobile devices is just the beginning. This means we must set extremely high standards for everything we do, which is why I place such great importance on product releases, striving not to let down this community and all the efforts we have put in.
OpenSea CMO Hollander Adam tweeted.
I have been a CEO before, and the hardest decisions are often those that will bring pain in the short term but require a firm belief in the vision. Devin firmly believes this is the best path for OpenSea and our community, reflecting his long-term planning for the company. Moreover, under similar circumstances, few CEOs would choose to invest millions of dollars to rebuild user trust.
I just completed a year working at OpenSea, one of the few companies in our field truly dedicated to making a large-scale impact. We are committed to genuinely changing the way the world interacts with digital assets and bringing millions of users into the cryptocurrency space.
OpenSea is building amazing products, all assets, all blockchains, all wallets, all at your fingertips. Moreover, it eliminates complexity; double-click Apple Pay to convert fiat without worrying about bridging or blockchains, allowing any currency to pay any fee. Additionally, it has the technical foundation needed for development and expansion.
Like many of you, I have been looking forward to the arrival of SEA before joining OpenSea. I share the same hopes for long-term success and sustainability, and until then, we will continue to build.
OpenSea CTO Chris Maddern tweeted.
I know this is a tough decision for everyone involved, but it's also quite simple: the community (that is, you) rightfully deserves the SEA issuance, but this is fundamentally impossible in the current environment.
I assure you - the team is working harder than ever to build a product and a business that will lead the development of web3 and non-custodial cryptocurrencies for decades to come.
Please continue to support us; we will not leave.
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