Tiger Global downsizes investments in BAYC and OpenSea

Tiger Global, a major investor in OpenSea, has marked down its stake in the NFT marketplace by 94%. Reports from Bloomberg indicate that Tiger Global reduced its stake in popular nonfungible token (NFT) assets like the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) NFT collection and the NFT marketplace OpenSea.

According to Bloomberg’s sources, Tiger Global marked down its stake in the BAYC NFT collection by 69% and its stake in the OpenSea marketplace by 94%. The same sources also mention that other companies in Tiger Global’s portfolio have seen reduced valuations.

Tiger Global has invested not only in NFTs but also in blockchain security and privacy-focused projects. In 2021, the company led a $24 million funding round for CertiK, a blockchain security company providing audits for DeFi projects, as part of an effort to expand CertiK’s security offerings for the DeFi sector.

In 2022, Tiger Global participated in a $50 million Series B funding round for Aleo, a platform enabling the development of privacy-focused applications based on zero-knowledge-proof technology. Alongside Kora Management LP and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Tiger Global led a $200 million investment

In the same year, Tiger Global invested in the layer-2 network Polygon.

Meanwhile, last month, Coatue Management, OpenSea’s co-lead investor, marked down its investment in the NFT marketplace by 90%, following a similar move by Tiger Global. This markdown suggests that the company’s valuation has dropped to $1.4 billion from its peak of $13.3 billion.

Despite some growth signs in the NFT market in October, with a significant increase in sales volume compared to the previous month, market tracker data shows that weekly NFT sales have decreased from 176,000 to approximately 23,000 since the beginning of the year. Additionally, the weekly sales value has gone down from $118 million to $62 million.

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