OpenSea says SEA is coming in the first quarter of 2026

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analyzes and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s most important news:

• Crypto majors recovered this weekend, with Bitcoin returning to $110,700
• Stripe’s Tempo raises $500 million at a $5 billion valuation
• Mr Beast files a trademark for crypto exchange and payment services
• Huobi Founder Li Lin Shares Plans for $1 Billion ETH TreasuryCo
• OpenSea founder Devin Finzer shares SEA token plans and buybacks

🌊 OpenSea says SEA is coming in Q1 2026

OpenSea finally gave some confirmation about the launch of its SEA token.

And it looks like people will have to wait a little longer…

📌What happened

After years of resisting token pressure, OpenSea announced Friday that SEA will come in the first quarter of 2026.

CEO Devin Finzer made it official in a tweet, saying that OpenSea quietly reached $2.6 billion in trading volume this month, but more than 90% of those weren’t NFTs.

It was token trading.

“NFTs were chapter one for us,” he wrote, describing SEA as part of OpenSea’s transformation from a collectibles app to a broader crypto exchange.

The SEA token will launch next quarter, with half of the supply allocated to the community through a claims program tied to past and future platform activity (OGs and current traders are both rewarded).

OpenSea also said that 50% of its revenue will go towards buying back SEA tokens, a mechanism that directly links platform growth to token demand.

🗣️ What they say

“This is just the beginning of our transformation from ‘NFT marketplace’ to ‘trade anything.’” — Devin FinzerCEO

“Open Sea I just achieved a completely rebuilt post-NFT crash: a new team, a brand new tech stack, and a much bigger vision for the future.” – Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, on X

🧠Why it matters

OpenSea no longer wants to be an NFT marketplace. It wants to be the on-chain trading layer before anything else.

And those who have high hopes for a possible SEA airdrop should rely on that transformation.

Blur came to eat lunch at OpenSea’s a few years ago.

Then Magic Eden took the spotlight during the Ordinals and Runes meta.

OpenSea needed to do a total reset to become relevant again and regain market share – and that’s exactly what they did.

Through their latest incentive programs, they have been able to regain the top position in the NFT market share and have significantly increased the volume traded on their platform (now 90% token trading).

And sure, a lot of that volume probably comes from agriculture, but some of it will remain.

With 50% of SEA tokens going to farmers and 25% upfront, we know they will have ongoing incentive programs beyond TGE.

This means that volumes will remain high for several months to come. That means more revenue for OpenSea. That means more token buybacks (they promised 50% of sales for buybacks).

It’s the strongest setup a potential SEA token has had since the 2021 NFT boom.

And for those hoping it would have happened in the fourth quarter, be patient. It should be worth the wait…

🌎 Macrocrypto and memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my attention:

• Crypto majors are green and recovering after week-end sell-off; BTC +3% at $110,700, ETH +3% at $4,030, BNB +1% at $1,110, SOL +2% at $192
• Floki (+18%), LINK (+10%), SNX (+10%) and ZEC (+10%) were the leaders
• Streep’s pace raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation and hired Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist
• Mr. Beast trademarks filed for a crypto exchange and payment app
• Johannes Bollinger noticed potential “W” bottoms on both ETH and SOL charts
• Arthur Hayes launches a $250 million fund called Maelstrom Equity Fund I to buy mid-market crypto companies in trading infrastructure and data analytics
• Japan’s three largest banks plan to issue a shared stablecoin, pegged to currencies like the yen, to digitalize interbank payments

In corporate bonds/ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $366.6 million in net outflows on Friday, while ETH saw $232.2 million in outflows
• Huobi founder Li Lin plans to launch a $1 billion ETH TreasuryCo

In Memes

• Memecoin Leaders are in the green like the majors, but are still down 5-10% this week; DOGE +3%, Shiba +2%, PEPE +4%, PENGU +1%, BONK +5%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +6% and FARTCOIN +1%
• Pump Fun’s PUMP token recovered 20% from the local bottom, back to $4 billion FDV (and ICO price)
• BSC had 13 of the top 15 memes in daily volume, with 币安人生 up 60% to $255 million on $70 million volume as the leader
• Alpha Arena led Solana, rising 270% to $7 million

💰 Token, airdrop and protocol tracker

Here’s an overview of the top token, protocol and airdrop news of the day:

• Open Sea announced the launch of SEA tokens for the first quarter of 2026, half of which will be for the community
• Avalanche hinted at a potential social leaderboard with token rewards
• MegaETH bought back 4.75% of its token offering from early investors
• Founder of Infinex said the march to TGE has begun

🚚 What’s happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines of the day in NFTs:

• NFT Leaders were largely flat over the weekend; Punks -1% at 42 ETH, Pudgy +1% at 7.35, BAYC +1% at 7.5 ETH; Hypurr’s +1% at 1,250 HYPE
• CrypToadz (+13%) and Mocaverse (+13%) were the top performers
• Chimpanzees became the latest project to receive a Strategy Token, with CHMPSTR locking in $2.5 million after its debut on Friday
• PNKSTR bounced back 15% to $80 million this weekend, now owning 31 CryptoPunks