Morning Minute: OpenSea Says SEA Is Coming Q1 2026

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

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors rebound over the weekend, Bitcoin back at $110,700
• Stripe’s Tempo raises $500M at $5B valuation
• Mr Beast files trademark for crypto exchange and payments service
• Huobi founder Li Lin shares plans for $1B ETH TreasuryCo
• OpenSea founder Devin Finzer shares SEA token plans, buybacks

🌊 OpenSea Says SEA Is Coming Q1 2026

OpenSea finally gave some confirmation on its SEA token launch.

And it looks like folks are going to have to wait a bit longer…

📌 What Happened

After years of resisting token pressure, OpenSea announced SEA is coming Q1 2026 on Friday.

CEO Devin Finzer made it official in a tweet, saying OpenSea has quietly hit $2.6 billion in trading volume this month – but over 90% of that wasn’t NFTs.

It was token trading.

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

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

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

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“This is just the beginning of our transformation from ‘NFT marketplace’ to ‘trade everything.’” — Devin Finzer, CEO

“OpenSea just pulled off a full rebuild post–NFT crash — fresh team, brand-new tech stack, and a way bigger vision for what’s next.” – Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian, on X

🧠 Why It Matters

OpenSea doesn’t want to be an NFT marketplace anymore. It wants to be the on-chain trading layer for everything.

And those who have high hopes for a potential SEA airdrop should be rooting on that transformation.

Blur came and ate OpenSea’s lunch a few years ago.

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

OpenSea had to do a total reset to become relevant again and reclaim market share – and they did exactly that.

Through their latest incentive programs, they’ve been able to reclaim the top spot in NFT market share and have significantly raised the volume traded on their platform (now 90% token trading).

And sure, a lot of that volume is likely farming – but some of it will remain.

With 50% of the SEA tokens going to farmers and 25% up front, we know they’ll have ongoing incentives programs beyond TGE.

Which means volumes will stay elevated for several months. Which means more revenue for OpenSea. Which means more token buybacks (they promised 50% of revenue for buybacks).

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

And for those hoping it would have come in Q4 – be patient. It should be worth the wait…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are green and rebounding after a late week selloff; 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%) led top movers
• Stripe’s Tempo raised $500M at a $5B valuation and hired Ethereum researcher Dankrad Feist
• MrBeast filed trademarks for a crypto exchange and payment app
• John Bollinger noted potential “W” bottoms on both ETH and SOL charts
• Arthur Hayes is launching a $250M fund called Maelstrom Equity Fund I to buy mid-sized crypto firms in trading infrastructure and data analytics
• Japan’s three biggest banks plan to issue a shared stablecoin pegged to currencies like the yen to digitize interbank payments

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $366.6M in net outflows on Friday, with ETH seeing $232.2M in outflows
• Huobi founder Li Lin plans to launch a $1B ETH TreasuryCo

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are green along with majors, though still down 5-10% on the week; DOGE +3%, Shiba +2%, PEPE +4%, PENGU +1%, BONK +5%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +6%, and FARTCOIN +1%
• Pump Fun’s PUMP token rebounded 20% off its local bottom, back to $4B FDV (and ICO price)
• BSC had 13 of the top 15 memes by daily volume, with 币安人生 jumping 60% to $255M on $70M volume leading the way
• Alpha Arena led Solana top movers, jumping 270% to $7M

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

• OpenSea announced its SEA token launch for Q1 2026 with half for the community
• Avalanche hinted at a potential social leaderboard with token rewards
• MegaETH bought back 4.75% of its token supply from early investors
• Infinex founder said the march to TGE has begun

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

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

• NFT leaders were mostly 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 top movers
• Chimpers became the latest project to get a Strategy token, with CHMPSTR holding at $2.5M after its Friday debut
• PNKSTR rebounded 15% over the weekend back to $80M, now holding 31 CryptoPunks