If you want to join the universal NFT frenzy, an NFT marketplace is your immediate gateway to the industry of funny (and oftentimes ridiculously expensive) digital collectibles.
A non-fungible token (NFT) gives you ownership of digital images, video, GIFs, pieces of music, and even in-game assets and entire virtual worlds. NFTs are hosted on blockchains – powerful decentralized technologies that support cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.
NFT marketplaces are online supermarkets where users can buy and sell NFTs. There is no shortage of NFT marketplaces nowadays, and many of them have their distinctive features and specialization. Here is a roundup of the best NFT marketplaces where you can engage in NFT trading.
What Are NFT Marketplaces?
NFT marketplaces are online platforms to buy and sell non-fungible tokens (electronic collectibles powered by blockchain technology). On an NFT marketplace, you can store and display your NFTs, as surely as you can put your NFTs for sale to earn crypto or fiat money.
Some NFT marketplaces even offer special functionality, using which, everyone can create (mint) their own NFTs and immediately list such creations for sale on the same platform.
NFT marketplaces make money by charging fees for transacting on their platforms. Generally, a buyer and a seller will pay a small fee when they conclude a deal. Along with trading fees, users may expect to pay gas fees when using NFT marketplaces. The gas fee is charged by the underlying blockchain network to verify a new transaction and record the shift of ownership on the blockchain.
How do NFT Marketplaces work?
All NFT marketplaces operate in their own way. Each platform will support a peculiar type of NFTs, establish its own trading rates, offer different payment options, and be compatible with a specific blockchain system. You might like HEC crypto. This project is also related to the NFT industry.
Some NFT marketplaces require you to link your existing crypto wallet to transact in cryptocurrencies, while others will allow you to pay using your bank card. Some platforms let you sell your NFTs for a firm price, while others use an auction process for buying/selling collectible tokens.
What Is Minting?
Minting is an industry buzzword that indicates the process of generating a new non-fungible token on a blockchain. When mining a fresh NFT, you are encoding certain information to it, such as ownership, copywriting rights, royalties, and other. It is possible to code an NFT in such a way that its author will earn a percentage every time this NFT is resold. For digital designers and artists, NFT minting is a good way to earn money.
What Is NFT Ranking?
NFT ranking is basically the rarity of a given NFT in a particular NFT collection. Each NFT is unique, unrepeatable, and comes with its own set of characteristics. While the entire set of characteristics will be different, individual characteristics will apply to many NFTs in the same collection. So, NFTs with uncommon traits are likely to be rare, thus, having a higher ranking.
NFT ranking does not depend on one special trait alone, but by the “singularity” of all its traits together. Each characteristic in a given NFT will have its own score, depending on the amount of NFTs in the same collection sharing the same characteristic. The total sum of characteristic scores makes up the NFT’s overall rarity score, consequently, determining its final ranking.
Generally, high ranking will positively impact the value of a specific NFT, but this often depends on the popularity of the entire NFT collection. If an NFT collection is not in high demand, its individual pieces with a high ranking may not cost much.
As a rule, NFT ranking is provided by an NFT marketplace where the collection is displayed. There are also some online services, such as Rarity, tools, and Rarity Sniper, which allow you to calculate the overall ranking of your NFTs.
OpenSea
OpenSea is a well-established NFT marketplace that has been operating since 2017. The platform supports many NFT types, including virtual art, collectibles, domain names, music, photography, trading cards, and virtual worlds.
It supports many popular NFT wallets such as MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, and Trust Wallet. Users can transact in ETH, WETH, SOL, USDC, and DAI. Note that payments cannot be executed in fiat currencies, like US dollars or Euros, on OpenSea.
The platform is geared toward inexperienced enthusiasts who are just starting their NFT journey. The platform’s interface is extremely user-friendly, and setting up an account will take you just a few minutes. You can use OpenSea to mint and sell your own NFT collections.
The site charges a fixed 2.5% fee per transaction, let alone gas fees levied by blockchains. The supported networks include Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn, and Solana. The platform also offers extensive educational content for beginner users.
