NFTs or Non-Fungible Tokens have been sold for enormous money over the past few years. The craze for these digital collectibles is rapidly growing among many across the world. Whether it’s just some geometrical shapes or some kind of pixelated 2D punks, many in the world are looking to own it.
NFTs are minted, airdropped, auctioned, or sold on NFT marketplaces. These platforms are not superficial stores to buy or sell digital collectibles, but a doorway into a community of passionate creators and collectors.
The best of these marketplaces could be figured out by considering the fees charged while transacting, whether the art being sold matches your style, and even the blockchain and crypto tokens used. Commonly, most marketplaces use the Ethereum blockchain to mint and trade NFTs.
Still, other platforms are also available that use some Ethereum killer blockchains because of high transaction fees and high carbon footprint on the Ether chain.
How do NFTs marketplaces work?
On a Non-Fungible Token marketplace, users can buy, sell, display, or even mint newly issued NFTs. These platforms play a significant role by allowing the world to interact with digital collectibles and enabling all possible activities. Moreover, the digital collectible industry is analogous to all online blue-chip retail giants across the globe.
An NFT marketplace is a decentralized platform that helps industry enthusiasts and users buy/sell digital collectibles. These platforms are like an eCommerce platforms similar to Amazon or eBay. However, NFT marketplaces have numerous features and types that distinguish them quite from other platforms.
These marketplaces give rise to a unique business model where unique art tokens can be bought or sold. Here are ten steps that showcase how a Non-fungible Tokens marketplace works:
Step 1: The user creates a new account on a specific NFT marketplace
Step 2: A crypto wallet is linked with that account
Step 3: Users can create NFT on that marketplace
Step 4: NFT is configured for that marketplace
Step 5: NFT is listed for selling
Step 6: The marketplace and NFT listings are moderated
Step 7: NFTs appear for selling in the marketplace
Step 8: Bids are placed for that NFT
Step 9: NFT is sold to the top bidder
Step 10: The marketplace handles the transaction via a crypto wallet
The aforementioned steps show us what is being done on the front end. In the backend, the platform creates a blockchain contract for every listed NFT. Each unique token is added to the one-of-a-kind data form called metadata, from which the unique parameters are added to the NFT to make it unique and distinct.
The millennial smart contract technology helps these marketplaces regulate, monitor, and approve the transactions between the buyer and the seller.
Notably, each contract contains a unique parameter associated with the NFTs and ensures that the owner of any particular token is one and only in the Universe.
Features and types of NFTs marketplaces
NFTs marketplaces have a very specific purpose that allows users to trade digital collectibles most seamlessly. To ensure these purposes, some globally accepted features are incorporated. Some of these top features include:
Crypto Wallet
It is important to ensure that each transaction is processed through a cryptocurrency wallet. The users should, must be able to sync and integrate their wallets within the platform for a seamless experience.
Shop Window
On the platform where the sellers showcase their impressive work, all the critical information should be in the most optimized manner. This information includes name, price, description, owner, payment mode, and more. Having a great Shop Window triggers better chances of a sale.
Search Capabilities
A robust and features-rich search engine is a must on a platform where millions of users are interacting with numerous projects. Better search capabilities would help users to search for their desired NFTs quickly.
Besides the aforementioned features, an NFT marketplace should also list some of the most popular types of NFTs.
Some popular NFTs include game/trade cards, trophies of wins, unique videos of rare gaming moments, famous and rare characters, high-end and in-demand real estate properties, music albums, and some unique Investment Projects.
Top 5 NFTs marketplaces
#1 ~ OpenSea – Broadly established NFTs marketplace
OpenSea is one of the oldest and most widely used NFTs platforms. The marketplace hosts one of the broadest collections of every kind of digital collectible that includes music, photography, games, and sports.
OpenSea supports more than 150 types of different cryptocurrencies for payment. With an easy-to-use interface, users can set up an account for free and begin to mint, sell, and browse one-of-a-kind art pieces in minutes.
Furthermore, the NFT market now boasts its gas-free platform through cross-blockchain support. Notably, OpenSea also supports the Polygon marketplace, which means the enthusiastic buyer does not require paying high fees when making trades. This also helps the creators fully earn their way into the digital ecosystem.
