OpenSea to Launch SEA Token in 2026
Squiffs _ & Olivia Capozzalo
October 17, 2025
Happy Friday, Defiers!
Today’s big story:
- Legacy NFT marketplace OpenSea disappoints users yet again with underwhelming rewards and delayed TGE
In other news:
- Lighter distributes points after 10/10 platform outage
- Visa releases report on stablecoins in lending
- Sony enters U.S. crypto banking race with OCC application
- Who really controls your blockchain? [SPONSORED]
Read more below! But first, please give our sponsors some love; they make this newsletter possible.
We are thrilled to launch Ecosystems, a new series from The Defiant that dives deep into today’s most innovative blockchain networks and protocols. Our first limited series explores whether Avalanche can break the tradeoff between speed, cost, and decentralization with sub-second finality and custom Layer 1s.
Hosts Camila Russo and Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo lead insightful conversations with Emin Gün Sirer, Nicholas Mussallem, and Hilmar Maximilian Orth to uncover how this technology could deliver on its ambitious promises.
We’re back! Here’s what you need to know in web3 today
📈 Markets in the Past 24 Hours
| TICKER | VALUE | 24H | |
|---|---|---|---|
 | Bitcoin | $105,338 | -5.27 % |
 | Ethereum | $3,754.14 | -7.43 % |
 | BNB | $1,061.81 | -10.36 % |
 | XRP | $2.27 | -7.32 % |
 | Solana | $179.78 | -9.00 % |
Today’s Big Story
OpenSea Pushes Token Launch to 2026
Q4 is shaping up to be “TGE Season” with high-profile DeFi projects such as Monad, MegaETH, and Kinetiq slated to release their tokens in what is usually the crypto market’s most bullish time of year from a seasonality perspective; however, OpenSea users have just been informed that they will have to wait until 2026 for their long-awaited SEA tokens.
CEO Devin Finzer released the news today, less than 24 hours after OpenSea’s first round of reward ‘crates’ was unveiled to its users. He also added that 50% of the token supply will be delivered to the community, with more than half of that allocation to be included in the initial airdrop claim.
Traders earned crates based on their OpenSea activity, and were lured in to speculate on SEA-related incentives and the chance to win valuable NFTs such as CryptoPunks and Hypurrs; however, most of the community was let down yet again.
Users with significant trading volumes and chest rarities mostly earned pennies on their dollars, and those who were lucky enough to win high-value NFTs worth more than $10,000 per person were surprised to find they had to fill out KYC and tax forms to actually claim their prizes.
These prizes were funded by OpenSea’s move to raise platform fees, charging users 1% per NFT transaction and 0.85% per token transaction, essentially turning crate farming into a gambling campaign that has increased speculation due to the SEA token, which has been dangled in front of OpenSea users for almost a year now.
Those who didn’t win NFTs earned token rewards in ETH, BTC, and ARB, as well as a new “OpenSea Treasure” which will be “meaningfully considered” by the OpenSea Foundation. That said, most users' trust in the legacy NFT platform continues to plummet to all-time lows as the company seeks to convince users to trade tokens on OpenSea, as if it were a DEX rather than an NFT platform.
The NFT market is a shell of its former self, and data trends indicate that much of the current activity is driven solely by SEA farming incentives. For reference, OpenSea reported a whopping $264 million in revenue during Q1 2022 at the height of the NFT bull market, but earned just $11,000 in Q3 2024.
While OpenSea's announcement of a 25%+ SEA airdrop claim at launch is a promising step for the company, surprise KYC forms and persistently vague descriptions of how 2021-era traders will be rewarded serve as a reminder that the incentivization of formerly dead platforms should not be confused with product-market fit.
Squiffs, resident degen at The Defiant
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🎬WATCH
What Crypto VCs Want Now | Aryan Sheikhalian
In this episode of The Defiant Podcast, we sit down with Aryan Sheikhalian, Research Lead at CMT Digital, to unpack the shift from “crypto as an asset” to crypto as infrastructure: 24/7 markets, instant clearing and settlement, and new structured products that couldn’t exist before.
We talk about tokenized equities, how identity layers and ZK proofs unlock mainstream distribution through banks and fintechs, and where regulation is pushing builders toward partnerships and licensed rails.
Top News in the Past 24 Hours
- Lighter Distributes Points to Users Affected by Platform Outage After experiencing a multi-hour outage the night of the Oct. 10 market crash, perp DEX Lighter announced it will compensate users with points that will translate to a future token airdrop.Why it matters: The team has faced some backlash over its compensation package, but in general, Lighter traders seem satisfied with the response, and the platform remains the second-largest perp DEX.
- Stablecoins Power $670 Billion in Onchain Loans: Visa Stablecoins are expanding beyond payments and trading, according to a new report from Visa, which found that more than $670 billion in loans have been issued through on-chain lending platforms over the past five years. Why it matters: Stablecoin market cap has surged in the past year, and, as the report states: “What makes stablecoins unique is their position at the intersection of three massive markets: payments, lending and capital markets.”
- Sony Enters US Crypto Banking Race Amid Growing Institutional Interest A subsidiary of Sony’s online banking arm is joining a growing group of firms looking to get a U.S. banking charter to provide crypto and fiat services. Why it matters: This is not Sony’s first foray into crypto. Its announced a dedicated blockchain arm, Sony Block Solutions Labs, in 2024, which launched an Ethereum L2 earlier this year.
Trending on The Defiant
- Solana Could Hit $6,000 as Tokenized Finance Booms: RockawayX
- Alibaba Subsidiary Drives Attention to its Ethereum Layer 2 Blockchain
- Paxos Mints and Burns $300 Trillion PYUSD on Ethereum
- Crypto Market Slides for Second Day as Bitcoin Dips Amid Geopolitical Tensions
- MegaETH Opens Registration for Potential ICO on Cobie’s Sonar Platform
- Backpack Launches SEC-Registered Tokenized Shares amid Liquidation Controversy
That’s it for today — if you enjoyed this newsletter, tell your friends! https://thedefiant.io/subscribe
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