LooksRare NFT Marketplace: What Is It & Could It Be The Next Big Thing?

LooksRare, a newly launched NFT marketplace, has made a big splash with its arrival in the NFT space. LooksRare went live yesterday, along with a token airdrop for NFT users. Notably, it gave its tokens to users of OpenSea – the platform it will try and replace as the go-to secondary marketplace for NFTs.

The LooksRare Motto is, “By NFT People, For NFT People”

After months of development, and a short week of hype and marketing, LooksRare has launched its NFT marketplace to the public. It says the following in its launch blog post:

“LooksRare is the community-first NFT marketplace that actively rewards traders, collectors, and creators for participating.”

In other words, LooksRare is presenting itself as an NFT marketplace that will answer many things that the community has long asked for.

LooksRare sets its NFT marketplace apart from OpenSea in a few key ways. To list a few of them, LooksRare has a lower transaction fee of 2%, in comparison to the 2.5% fee on OpenSea. What’s more, it promises to give 100% of all platform fees to those who stake the $LOOKS token.

Another key point about the LooksRare marketplace is how it is handling derivative NFT projects. That is to say, NFTs that are clearly based on existing NFT collections. LooksRare is taking the stance that it will not take down or withhold verified status from derivative projects, “as long as their actions aren’t malicious”.

OpenSea has infamously taken down derivatives of high-profile NFT projects in the past. To be sure, the NFT community is split on how they feel about derivatives. Some people agree that they shouldn’t exist, while others believe that trying to prevent derivative NFTs goes against the tenants of web3.

$LOOKS Token Airdrop Lights Up NFT Twitter

Overall there was a lot of excitement around the launch of the LooksRare NFT marketplace. Indeed, much of this was due to the airdrop of the $LOOKS token on launch day.

To explain, anyone who traded 3 or more ETH on OpenSea between June 16th and December 16th, 2021 is eligible to claim $LOOKS. In addition, users will need to list an NFT on LooksRare to claim their tokens.

Interestingly, this is similar to the approach that OpenDAO took when it launched its $SOS token airdrop at the end of 2021. However, the two groups behind the airdrops have wholly different goals. For one thing, OpenDAO was willing to assist OpenSea in some ways. In contrast, the LooksRare NFT marketplace is a direct competitor.

$LOOKS is more than just some more airdrop hype though. In fact, it’s the native token of the LooksRare NFT marketplace. Users can earn it by trading NFTs from certain collections. Not only that, but users can also earn $LOOKS from buying or selling an NFT from a collection with over 1,000 ETH in trading volume.

Finally, $LOOKS holders can stake their token to earn staking rewards. At the time of writing, the annual percentage rate (APR) for staking $LOOKS is 719%. While that will likely go down in the next few days, that is a major return for a staking reward.

Could LooksRare Be The OpenSea-Killer?

All things considered, NFT owners are ready for other secondary market options to trade NFTs.

OpenSea has been a target of the NFT space’s frustration for many reasons. For example, there’s the accusation that OpenSea represents centralization. There’s also confusion around the process by which it verifies NFT collections.

It will be interesting to see how both LooksRare’s NFT marketplace and $LOOKS token perform in the coming months. If they can deliver on their promises and give users a good trading experience though, OpenSea’s days as the number one marketplace could be numbered.