According to data from DappRadar, daily trading volume on OpenSea is recorded at $21.58 million at press time.
#2 ~ Magic Eden – Best Solana NFTs market
Although Magic Eden is not as popular as OpenSea, it is rapidly becoming one of the favorite new NFTs marketplaces. Since the Non-Fungible Token industry crash, there has been a reduction in the use of Ether for trading and minting digital art. However, yet Ether blockchain is massively being used, but it is steadily losing the Ether market because of high gas fees and network congestions.
Solana blockchain catches the trend of NFTs because the blockchain is new, cheaper, and has a very low carbon footprint compared to Ether. Solana ecosystem saw a notable spike at the end of May. At the time, the NFT on the blockchain was up by more than 436% in just a time span of 24 hours in comparison to the previous period.
Furthermore, if someone is looking for Solana NFTs, they will need specific wallets and supported platforms, for example, Phantom wallet. Indeed, there is no other better marketplace than Magic Eden, which is completely dedicated to the Solana ecosystem.
On Magic Eden, users can find some established digital collectibles projects like Trippin’ Ape Tribe and other new collections. However, there is one downside that the creator needs to apply for listing if they wish to launch a new collection or an NFT token.
#3 ~ Rarible – Rare media and sports NFTs
Rarible is an NFTs marketplace built to host single artwork and collections. The platform basically attracts most of the sports, gaming, and media brands, along with artists releasing collections of works. The platform is owned by the community and promotes complete decentralization.
On Rarible, users can use its native cryptocurrency, RARI, to interact across the platform. With RARI, users can participate in moderation and vote on any upcoming upgrades.
The decentralized marketplace has also partnered with some known brands to secure their artists’ works and create unique Non-Fungible Tokens. The partners of the platform also include Adobe.
Rarible uses support Tezos, Ethereum, and Flow, blockchains. When someone mints an NFT on Rarible, they are given options to choose a supported token that the creator is going to use. Moreover, minting on Rarible also provides an option to allow enthusiasts to search the project on OpenSea.
It is observed that Rarible Ethereum is one of the most used blockchains to mint Non-Fungible Tokens. However, because of the high carbon footprint and expensive gas fee, many also look to mint the Tezos blockchain projects that ask for minimal fees and gear towards creators releasing collections.
#4 ~ Coinbase NFT – Well-connected marketplace
Coinbase NFT is one of the newest marketplaces in the industry. Launched completely in April, the platform has been at the heart of the crypto boom for some time. Coinbase is famous for being one of the early startups in the ecosystem and offers one of the most easy-to-use interfaces for its users to trade cryptocurrencies and NFTs.
Although the platform was launched with some bad luck due to the last NFT crash, now it seems that all the works listed here have become a big hit. Moreover, the NFTs marketplace could easily be connected with the trading app and wallet. Incredible for freshers in the industry, it offers one of the most robust UX in the industry.
New users could get 0% transaction fees benefits for a limited time.
#5 ~ Binance NFT – Future-proof marketplace
Binance is one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges across the world, as per data from CoinMarketCap. And now, the exchange crypto platform is also becoming one of the most popular and largest NFTs marketplaces.
One of the most important reasons for Binance NFT is that it supports its own blockchain, Binance Smart Chain (BSC). Moreover, for the same reason, Binance NFT is also deemed as one of the most future-proof NFT marketplaces.
The size and scale of the platform show that it can offer exclusive partnerships and events which other platforms would envy. Moreover, the traders already using Binance for trading crypto could find the platform easily accessible. And having BNB tokens would give the cherry on top of it.
On the Binance NFT marketplace, besides BNB, users can also use Binance USD (BUSD) and Ethereum (ETH) to trade one-of-a-kind crypto tokens. Also, can deposit NFTs minted on the Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain blockchains and list to sell them off.
Conclusion
If you have already stepped into the NFTs world, you can witness a lot of jargon and some controversies around digital collectibles. Still, the enthusiasts have faith in this millennial innovation’s utility. Following the scenario, many marketplaces are completing to make their platforms handier.
Notably, some platforms are also now accepting debit and credit cards to make it easier to mint, create, and trade NFTs. However, because of these marketplaces and their tremendous services, digital collectibles are now accessible to everyone worldwide.