OpenSea and Polymarket Prepare SEA and POLY Token Launches for 2026

Two established projects in the crypto industry, the NFT marketplace OpenSea and the betting market Polymarket, are working on their own cryptocurrencies. SEA (OpenSea) and POLY (Polymarket) are expected to launch in early 2026.

The crypto scene has recently experienced several major, controversial debuts with new cryptocurrencies like Plasma ‘s ASTER and XPL. In the background, the next tokens, OpenSea’s SEA and Polymarket’s POLY, are already warming up for their stock market debuts, and massive interest is expected. We summarize the current status:

SEA by OpenSea: Preparations in the final phase

The NFT platform OpenSea plans to launch SEA in the first quarter of 2026, as co-founder and CEO Devin Finzer revealed via X. The launch of SEA , originally announced for this year , has been significantly delayed. The reason for this is that OpenSea is expanding its business area and, in addition to trading NFTs, now also offers trading in selected cryptocurrencies.

Crypto derivatives are now to be added, where the success of Hyperliquid and Aster is demonstrating demand. A mobile version of OpenSea is also in development. SEA is scheduled to go live afterward. According to Finzer, 50 percent of the tokens will then be reserved for the community and distributed via airdrop. Furthermore, a token buyback program is part of the OpenSea Foundation’s concept for the SEA token.

POLY by Polymarket: US business needs to be sorted out before launch

At POLY for Polymarket, an X-post by CEO Shayne Coplan is being interpreted as a hidden announcement. According to observers, the betting platform will first want to organize its re-entry into the US market, which is on the cards following a major $2 billion investment by exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange (ICE).

For competitor Myriad, bets for a POLY token this year are below 20 percent, with early 2026 seeming more realistic. Polymarket has not yet provided any information on token distribution or the detailed concept for POLY.

Conclusion: SEA from OpenSea and POLY from Polymarket – two debuts in sight

A Polymarket airdrop is also expected for POLY, rewarding the community. As with OpenSea’s SEA, it’s likely to pay off for users to follow more detailed regulations to benefit from the airdrop. In advance, the crypto community is discussing scenarios for preventing wash trading, especially on Polymarket, from artificially inflating trading volumes in order to potentially allocate more POLY.

The real question, however, won’t be answered until next year: Do platforms like Polymarket and OpenSea even need their own cryptocurrencies after years of doing without? Token debuts this year like Pump.fun’s PUMP and 0G have shown that some founders tend to overreach themselves. For sustainable success, SEA (OpenSea) and POLY (Polymarket) will need concepts that are more than memes.

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