Devin Finzer Net Worth, Crypto and NFT Investments

The net worth of Devin Finzer is estimated to be $600 million. The volume of his wealth ranked him high on the list of self-made crypto tycoons. The wealth of Devin Finzer is dominated by his 18% stake in OpenSea, a prominent marketplace he co-founded alongside Alex Atallah in 2017.

It is worth mentioning that Devin Finzer also got a windfall from the sale of Claimdog, a startup he sold to Credit Karma in 2016 for an undisclosed amount. Aside from OpenSea and Claimdog, he also designed WifiCoin. Finzer picked up an interest in tech after realizing how his father excelled as a professional software engineer.

But, he focused solely on blockchain programming while working with Credit Karma. Despite being the brain behind the development of several tech startups, the net worth of Devin Finzer is only dominated by his stakes in OpenSea.

Devin Finzer’s Net Worth Since 2021

Early Life

Devin Finzer was born in 1990 in the United States, but grew up in San Francisco. His father was a software engineer while his mother was a physician. Devin Finzer attended Miramonte High School in Orinda, California. After completing his high school education, he enrolled at Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island where he studied Computer Science and Mathematics. In 2013, he graduated from the institution with a bachelor’s degree in the aforementioned courses.

It is worth mentioning that Devin Finzer showed a strong interest in tech and computer programming during his time at Brown University. However, his interest in the field did not come as a surprise to many due to his father’s job as a software engineer. While at the institution, Finzer alongside Dylan Field created CourseKick, a socially-oriented search engine for university course registration.

Upon its completion, CourseKick enjoyed widespread acceptance among undergraduates of Brown University. Within two weeks of its launch, more than 20% of undergraduates in the institution were already using the application.

Meanwhile, Finzer interned at Wikimedia Foundation, Google Cloud Platform, and Flipboard. Upon his graduation in 2013, he worked with Pinterest in San Francisco as a software engineer. Later, he resolved to co-found Claimdog, a solution that was developed to help people receive owed funds. Like CourseKick, the project enjoyed widespread attention. Eventually, in 2016, Credit Karma bought Claimdog. In line with the deal terms, Finzer was employed to work with Credit Karma. While at the organization, the software developer picked up an interest in blockchain.

Finzer worked alongside Alex Atallah at Credit Karma to develop and pitch WifiCoin. According to findings, WifiCoin allows users to receive tokens in return for sharing their passcode to a wireless router. The initiative attracted many suitors but Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah pitched it to Y Combinator and it was accepted.

OpenSea

Around 2017, the blockchain industry began to witness mainstream popularity and adoption. This reality prompted Finzer to venture into the space. He decided to reunite with Alex Atallah to found OpenSea, a Non-Fungible Token (NFT) marketplace. Notably, Finzer and Atallah were even more inspired by the release of CryptoKitties to come up with something similar but more advanced.

Driven by this motive, they launched OpenSea. The project gained financial backing from Y Combinator through a pre-seed round in 2018. Later in 2019, numerous investors raised $2.1 million for the NFT marketplace. Devin Finzer was appointed as the CEO while Alex Attalah served as the Chief Technology Officer of the firm. Likewise, the duo retained 18% stakes each for themselves in the company.

To establish its mark in the NFT landscape, OpenSea announced that users can mint NFTs on its platform for free. More so, in March 2021, the company raised $23 million in venture capital and another $100 million in July. These investments helped position the firm as a leading NFT marketplace in the industry.

After enjoying widespread acceptance owing to the growing popularity of NFTs, OpenSea, in early 2022, acquired Ethereum wallet-maker Dharma Labs. However, the NFT marketplace suffered a significant setback that month after a user interface bug permitted users to buy NFTs worth more than $1 million at a cheaper value. This development compelled OpenSea to reimburse users with about $1.8 million.

Around February 2022, OpenSea suffered a phishing attack through an exploit of the Wyvern platform. The news surfaced after users began to complain about their missing NFTs. The disclosure birthed various unconfirmed reports that OpenSea paved the way for the attack. In reaction, the NFT marketplace clarified that the attack wasn’t from its network.

At that time, various reports from the mainstream media about the theft triggered panic among users of the NFTs marketplace. Meanwhile, the attack claimed about $1.7 million worth of NFTs. Per OpenSea disclosure, about 32 users were affected but the firm later modified the announcement, disclosing that about 17 users were directly affected by the exploitation.

