The race to challenge OpenSea gained a serious new contender on January 10, 2022, when LooksRare launched an Ethereum NFT marketplace together with its LOOKS token. The strategy was blunt: win over people already trading on OpenSea by giving them a share of the marketplace's economics through token rewards.
Historical news event: 2022-01-10. Retrospective report prepared November 2026.
At launch, LooksRare targeted established collectors. Anyone who had traded 3 ETH or more on OpenSea between June 16 and December 16, 2021 could claim an airdrop of LOOKS, provided they listed an NFT for sale on LooksRare first. The marketplace indexed every Ethereum NFT collection, and its launch post pointed traders to Bored Ape Yacht Club, Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Cool Cats, CloneX and Doodles.
Image: LooksRare
A marketplace built as a vampire attack
LooksRare was run by two pseudonymous co-founders, Zodd and Guts, and its launch post read like a manifesto. "We, the NFT community, are tired of not being taken seriously by market leaders," the founders wrote. They criticized "decision makers who value business over community, seeking IPO instead of benefiting the communities that got them there," a clear dig at OpenSea, which was the dominant marketplace and the subject of IPO speculation at the time.
Crypto traders call this kind of launch a "vampire attack": a new protocol offers rewards to lure users and liquidity away from an incumbent. LooksRare charged a 2% fee on trades, below OpenSea's 2.5%, and paid creator royalties in WETH at the moment of each sale.
How the rewards worked
The economics were the real hook. "100% of trading fees are earned by LOOKS token stakers," the launch post said, with those fees paid out in WETH. Stakers also received extra LOOKS. On top of that, buyers and sellers earned a share of a fixed daily pool of LOOKS based on their trading volume.
At first, a collection needed 1,000 ETH in trading volume before its trades earned rewards. LooksRare argued that because "the total amount of LOOKS earned as trading rewards each day is fixed," gaming the system would be expensive. From January 29, 2022, rewards applied to all NFTs traded on the platform.
Image: LooksRare
The approach changed the competitive picture. A trader might choose a marketplace not only for its selection or speed but because a token reward appeared next to an ordinary sale. It also reflected a growing view among crypto users that big apps should share value with the people who use them.
The wash trading problem
Rewards tied to volume create an obvious temptation. A trader can sell an NFT back and forth between wallets they control, inflating apparent activity to collect more tokens. This is wash trading, and it makes a marketplace look busier than it is.
It showed up almost immediately. Two days after launch, Decrypt reported that a single Meebits NFT had sold for about $50 million worth of WETH twice in back-and-forth trades, and that dozens of Loot and Meebits NFTs were changing hands for about $3 million each, far above their prices on OpenSea. Dune Analytics data showed LooksRare recording $325 million in volume on its first full day and $377 million the next, ahead of OpenSea's numbers on the same days. At the time, LooksRare was distributing more than $12 million worth of LOOKS a day in trading rewards.
Later studies tried to measure the scale. Data from CryptoSlam, cited by Bloomberg in April 2022, put about 95% of LooksRare's lifetime volume, roughly $18 billion, down to wash trading, as CryptoSlate summarized. A later CoinGecko analysis with Footprint Analytics estimated that more than 80% of trading volume on LooksRare and rival X2Y2 combined had been wash trades since their launches. Estimates vary with the method used. Wash trading isn't new to crypto; we looked at how it affected bitcoin exchange volumes back in 2019.
None of this means every LooksRare user did something wrong, or that the launch was a scam. It does mean headline volume from a token-incentivized marketplace needs a different reading from ordinary sales between strangers.
What LooksRare changed
LooksRare's arrival forced the marketplace sector to face a basic question: who should capture the value that trading communities create? OpenSea answered over time with its own changes, including moving trading to the Seaport protocol in June 2022 and later its OS2 relaunch. Blur took the token-reward model further in late 2022, and its later decline ended with the planned closure of blur.io in 2026. Magic Eden followed with its own ME token launch.
For anyone studying Web3 marketplaces, LooksRare is worth remembering both as a real challenger to OpenSea and as an early lesson in how incentive design can distort the numbers used to judge success.
Frequently asked questions
When did LooksRare launch?
LooksRare launched its NFT marketplace and LOOKS token on January 10, 2022. Token emissions began that day, with trading reward calculations starting on January 11.
Who was eligible for the LooksRare airdrop?
Users who had traded 3 ETH or more on OpenSea between June 16 and December 16, 2021 could claim LOOKS. They had to list an NFT for sale on LooksRare before claiming.
How did LooksRare differ from OpenSea?
LooksRare charged a 2% trading fee, below OpenSea's 2.5%, and paid 100% of those fees to LOOKS stakers in WETH. Traders also earned LOOKS rewards based on their volume.
How much LooksRare volume was wash trading?
Estimates differ by method. CryptoSlam data cited by Bloomberg in April 2022 put about 95% of LooksRare's volume down to wash trading, while a later CoinGecko and Footprint Analytics study estimated over 80% across LooksRare and X2Y2.
Sources
- LooksRare, January 10, 2022 marketplace and token launch post
- Decrypt, January 12, 2022: LooksRare rife with wash trading
- CryptoSlate, April 2022: wash trading accounts for 95% of LooksRare volume
- CoinGecko Research: what is NFT wash trading
- The Block, January 2022: LooksRare goes live with vampire attack on OpenSea
Featured image: LooksRare
Frequently asked questions
When did LooksRare launch?
LooksRare launched its NFT marketplace and LOOKS token on January 10, 2022. Token emissions began that day, with trading reward calculations starting on January 11.
Who was eligible for the LooksRare airdrop?
Users who had traded 3 ETH or more on OpenSea between June 16 and December 16, 2021 could claim LOOKS. They had to list an NFT for sale on LooksRare before claiming.
How did LooksRare differ from OpenSea?
LooksRare charged a 2% trading fee, below OpenSea's 2.5%, and paid 100% of those fees to LOOKS stakers in WETH. Traders also earned LOOKS rewards based on their volume.
How much LooksRare volume was wash trading?
Estimates differ by method. CryptoSlam data cited by Bloomberg in April 2022 put about 95% of LooksRare's volume down to wash trading, while a later CoinGecko and Footprint Analytics study estimated over 80% across LooksRare and X2Y2.
Last updated NOV 12, 2026
