OpenSea and the Seaport working group have released Seaport 1.6, the latest version of the NFT trading protocol for the Ethereum Virtual Machines (EVM) ecosystem. The innovation, "Seaport Interceptors," is based on Uniswap v4 interceptors and aims to simplify the development of applications that enhance the utility and liquidity of NFTs.

These hooks act as order execution plugins, allowing developers to integrate custom contracts into Seaport. Seaport 1.6, utilizing the latest Ethereum Dencun update, offers users a 5% discount on gas fees for certain transactions. This update is already being used by major EVM networks.

Seaport can deploy and call contracts, ensuring an efficient order execution process. This allows NFTs to adapt to purchase conditions and use specific currencies or other NFTs. OpenSea plans to migrate user orders to Seaport 1.6 on March 25 without user interaction, and from April 1, the OpenSea API will only accept Seaport 1.6 orders. Seaport 1.5 will be gradually phased out.

The integration of Seaport hooks will allow NFT sales to access liquidity from various sources in the network, expanding the interaction between DeFi and NFTs. This includes features such as Time-Weighted Average Price (TWAP) oracles for the NFT sector. OpenSea sees the hooks and the Seaport ecosystem as an invitation for developers and creators to expand the capabilities of NFTs.

This update comes at a time when the NFT market is experiencing a downturn. OpenSea, once the leading NFT trading platform, now ranks fourth in trading volume. The average price of a digital collectible on OpenSea has fallen by 22.22%. While Bitcoin ordinals are gaining popularity, the floor price for Ethereum NFTs has significantly dropped in recent months.