Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are the next best thing in the world of cryptocurrencies. Unlike fungible crypto tokens that can be produced in millions or even billions of identical copies used as digital currency, each NFT is totally unique. There are no two identical NFTs and literally anything from artwork, music, in-game virtual goods, to tweets, social media profile photos, and real-world assets can be tokenized in the form of an NFT.
NFTs are trending on the market, with a huge variety of available tokens. Some are worth just a few US dollars, while others are worth millions of USD. These unique crypto assets are stored in crypto wallets that support NFT storage, but in order to buy an NFT, you can’t just go to a crypto exchange platform. Instead, you need to browse NFT marketplaces and buy an NFT with a conventional cryptocurrency such as Ethereum (ETH).
The NFT market is generally very competitive, just like the rest of the crypto market. Although a considerable portion of NFTs are built on the Ethereum blockchain, other networks such as Polygon (MATIC) and Solana (SOL) are also experiencing high volumes of NFT traffic. Zelcore has recently added support for the Solana network and is working on adding support for additional blockchains.
Let’s take a look at how NFT marketplaces work and check out some of the most popular markets on the web.
NFT Marketplaces
NFT marketplaces are designed to offer users a simple and straightforward purchase experience. You can browse NFTs by various categories such as artist, release date, rarity and price. Making a purchase is nearly instantaneous. The key requirement is that you connect your crypto wallet to the marketplace and make sure you have enough crypto in your wallet to pay for the NFT. After making a purchase, the NFT is transferred to your wallet in a matter of minutes.
There’s a bunch of NFT marketplaces on the web, but many of these online platforms have poor security measures and they are filled with scammers. That’s why it’s very important to only use popular and trusted NFT marketplaces.
Here is a selection of popular, trustworthy marketplaces known for hosting top quality NFT collections.
OpenSea
OpenSea is the largest and most popular NFT marketplace on the web. It was founded in 2017 and soon after the platform’s launch, it managed to attract over 300,000 users and over 1 million NFT collections. The OpenSea market cap is huge, with over 1.5 billion USD of total trading value. The selection of available tokens is unparalleled by any other available marketplace.
Since OpenSea is the most popular platform for selling and buying NFTs, it’s quite common for famous artists to choose OpenSea as the only platform for selling their artwork. The NFTs available on OpenSea are built on a variety of networks, including the Ethereum (ETH), Polygon (MATIC) and Klaytn (KLAY) blockchains, which illustrates how competitive the NFT market is with various blockchains joining the competition.
Enjin Marketplace
Enjin is one of the largest online gaming platforms on the market. They have existed since 2009 and they entered the crypto market in 2017, by moving their whole platform to the Ethereum blockchain. Around 20 million users participate in various Enjin backed gaming communities, along with a thriving NFT marketplace with millions of virtual goods related to NFT gaming, digital collectibles and play to earn crypto games.
Buying and selling NFTs on the Enjin platform is done with the native ENJ coin, an ERC20 token that can be easily exchanged for NFTs.
Rarible
The Rarible marketplace is a fresh addition to the NFT market, launched in 2020 by crypto enthusiasts focused on the newest, trending NFT collections. Rarible is built on the Ethereum blockchain but it doesn’t use ETH as a trading currency. Instead, all trades are made with the platform’s native crypto, the Rarible token.
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway is an NFT marketplace owned and operated by the Gemini crypto exchange platform. This marketplace has exclusive agreements with a bunch of top trending artists that sell their tokenized artwork exclusively on Nifty Gateway. Unlike other marketplaces, new NFT collections are only available for a limited time. New NFT drops are scheduled every three weeks and you need to be real fast to grab your desired NFT.
The high exclusivity of the platform means that the selection of available artists is carefully curated and you can only find top rated tokens for sale. This of course means that the token prices are high, in line with the exclusivity of the artists.
SuperRare
SuperRare is home, just like it’s name says, to very exclusive NFT collections. The available selection of NFTs is much smaller compared to platforms like OpenSea, and the artists who want to get listed on the platform need to go through a thorough selection process which includes submitting a detailed portfolio of their earlier work.
The platform was launched in 2017 and it brings a unique mix of social media and NFT marketplace experience. Just like many other platforms, SuperRare is also based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Conclusion
Buying an NFT is as simple as buying standard, fungible cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum or Ripple (XRP), but it can take much more time to find an NFT that suits your taste. People can spend hours on NFT marketplaces browsing different categories and platforms before finding the right NFT. That’s why it’s important to know which NFT platforms are trustworthy and offer the best selection of tokens.