NFTs have been around since 2014. But it didn’t become mainstream until 2017-2020. Many factors contributed to its popularity like the shift to the Ethereum blockchain, the launch of the CryptoPunks NFT collection, and the CriptoKitties blockchain game in 2017. All these have helped NFT achieve its stellar reputation.
So what are NFTs— Non-fungible tokens are one-of-a-kind digital tokens that anyone can create. The artists upload their digital art to any centralized or decentralized storage platform and gain certified ownership. Later on, they can sell or trade their works. A decentralised storage method, IPFS or distributed file storage protocol, is typically used by serious projects to save their work. A new NFT is generated on the blockchain each time an NFT is formed during the minting process, along with metadata that contains a media file link with all the information.
Today there are many platforms known as NFT marketplaces that bring collectors, creators, buyers, and sellers together and simplify the trading process.
What Is an NFT Marketplace?
NFT marketplaces are basically platforms where anyone can sell and buy NFTs. They work likewise with Amazon, Shopify, eBay, and other platforms which are used to find and buy different goods.
If you don’t know where to start, some quick insights into the key marketplaces will help you learn how to buy NFTs.
How Do NFT Marketplaces Work
NFT creators and collectors use marketplaces to simplify creating, browsing, selling, and buying digital art pieces.
In order to kick off on any NFT platform the new users need to follow these steps:
- Sign up and create your account
- Choose a wallet that is compatible with the blockchain network supporting the NFT marketplace. Marketplaces nowadays support at least 3 to 5 different wallets
- Find out which cryptocurrencies are supported by the marketplace and pre-fund your wallet
- Create digital art straight on the platform using its tools, or upload already created NFTs
- Provide the metadata of the NFT: name, description, transaction history, etc.
As the owner, you can offer a fixed price or put your NFTs on an auction. Some marketplaces will give a percentage after your NFT is resold. This is called Artist Royalties. For NFT artists, this is an essential step so marketplaces do their best to meet users' needs and wants.
For instance, Blur recently said that customers may ask for full royalties and receive them in all desired marketplaces. On the other hand, in order to maintain its position and not lose market share, OpenSea introduced Gem, the new NFT aggregator for pro traders. It’s one of the leading platforms today putting together dozens of marketplaces. The platform is simple to use and offers different features.
It's also important to note that NFT Aggregators are a 2023 phenomenon. These serve as entry points to various NFT markets. Aggregators were developed to bring together several marketplaces and enable easier browsing for investors and creators. They can compare the best offerings and obtain comprehensive analytics.
Many people still prefer visiting marketplaces because NFT aggregators are very complicated for casual users and are mostly built for pro traders.
Top NFT Marketplaces
There are hundreds of NFT marketplaces available now. Some of them are famous globally, while others are promising newbies. Whatever the case, all these top NFT marketplaces have claimed their positions and have earned their place on this list. Each marketplace has specific features, tools, and reward systems that make it unique.
ftNFT
ftNFT is a new, revolutionary marketplace in the digital world. At the moment, the platform supports the Ethereum blockchain. Gas fees and commission fees are also implied. Users can either ‘Lazy Mint’ or ‘Mint’ their NFTs.
Lazy minting will allow the creators to upload their NFTs, and after selling, the end user will pay the gas fee, while for minting, the user has to pay the gas fee himself.
The users can upload any format of NFT like PNG, JPEG, MP4, etc. Actually, the format of NFT may differ from marketplace to marketplace. If the digital art doesn’t contain any racial, sexual, or other kinds of harassment it can be uploaded.
It’s also worth mentioning that ftNFT has opened the very first phygital NFT space in the world which is located in Dubai Mall. There have been two more phygital NFT spaces opened recently: one in the Mall of the Emirates, and the other one is a franchise in Abu Dhabi.
BLUR
BLUR is one of the rapidly growing NFT marketplaces now. With an impressive range of filters, tools, and a custom storefront, it’s a strong favorite among millions of NFT fans and goes head-to-head with Open Sea. Everything changed with the $BLUR airdrop and this helped the marketplace to climb up to the top position.