OpenSea Key Features:
- A great diversity of supported NFT formats
- Moderate fees
- Several supported blockchains
- Numerous payment options in crypto
LooksRare
LooksRare is a popular marketplace for non-fungible tokens. The platform is known for offering a great diversity of NFT formats, and it also rewards users that buy or sell any NFTs on LooksRare with LOOKS tokens.
It should be noted that the team of LooksRare is hidden, and the founders’ identities are presented by pseudonymous accounts, so you may want to conduct your own research before using this NFT marketplace.
Unlike competitors, LooksRare only charges a 2% commission on deals, which is an extremely low fee rate. But you will also have to pay gas fees that are charged by the Ethereum ETH blockchain – the only chain currently supported by LooksRare.
The platform’s functionality is quite scarce though. For instance, it does not allow for minting your own NFTs. Available payment options are limited, too, and they include ETH and WETH. The supported wallets encompass MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Coinbase Wallet.
An interesting feature of this service is that members can bid on the entire collection at once rather that individual NFT pieces. You can buy digital collectibles through auctions or through fixed prices.
LooksRare Key Features:
- No NFT minting
- Token rewards for platform users
- No fiat payments
- Low trading commissions
- Only one blockchain is supported – Ethereum
Rarible
Rarible is a full-blown online NFT supermarket to purchase and trade electronic art, virtual collections, game assets, and other NFT formats. The blockchain compatibility includes Ethereum, TezEthereum, Flow, Polygonos, Tezos, Flow, Polygon, which is a solid repertoire.
Rarible sets an industry-average trading fee of 2.5% per deal, and along with cryptocurrencies, it allows users to pay with bank cards. The website supports several dozens of crypto wallets, such as Metamask, Ledger, and Coinbase to name a few.
NFT minting is also enabled on this platform, and the procedure comes with a zero cost. However, with free NFT minting, the buyer of your NFT will have to cover the creation fees. The final fee may badly surprise the person who is trying to buy your NFT. Free minting also adds your NFT to the Rarible collection. To launch your own collection, you will have to pay a fee.
Rarible Key Features:
- The support of different blockchains
- Bank card payments
- Moderate transaction fees
- NFT buying, selling, minting
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway is a bit different NFT marketplace because it primarily offers digital art pieces (called “nifties”) from famous designers and artists. Sales are generally held through auctions, though unclaimed assets can be put for a sale. The site is famed for offering expensive and exclusive NFT projects, whose price tag can amount to millions of dollars.
On the platform, users can purchase limited-edition NFTs from celebrities directly from the author through Nifty Gateway’s curated drops (auctions).
MetaMask is the only supported wallet on the platform because Nifty Gateway has an internal custodial storage feature. This sophisticated NFT marketplace accepts credit and debit cards, along with ETH, EtherCredit, and Gemini account payments.
Because it is geared toward more serious buyers, Nifty does not offer music, game assets and virtual worlds as NFTs.
Nifty Gateway Key Features:
- Only one supported blockchain – Ethereum
- Bank card payments
- 2.5% listing fee
- Limited NFT formats for trading
- It sells NFTs only from celebrities and top artists
Mintable
Mintable is an Ethereum-powered NFT marketplace where users can easily create and trade various types of NFTs, such as digital art, music, videos, in-game items, virtual worlds, etc.
On the platform, users can turn their JPEGs, GIFs, sound files, and video clips into non-fungible tokens for free. Moreover, the created NFTs can come with royalty rewards for an author to earn a percentage every time the token is resold.
Mintable has a varying fee structure, depending on the format of an NFT you are dealing with. Such as, regular NFTs come with a 2.5% fee; while gas-less NFTs will incur a 5% transaction fee, and printable units will involve a 10% fee. Users can purchase NFTs using their credit cards or ETH.
Mintable is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain. This website also supports Immutable X and Zilliqa chains.
Mintable Key Features:
- A varying fee scheme
- Credit card purchases
- The support of MetaMask
- User-friendly NFT minting
- Multi-blockchain compatibility