In a bid to avoid a dispute with regulators, OpenSea, in March 2022, announced that it would block accounts that were subjected to the United States sanctions. Unfortunately, the decision was heavily criticized. However, OpenSea did not allow the criticism to deter its commitment to cement its market dominance. The NFT marketplace began to grow in popularity and adoption to an extent that it recorded a massive increase in its daily NFT transaction volume.

On April 25, 2022, OpenSea announced the acquisition of the NFT marketplace aggregator company Gem.xyz. However, a few months later, it reported a massive email data breach. According to the marketplace, a Customer.io staff member misused his employee access to download and share the email addresses of OpenSea’s users. Consequently, over 1.8 million email addresses belonging to OpenSea users were leaked.

Amid the downturn that stormed the crypto market in mid-2022, OpenSea’s daily trading volume began to drop drastically. This tough development forced Finzer to announce a 20% layoff. Around August 28, 2022, the transaction volume dropped by 99% to just $9.34 million and its daily users also went down to 24,020. Against the odds, OpenSea and its team were still resolute in their commitment to promote the experience of their users.

In October 2022, it integrated a multiple listing feature for NFT trading. The NFT marketplace embraced the innovation in a bid to allow users to list and buy up to 30 items in a single flow. In its announcement at that time, OpenSea said the feature was aimed at saving transaction costs for users by allowing them to sell 30 NFTs in a single transaction.

We’re officially live with bulk listing and buying! 🛒

You can now list and buy up to 30 items in a single flow on OpenSea.
Let’s walk through what this experience looks like in this 🧵

— OpenSea (@opensea) October 5, 2022

Also in November, 2022, Binance NFT marketplace integrated OpenSea into its marketplace. The integration was initiated so that users can harness NFTs from multiple blockchains and marketplaces. Notably, the collaboration also paved the way for the Binance marketplace to incorporate OpenSea’s top 200 NFT collections.

Lawsuit and Controversy

In 2021, OpenSea attracted unwanted attention after admitting that one of its employees engaged in insider trading. According to reports, the employee, identified as Nathaniel Chastain, bought about 45 NFTs around January and September 2021. He was reported to have acquired the NFTs before they were listed on OpenSea’s homepage. Eventually, in June 2022, he was charged with wire fraud and money laundering.

Each of the two counts attracts a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Consequently, the CEO of OpenSea, Devin Finzer defended Chastain, arguing that the charges against him were unfair. In response, the U.S. government requested that the court stop Chastain from seeking the opinion of Finzer or other witnesses. The court granted this request.

In his defense, Chastain filed five different motions to the court. Some of the motions include pleas to drop some evidence about his compensation from OpenSea and to exclude terms like “insider trading.” He argued that NFTs weren’t securities. The Judge ruled out the motions and on May 3, 2023, Chastain was convicted of both charges.

https://twitter.com/legaleselexie/status/1653883530877841410

Meanwhile, as part of its efforts to rejig its reputation in the industry, OpenSea announced the implementation of some policies to discourage its employees from buying and selling promoted NFTs. Similarly, the firm banned the use of confidential information to trade NFTs, whether available on OpenSea or not.

In another interesting development, an international law firm, identified as Withers Khattar Wong, in 2022, obtained a proprietary injunction from a court in Singapore to freeze the sale of a BAYC NFT on OpenSea. The injunction forced OpenSea to suspend the trading of the asset from its platform.

The issue emanated as a result of a lawsuit between two OpenSea users;  Rajesh Rajkumar and Chefpierre; a pseudonymous name. As reported, Rajkumar offered the NFT as collateral for a loan from Chefpierre. According to their agreement, Rajkumar was supposed to forfeit his ownership of the asset after failing to repay his loan. Also, the duo agreed to allow an extension that would see the borrower pay back the loan upon the expiration of the loan date.

Meanwhile,  the collateral was released to an NFT escrow account as a third party. The account is programmed to release the NFT to Chefpierre once Rajkumar fails to make payment. However, Chefpierre went on to claim the NFT before the extension day elapsed. Rajkumar then sought legal support to force Chefpierre to accept the payment and release the NFT to him. Eventually, the court ordered OpenSea to block the sale of the asset till the two parties reached an agreement on the issue.

Is Devin Finzer Pro Crypto?