Many NFT artists and collectors give preference to this marketplace as it functions like a hybridized platform: so it’s both an aggregator and a marketplace. It offers faster NFT swipes and lets its users see the rarity, profit, and price of the given collections in real time.
Additionally, people love it because it has zero marketplace fees and the possibility to lower royalty payments.
OpenSea
OpenSea is one of the giants in the NFT marketplace. Its total worth is estimated at 13 billion. OpenSea is called NFT Casino among users, as the name suggests, it’s like an ‘open sea’. Here, the users can find everything they want: a wide variety of NFT collectibles, different filters to simplify the search, and an easy transaction process.
This NFT platform supports Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn, and Solana, taking only 2.5% per translation. It also has a feature where the users can track NFTs' prices from the beginning and see the progress or the regress in the value. So many users consider it to be the best place to buy NFTs.
In April 2022, OpenSea released Gem, a Pro version of the company's platform recognized as an NFT marketplace aggregator, to keep up with the competition and the rising popularity of the platform. Users of OpenSea Pro get access to a wide variety of NFT collections by seeing listings from over 170 markets.
Rarible
Rarible is like a breath of fresh air among many other marketplaces. It uses its own currency and awards the RARI token to the active users. So on weekly bases, Rarible distributes 75,000 RARI tokens.
Rarible uses the blockchain Ethereum and provides various types of NFTs. Art, photography, metaverse, and gaming are some of the popular NFTs you can find here. From every sale, Rarible charges 1% on the buyer side and 1% on the seller side.
Rarible has excellent features and filters that help users to have a smooth search. Mainly focusing on art assets, the platform allows artists to mint new NFTs.
Among other things, Rarible encourages networking via cross-chain wallet-to-wallet messenger where the users can connect.
SuperRare
SuperRare is very selective when it comes to choosing artists. However, you have all the chances to be the next artist to cooperate with them, just submit your portfolio and wait for a reply.
In contrast to other marketplaces, SuperRare mostly offers art NFTs. It has a simplistic interface and search bar with categories for easier navigation.
You should know that the platform charges a 3% fee on all purchases, including gas fees. Another important thing is that SuperRare takes a 15% commission on the first sale.
Magic Eden
Magic Eden is a whole new world amongst NFT marketplaces. It’s not only a place where you mint, sell, or buy NFT, but it also supports game creators and even launched Eden Games. This hub for NFT games is based on the Solana blockchain.
Magic Eden also offers partnerships allowing others to create their own marketplaces. For example, Thugbird’z Thugstore and Galactic Geckos NFT were powered by Magic Eden.
The marketplace is created based solely on the Solano blockchain so you need SOL tokens to buy NFTs. At the moment Magic Eden supports 4 blockchains: Solana, Ethereum, Polygon, and BTC Ordinals. With Ordinals joining the industry in 2023, now users can create NFTs on the BTC Chain.
Magic Eden has recently released three more new upgrades.
The debut of Solana NFT aggregation is the first. This indicates that the platform will serve as a gateway between users and various NFT platforms. Users can now search, find, buy, and sell NTFs more quickly and with less hassle.
Another significant upgrade is Magic Eden's decision to make their marketplace contracts open-source. Also, they have improved API documentation and removed contract fulfilment costs. As a result, the platform can provide developers and traders with a more flexible and integrated environment.
Last but not least, the users can earn SOL when their offers are accepted or their properties are sold on Magic Eden.
Magic Eden bills itself as a “web3-first marketplace”. Now it has over 7,000 collections and a secondary trading volume of $1.6 billion.
Nifty Gateway
This marketplace for non-fungible tokens is famous because it sells exclusive and costly NFTs from widely known artists. The main type of digital asset found here is art.
The marketplace supports the Ethereum blockchain and charges no gas fees.
