Tokenization and art platform Rarible is having problems with big amounts of wash trading. According to data analytics website Nonfungible.com there are 'massive amounts' of illegal trades taking place. As a result they have removed the token platform from their data analytics website.
"We are blocking wash traders from the marketplace every day. It's though to be an open platform", Rarible replied to Nonfungible. Wash traders basically buy their own creations for extremely high prices. This not only artificially pumps the value, but also earns them RARI, which is a new token from Rarible.
According to the data analytics website most sales over $1000 are actually wash trades. Upon the launch of the RARI token, the results were immediately visible. Rarible suddenly pumped to the top of the charts on Opensea. In the past seven days there has been 174 thousand dollars (543 ETH) in trading volume, and the week before there was more than 700 ETH. However, before they launched the RARI token, these numbers were much lower.
Despite the wash trading, it doesn't look like Rarible is going to make any changes to their system. They will just keep blocking addresses from using their platform. Every week they drop 75 thousand RARI to the market, which they split between all buyers and sellers. Currently one RARI is worth $0.87.
Not only art
Rarible isn't only being used to sell art or creative images. Photography also has a place on the platform, while some people are selling voxel creations. Nonetheless, everything that's being sold on Rarible is creative by nature.
The top five creators on the platform have accumulated 245 ETH in total revenue for their creations. According to OpenSea the platform offers more than 1 million creations, selling with an average price of 0.02 ETH. There are currently 1606 wallets with art from Rarible, responsible for a total lifetime trading volume of 1467 ETH.
Posted from my blog: https://www.nederob.nl/2020/07/30/rarible-hampered-by-wash-trading/