Devin Finzer has been fascinated by the potential behind digital assets since 2017. Although his primary focus has always been on the NFT market, Finzer is an established crypto optimist and has always been vocal about happenings in the young industry. As a matter of fact, his influence in the crypto world is as significant as that of Vitalik Buterin, Changpeng Zhao, and many other “top guns” in the industry.

Finzer’s philosophy, since he ventured into the industry, has always been to aid the adoption of digital assets by developing a reliable platform for users to acquire, sell, and trade. He believes the presence of a free and open market is imperative to attract new users into the industry and ensure that they access secure digital asset offerings.

These ideologies prompted him to co-found OpenSea in 2017. Through this platform, Finzer has continued to foster the mainstream adoption of NFTs and onboard new users into the crypto space. Likewise, he is notable for his contributions to the development of numerous NFT standards, ERC-721, ERC-1155, and more which are now widely used within the industry.

His contributions to the implementation of blockchain-based solutions and systems shouldn’t surprise anyone. The OpenSea co-founder had a strong computer science and software engineering background. He has a huge understanding of the technicalities of blockchain, crypto, and NFT technologies.

Occasioned by his immense contributions to the young industry, Finzer, has over the years, been featured on numerous podcasts and media interviews to share his perspectives about the future of cryptocurrency, NFT, and Blockchain innovations. In one of his podcast appearances around 2021, the tech expert describe crypto as a “cultural movement,” stressing that an individual’s expression is critical for its future.

When asked to speak on the future of the crypto market, he said; “You talk to people today and they’re devoting their entire lives to crypto. “All of their friends are in crypto, and that community is slowly but steadily growing.”

During the podcast, Finzer also spoke about the future of NFTs. In his remark, the OpenSea CEO predicted that NFT will go beyond just digital collectibles in the future. Recall that his marketplace is one of the critical players in the NFT space, hosting not less than 80 million items and more than one million users. Through OpenSea, any user can create and sell their NFTs. Finzer, however, foresaw a space for physical items like real estate on the platform. His belief was that these items could also benefit from NFT tokenization.

Amid the collapse of FTX in late 2022, Finzer decried its level of contagion and impact on the crypto market. Although OpenSea had no exposure to the bankrupt crypto exchange, several firms like Genesis, BlockFi, Crypto.com, and many more did. In an interview with a known publication, the OpenSea CEO described the crisis as a tragic event and a setback for crypto, stressing that “we are still feeling the collateral damage across the space.”

However, he emphasized that the incident avails an opportunity for the industry to rebuild in line with the ethos of trust and decentralization. “I think for the broader crypto ecosystem, and for NFTs in particular. This is really an opportunity to invest in strong, continual trust with users. “I have extreme confidence in the general resiliency of the community and the ecosystem, and the desire to move forward and build,” Finzer said.

Following the alarming impact of the FTX crisis on investors, calls for stricter regulation of the crypto industry began to dominate the airspace. Ever since, regulators across the globe have been initiating serious measures to regulate the industry. Amid these efforts, Finzer tried to distance NFTs from crypto crisis. In an interview with Financial Times, he cautioned regulators not to involve the NFT market in their clampdowns on crypto. The OpenSea CEO said; “It is really important that regulators and government officials understand that this is not the same as the broader crypto industry where there is a lot of focus around financial use cases.”

Meanwhile, Finzer has been critical about the rising cases of scams and exploitation in the space. Recently, he reflected on how scammers copied existing Cryptopunk NFTs and resold them as originals. However, the CEO boasted that OpenSea has an efficient infrastructure in place to nab scammers and foil their illicit operations.

Around early 2022, a rumor about a $200 million exploitation of OpenSea dominated the media space. The speculation raised questions about the security architecture of the NFT marketplace. Finzer was quick to launch an investigation into the issue and later realized it was a “phishing attack” with no connection with OpenSea. The investigation also showed that only $1.7 million worth of assets were exploited during the phishing attack.

As far as we can tell, this is a phishing attack. We don’t believe it’s connected to the OpenSea website. It appears 32 users thus far have signed a malicious payload from an attacker, and some of their NFTs were stolen.

— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) February 20, 2022

He also affirmed the commitment of OpenSea to work with victims in identifying the source of the attack.

We’re actively working with users whose items were stolen to narrow down a set of common websites that they interacted with that might have been responsible for the malicious signatures. Huge thanks to the users that hopped on the phone with us directly.