Only qualified artists can mint their own NFTs on the platform. The good thing about the marketplace is that it supports Meta Mask wallet, additionally, you can pay with your card or Ethereum. The marketplace uses different filters and categories to help you get the most out of your search.
There is a separate category called ‘Drops’, where you can find the most recent NFTs. As mentioned above, Nifty focuses on exclusive art from the top NFT artists and even celebrities. When a new trend comes in the NFT world, the platform lets its users buy the editions of these NFTs for a limited time.
Binance NFT
You all may know Binance as a crypto exchange platform, but in 2021 Binance launched its new NFT marketplace.
As expected, the NFT marketplace of Binance is packed with features that make creating and trading NFTs easier. The so-called main product lines on the platform are Marketplace, Events, and Mystery Boxes.
In the marketplace section, the users and creators can mint, bid, purchase, or sell NFTs.
With Binance Events, users can buy exclusive NTFs from well-known artists. The Events section has some great works from celebs, artists, musicians, etc.
Among the features that definitely set Binance NFT marketplace apart is the Mystery Boxes section. It basically offers the chance to buy a box with a surprise NFT inside. You have the opportunity to get a Normal (N), Rare (R), Super Rare (SR), or Super Super Rare (SSR) NFT. The users can choose to keep the boxes unopened and trade them later on the marketplace or sell the NFT found inside.
NFTs can be minted on BNB Chain and Ethereum(ETH). BNB, BUSD, and ETH are the cryptocurrencies the Binance NFT Marketplace supports. Another advantage of the marketplace is that the fees are lower, with only a 1% commission fee.
Coinbase NFT
Coinbase NFT is another popular marketplace. Artists can upload their JPEGs, art, video files, even documents, and many more. With an easy-to-navigate interface, users can find everything they want, sell and buy NFTs, and additionally follow the latest NFT trends.
Your NFT will be stored on the blockchain you use, and Coinbase will allow you to enter and control your assets with a private key and wallet address.
So if you buy or create any NFT using the Coinbase NFT marketplace, it automatically adds up to your wallet. It charges only a 1% transaction fee making it really affordable for many to use.
How to Choose an NFT Marketplace
In the rush of NFT popularity, many people may wonder how to choose the best NFT marketplaces and what they should consider. Don’t worry, we have got you covered.
NFT marketplaces are not the same. For example, some offer improved security, others low gas fees and custom features for community governance, etc. Others may be very specific niche NFT marketplaces like Sloyaka, NBA Top Shots, and more.
Eventually, everything boils down to personal preferences so here are some points you need to have at the back of your mind while choosing a marketplace.
The Blockchain
Starting off, you need to consider which marketplace suits your NFTs. Then check out which blockchain it uses. Some may opt for Ethereum, others suggest blockchains with better carbon footprints, the others go for less popular blockchains and cheaper gas fees.
Verification Process
This is an important stage, as you must provide sensitive registration information. Look at the verification process to see if the platform offers two-factor authentication or other security measures. For example, some marketplaces may even require you to pass KYC (know-your-customer). Using KYC technology isn’t a common practice but it can protect the marketplace and lower the chance of theft or scam.
Wallet Compatibility
Paying and getting money is one of the most important things to look at. As a user, make sure to choose the NFT marketplace that offers an easy, secure, and fast payment method. Some third-party integrations marketplaces like MoonPay, Stripe, etc. will have the chance to pay with credit cards as well.
Gas Fees
As you may know, marketplaces may charge commissions for sales and the blockchain will require gas fees for the provided services. The gas price varies as it depends on the Blockchain and on the blockchain load at a particular moment of the transaction.
There are hundreds of NFT marketplaces out there, and many more are popping up like mushrooms after the rain. Now, you have a general idea of what NFTs are and what marketplaces are out there. One thing you need to keep in mind about NFTs is that they are a volatile type of asset so always keep your finger on the pulse of the industry. Stay tuned and read the news before joining the NFT frenzy.