Benzinga | Jan 4, 2022 03:58PM EST

Opensea Valuation Hits New Record $13B With Increased Surge In Volume: Report

Leading NFT marketplace OpenSea could hit a new record valuation as a private company, according to a recent report.

What Happened: OpenSea is in talks to raise funds at a valuation of $13 billion, according to Newcomer and author Eric Newcomer.

The new funding round would be led by Coatue, according to sources. Kathryn Haun's new cryptocurrency themed fund is also said to be seeking an investment in the funding round. Haun was a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, who is an existing investor in OpenSea, before launching her own crypto fund.

Haun previously led Series A and Series B investments in OpenSea for Andreessen Horowitz, according to the report.

Related Link: Exclusive: 2021 NFT Recap On Big Brands, Apes Flipping Punks, Non-Ethereum Projects And Discord

Why It's Important: OpenSea saw its reported valuation climb to $10 billion in November. The increased valuation marked a sharp growth from the $1.5 billion it raised in a July Series B funding round led by Horowitz. The Series B funding also included investments from NBA star Kevin Durant and actor/entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher.

Sales volume for OpenSea has soared with continued interest and investments in non-fungible tokens. OpenSea had sales volumes of $24 million in 2020 and $8 million in 2019.

OpenSea hit a record high of $240 million in daily sales volume on Jan. 2, 2022. In the last seven days, the company has recorded sales volume of $914.2 million, according to DappRadar. OpenSea has over 150,000 users on the NFT marketplace platform.

The funding round by OpenSea may come at a critical moment, as cryptocurrency platform Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) is expected to enter the NFT space with its own marketplace. Over 2.5 million people have signed a waitlist for the Coinbase NFT platform.

Price Action: COIN shares are down 1% to $248.59 on Tuesday.

Related Link: EXCLUSIVE: NFT Experts On What's Hot For 2022: Predictions, Coinbase Launch, NFL NFTs And More

Photo: Courtesy of flickr