OpenSea CMO: Tokenized collectibles, tickets to fuel next NFT cycle

At Consensus Miami, OpenSea Chief Marketing Officer Adam Hollander predicted tokenized Pokemon cards, Rolex watches and digital tickets will drive the next wave of nonfungible tokens. OpenSea is adding cross-wallet asset management and simpler fiat onboarding to make those items easier to buy and hold.

Hollander contrasted that outlook with the 2021–22 boom in profile-picture projects such as Bored Apes and CryptoPunks, which attracted heavy speculation and later fell sharply in price. He said many buyers in that period treated NFTs like a digital casino rather than using them to prove ownership of digital or physical items.

He named practical use cases he expects to lead adoption: trading cards, high-value watches, event tickets, in-game items and software or AI tools. He added that recent advances in generative AI could lower the barrier to producing digital art, animation and games, making it easier for creators and brands to issue tokenized assets.

OpenSea is building a single interface for users to view and manage NFTs and other crypto holdings across multiple wallets and blockchains. Hollander said, “I want all my assets, all my wallets, all of my blockchains, all in one place.” The company is also working on fiat payment flows similar to Apple Pay and on displaying tokenized items in dollar terms rather than only in cryptocurrency.

On the SEA token, Hollander said decisions and timing are controlled by the OpenSea Foundation. He cautioned against launching a token that functions only as a memecoin, arguing that “it doesn't really deliver value to anybody.”

The broader NFT market topped $16 billion in 2022 at the peak of the previous cycle, driven largely by speculative trading in profile-picture projects. Those rapid price gains were followed by equally rapid declines as speculative demand faded.