— Devin Finzer (dfinzer.eth) (@dfinzer) February 20, 2022

Crypto and NFT Holdings of Devin Finzer

Devin Finzer made his fortune through personal investment in cryptocurrency and the NFT market. According to reliable sources, he has a personal crypto and NFT portfolio that is worth millions of dollars. Apart from his 18% stake in OpenSea, Devin Finzer developed his net worth through early investment in cryptocurrency, particularly Bitcoin.

Although Finzer may not be one of the earliest Bitcoin investors, he benefitted from the rising price of the asset. His investment in the largest crypto by market cap yielded massive returns, thereby earning him a place among successful Bitcoin youngsters across the globe.

Driven by his strong entrepreneurship philosophy, Finzer reportedly reinvested his returns from Bitcoin into the NFT market by co-founding OpenSea. Today, OpenSea is the largest NFT marketplace in the industry; with about $13 billion net worth. The outstanding performance of this firm amid the ongoing NFT craze made Finzer one of the first billionaires in the industry.

According to our findings, his NFT portfolio on OpenSea is enveloped with more than fifty collections minted by him. Some of these collections are Digital Funk Superare, Artvatars, Fly Frogs, Mister Yankeenson, Wielded Serene, and many more. We estimate the overall value of all his NFT collections to be worth about 7 ETH, equivalent to $12,600 as of July 2023.

Crypto and NFT Projects Featuring Devin Finzer

As one of the influential and revered leaders in the NFT market, there are scores of collections featuring him. These NFTs are live on OpenSea but with no substantial trading volume. One of the collections is designed as an ERC-721 token standard and features the portrait of the OpenSea co-founder. According to findings, the collections were minted to celebrate the immense contributions of Finzer to the advancement of the NFT space.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Memes might be the next project to feature the billionaire OpenSea CEO. Over the past few years, this project has consistently featured influential leaders in the crypto, NFT, and stock spheres in its interesting memes.

Today, Wall Street Memes has gained widespread popularity and attention due to its exciting engagements on Twitter and Instagram. However, the project is not only into social media memes. It enjoys a strong presence in the NFT market and has continued to sustain the feat since the launch of its collection in 2021. This collection, known as Wall St Bulls recorded one of the best outings in the industry shortly after it went live on OpenSea. Within just a few minutes, Wall Street Memes raised $2.4 million from the sale of the collection.

In May 2023, the meme project resolved to take a step forward in the industry by launching a presale for its $WSM token. Interestingly, the token sale recorded over $500,000 within a few hours after it went live. Although the event is still in progress, Wall Street Memes has already raised $11 million in investment as of July, 2023. This thus earns the token sale a place in our list of prominent crypto presales in the industry. The secret behind this success is not farfetched. Wall Street Memes has the backing of a vast and robust social media community. As a matter of fact, it is the widespread reach of this community that has helped the project secures the attention of important personalities in the industry. Just recently, Elon Musk noticed the project and gave his reaction to its memes.

Literally

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) March 18, 2023

As Wall Street Memes continues to gain the attention of celebrities, savvy investors are now betting on its native token to become the next cryptocurrency to dominate the market. Despite the downturn in the market, they see exciting opportunities in $WSM and want to venture into it before it is listed on exchanges. Meanwhile, there is an ongoing airdrop from the $WSM team. You can get more information about the airdrop and the ongoing presale when you visit wallstmemes.com.

Devin Finzer’s Net Worth – Our Verdict

Devin Finzer is among those individuals who have brought leadership to the crypto and NFT industry. Over the years, he leveraged his technical expertise, entrepreneurship knowledge, and deep understanding of market trends to drive innovations in space. His willingness to take risks has continued to inspire others to explore the potential of these technologies. Today, he is known as the co-founder of the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea, and has also contributed immensely to the development of token standards.

Finzer is very young and still has a lot to offer in the industry. His vision is clear on the potential of crypto and NFTs to create opportunities and advance the finance arena. He has demonstrated this belief by collaborating with other critical actors to drive the growth of the industry.

Meanwhile, it is not in doubt that his engagements in the crypto and NFT market has earned him fortunes. With his 18% stake in OpenSea and other personal investment portfolio, the net worth of Devin Finzer is estimated to be around $600 million in 2023. Around 2022, he was worth $2.2 billion. This simply means the recent plummet in prices of cryptocurrencies had a huge impact on his net worth, displacing him from the list of billionaires. However, his net worth is expected to grow when the market recovers fully.

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