Why Everyone’s Mad About OpenSea’s Wave 1 Treasure Chest Rewards: A TLDR

OpenSea’s Wave 1 Treasure Chests triggered backlash after users realized most rewards covered less than half their trading fees, with lower tiers receiving nothing and top NFT prizes still undistributed. The community now pins its hopes on the upcoming $SEA TGE airdrop to make up for the losses.

The backlash erupted on X almost immediately after OpenSea unlocked its Wave 1 Treasure Chests on October 16, 2025. Users are expressing frustration over what they call “extraction” tactics and disappointing rewards.

TLDR:

• Many users found their rewards amounted to only about 50 percent or even less of the total trading fees they had spent.

• Lower-tier chests such as Wood, Iron, and Steel received literally nothing, leaving a large portion of participants empty-handed.

• Users pointed out that OpenSea has not yet added the highest-value NFT collections into the rewards pool. These prized assets appear to be held at 3 different addresses leading some to question whether the system was rigged from the start.

• The Treasure Chest rewards also turned out to be pre-assigned rather than random, and some managed to preview their rewards ahead of time. This discovery further fueled concerns over transparency and fairness, although the loophole has since been closed.

What Happened?

To understand what happened, let’s start with some information and data.

OpenSea’s Rewards program, part of its pre-TGE campaign for the $SEA token, allows users to earn XP and level up their Treasure Chests through 12 tiers, ranging from Wood to Solar.

Overall, there are 12 types of Treasure Chests, categorized based on trading activity such as token swaps, NFT purchases, and daily votages.

Higher tiers unlock better rewards, improving the chances of receiving NFTs, tokens, or larger $SEA allocations at the TGE. In simple terms, the more volume you trade and the more fees you generate for OpenSea, the better your potential rewards.

In total, 390,033 wallets participated in Wave 1 with 2.58 billion XP being generated.

However, the rewards pool was funded by only half of the $23 million in trading fees collected since the program’s launch. This means that, even if distributed equally, most users would have received only about 50 percent of their fees back. Since the pool also includes high-value NFTs such as Moonbirds, Pudgy Penguins, and CryptoPunks, the majority of users are expected to receive far less than 50 percent in rewards, while only a small handful will win big.

Worse, it was later discovered that OpenSea had not yet added these high-value NFT collections into the chest pool. CMO Adam Hollander explained that all grand prizes must be distributed manually by the team after a verification process. According to him, anyone who wins will see a button to fill out a form and connect with OpenSea, after which the NFTs will be distributed individually.

Prediction of OpenSea Rewards Was Spot On

One user, had already calculated the expected rewards from OpenSea’s Treasure Chests well before the reveal.

Interestingly, his estimated figures turned out to be very close to the actual rewards, and in some cases, only slightly higher than what users eventually received.

Will there be a reversal?

Since this chest category is part of the pre-TGE reward pool, the community is now placing higher expectations on the upcoming $SEA TGE, hoping that the airdrop will be large enough to offset their losses. For now, OpenSea has moved on to the Wave 2 Treasure Chest rewards program, which will continue until November 15.

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