LooksRare vs. X2Y2: A Story of Incentivized NFT Marketplaces

Introduction

Competitors in the tokenized NFT marketplace race are still relatively scarce, with a handful seeking to dethrone OpenSea. Although LooksRare and X2Y2 drew first blood by releasing governance tokens, their effectiveness remains to be seen during the current bear market. The question of whether token rewards can sufficiently attract sticky users — especially amid wash trading concerns and turbulent market conditions — remains.

This report will cover how these platforms have fared since inception and compare their  performance in their quest to become the go-to NFT platform. 

For the purpose of this report, we will define what wash trading entails. Please be advised that these definitions may differ from other reports, as the data charted here specifically reflects the following definitions. Wash trading is defined by:

1. The wallet addresses of the seller and bu