At the beginning of 2022, when the market for NFTs was near its latest peak, LooksRare vs. OpenSea briefly became one of the hottest competitions in the crypto ecosystem. LooksRare was an upstart auction site, using an aggressive tactic known as a “vampire attack” to lure customers away from OpenSea. With millions of dollars’ worth of trades at stake, fans and supporters jumped back and forth between the sites, lobbed ideas and criticism at each other on Twitter, and competitively compared trading volumes on the two platforms.
As the rivalry flared, OpenSea showed a human face to the crypto world: CEO and co-founder Devin Finzer, who had helped the company attract funding from some of Silicon Valley’s most prestigious venture capital firms. LooksRare, in contrast, had Guts and Zodd—two co-founders known only by their aliases and avatars.
