Coinbase Ventures' Around the Block blog series is devoted to research on key Crypto trends. The authors of this article are Connor Dempsey, Justin Mart, and Mike Cohen. A phenomenon that only occurs in the crypto space: a platform built in a few weeks by an anonymous founder can compete with the leading platforms in the industry. This phenomenon is vividly illustrated by the newly launched NFT platform LooksRare, whose transaction volume in January reached more than 9 billion US dollars...