A Look into X2Y2: The People’s NFT Marketplace?

NFT marketplaces are almost a dime a dozen these days, and few of them actually manage to make a dent in a market that is quickly becoming saturated. After all, the first mover here has a significant advantage and the likes of OpenSea are hard to compete against. 

Hard to compete against generally. Every now and then, there comes a platform that rocks the boat and shows itself to be different. In the past two months, that platform has been X2Y2. The marketplace has been causing quite a stir in the NFT scene lately, as transactions and user activity have been markedly here.

What’s behind X2Y2’s sudden rise that’s putting it alongside the heavyweight? That’s what we look into here.

What is X2Y2?

It’s clear right from the get go that X2Y2 is aiming to be a platform for the users and users first. It even uses the old mantra of democracy of being “by the people and for the people.” It even goes so far as to say that it is “like LookRare, but transparent and honest.” But in the end, X2Y2 is just an NFT marketplace with certain unique traits that make it so appealing to the end user.

And it’s certainly true that the features of X2Y2 prioritize the users. The marketplace has a bevy of features, which we discuss later, that testify to that. Despite launching only in February 2022, the platform, the collections, and the X2Y2 token have all seen good growth. The latter is a governance token that also plays a part in the fee-sharing model.

X2Y2 Has Been Shaking the Status Quo

X2Y2 is taking a swing at the giants, and all metrics from recent weeks show that it is making a dent in the market. Just take a look at the monthly volume - X2Y2 actually beat OpenSea in July, with $470 million in transactions compared to OpenSea’s $350 million. In terms of transactions themselves, OpenSea still takes the cake though with 1.1 million August compared to the 63,052 of X2Y2.

But there are other signs that X2Y2 might be gaining a stronger hold in the market. The number of users has been growing on the platform steadily over the past quarter.

Lastly, the forecast for X2Y2 also looks strong based on the number of users. While OpenSea is far ahead with 780,000, X2Y2 beats all other platforms with 36,000. Following X2Y2 is Foundation, LooksRare, NFTKey, and Rarible in terms of rank based on the number of users.

What Sets its Apart

Without a doubt, the killer feature of X2Y2 is that it shares all of its revenue with stakers of the X2Y2 token. This has quickly amassed a throng of loyal users, who have been pushing the platform to the position it is in. We’ve talked about how NFT collections, and that includes marketplaces, must have the community at the center of its operation if it wants to succeed.

X2Y2 is one of the few entities in the NFT space that is actually putting that idea into practice. Almost all of its features are ones that favor users, in terms of cost and rewards. For example, it offers the ability to bulk send, list and buy, which is something ardent NFT collectors can gain a lot from. This is also likely a reason why the number of users on the platform continue to show growth, with a 9% increase to over 18,000 users in the past 30 days.

But what is the real killer feature is the staking rewards. All fees on the platform goes towards a fee-sharing program, with 65% of the tokens allocated for this purpose. Based on their stake, users can claim a portion of the fees that the platform generates. Yes, 100% of the market fees goes towards X2Y2 stakers.

There are also some long-term features that are in the pipeline, though these are of course some way off in the future. Some of these include collections verification, collection launch and promotion, layer-2 development, and even a VR immersive UI/UX for the marketplace.

X2Y2 Brimming with Potential

It’s not often that we see an NFT marketplace offer a real challenge to the existing giants. X2Y2 is really shaping up to be a marketplace that can gain a strong foothold on the market. The bevy of user-centric features that it offers are at the center of the attraction, and it shows a willingness on the team’s part to shake up the status quo.

Of course, it’s not like other NFT marketplaces aren’t coming up with their own features and solutions, but X2Y2 has started off strong in this regard. The rest of 2022 should shed more light on the medium to long-term prospects of the marketplace. As it stands, however, it looks like X2Y2 could gain steam and a lot of ground.