OpenSea Acquires DeFi Wallet Maker Dharma Labs
As part of the deal, Dharma co-founder Nadav Hollander will become OpenSea’s chief technology officer while its other co-founder Brendan Forster will serve as OpenSea’s Head of Strategy. Meanwhile, the co-founder of OpenSea Alex Atallah who had previously been in the CTO role will step into a new role overseeing 'NFT ecosystem development efforts,' according to the company blog post.
OpenSea claimed that the acquisition will aid in scaling product development, grow its team, expand its safety and reliability efforts and invest in the overall non-fungible token (NFT) and Web3 ecosystem.
Commenting on the development, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer stated:
“Our teams share a vision that NFTs will be the cultural focal point of crypto’s adoption for years to come and that vision can only be realized if using NFTs becomes easy and delightful for the average person. Ultimately, we believe this union will be a force multiplier for NFTs and Web3 adoption, and help us dramatically improve the experience of buying, minting and selling NFTs on OpenSea whether you’re a beginner or a pro.”
While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Axios reported this month that Dharma was worth around $110 million to $130 million.
In a separate statement, Dharma Labs said that Dharma Smart Wallet will shut down in 30 days and that users will have to empty their wallets before February 18, 2022. For this, they don't have to pay any additional fees.
OpenSea is the largest marketplace for trading non-fungible tokens or NFTs with monthly trading volume now as high as $3.5 billion. Earlier this month, the NFT platform reached a valuation of a whopping $13.3 billion.