Best 5 NFT Marketplaces To Join In 2021

If you are a fan of technology and blockchain, in particular, the NFT scene is one of the most promising in 2021. This is because creating digital art was never as easy as it is today. And owning/trading this digital art can happen at the ease of your sofa, instead of going to auctions, etc. Now, auctions happen at the tip of your palm. Crazy, huh?

The NFT market had an exceptional first quarter stat in 2021, with over $2.5 billion in sales. All this grew when Beeple sold his digital art for $69 million dollars! A picture unlocked the possibilities that NFTs provide for artists to make a living. It also gave collectors the chance to generate better sales from their collection.

Today, we will take a look at 5 of the most trending NFT marketplaces in 2021 and why you should take the initiative and start trading collectibles right away.

Also, if you are an artist of any kind, non-fungible tokens will be your best bet to getting paid for your art. For me, I can take advantage of NFTs and combine them with my two passions, writing, and photography. This way, I will create something unique and probably high-priced.

For those who don't know what NFTs are, we will take a small detour and give an explanation to our readers here. And we will take a look at a quick before-buying guide so you can make sure everything runs smoothly for you. It's easier than you think, but some things must be sorted out beforehand.

What is an NFT (Non-fungible token)

NFT stands for non-fungible token. It’s generally built using the same kind of programming as cryptocurrency, like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but that’s where the similarity ends. They only exist in the blockchain.

An NFT is a digital asset that represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items, and videos. They are bought and sold online, frequently with cryptocurrency, and they are generally encoded with the same underlying software as many cryptos. This is where you, as an artist, can benefit.

NFTs are also generally one of a kind, or at least one of a very limited run (for instance 100 copies of something), and have unique identifying codes. “Essentially, NFTs create digital scarcity,” says Arry Yu, chair of the Washington Technology Industry Association Cascadia Blockchain Council and managing director of Yellow Umbrella Ventures.

How to Get Started

First, you’ll need to get a digital wallet that allows you to store NFTs and cryptocurrencies. There are a ton of them, with my pick being Metamask. You’ll likely need to purchase some cryptocurrency, like Ether, depending on what currencies your NFT provider accepts.

Friendly reminder, Ethereum network has a high fee level when many people trade at the same time, so you might witness some discouraging numbers. Wait for the right moment or take a look at some of the other marketplaces that we will discuss below. There are PoS (Proof-of-Stake) alternatives that have lower fees, faster transaction times, and are generally a better fit. But they lack trading volume for now.

Owning some of the coins that the blockchain uses (Eth for Ethereum, BNB for Binance, etc) will be used so you can pay the fees needed for minting or buying a project.

You can buy crypto using a credit card on platforms like Coinbase, Kraken, eToro, and even PayPal and Robinhood now. You’ll then be able to move it from the exchange to your wallet of choice.

Okay, now you are set to go. The hardest part of getting your hands into your first precious NFT is done. Now, what is left is you finding the perfect NFT market for the deal. There are a lot around, but we will take a look at the mainstream ones, across different blockchains.

Top 5 NFT Marketplaces

1) OpenSea

OpenSea is arguably the largest NFT marketplace. It offers a wide range of non-fungible tokens, including art, censorship-resistant domain names, virtual worlds, trading cards, sports, and collectibles. You can buy, sell, and discover exclusive digital assets like Axies, ENS names, CryptoKitties, Decentraland, and more.

They feature over 700 different projects, including trading card games, collectible games to digital art projects, and name systems like ENS (Ethereum Name Service).

Creators can create their own items on the blockchain using OpenSea's item minting tool. You can use it to make a collection and NFTs for free, without the need for a single line of code. If you're developing your own smart contract for a game, digital collectible, or some other project with unique digital items on the blockchain, you can easily get added to OpenSea.

If you're selling items on OpenSea, you can sell an item for a fixed price, create a declining price listing, or make an auction listing.

Auctions are the best way to hit the jackpot. Some buyers are going nuts with NFTs that they believe they are worth more than they do at the starting price. As a collector, you have to find those rare gems that will make you sell them for a way higher price than the one you bought them.

As an artist, you have to make NFTs that are worth other's attention.

As a buyer, you have to have the right eye for the next Beeple gem.

2) BakerySwap

BakerySwap is among my favorites because it belongs to the Binance ecosystem. Due to that fact, the amount of fees in there is minimum, and the ease of use is unparallel.

Plus, their native token (BAKE) is having a small market cap, making your potential earnings worth more in the long run.

It definitely takes my first place for ease of use.

Ideally, it's a place where memes thrive. So, it's more of a gambling platform if you ask me. Still, it's one of the best to getting started.

3) Enjin

Enjin allows game developers to tokenize in-game items on the Ethereum blockchain. It uses Enjin Coin, an ERC-20 token, to back the digital assets issued using its platform, meaning that items can be bought, sold, and traded with real-world value.

Enjin Marketplace is a mechanism by which you can explore and trade blockchain assets. It is the official marketplace for Enjin based NFTs. To date, it has enabled $43.8 million of Enjin Coin to be spent on digital assets, involving 2.1 billion NFTs. 832.7K items have been traded. You can use the Enjin Wallet to easily list and purchase gaming items and collectibles.

The game industry is the future and no one can deny that. With e-sports thriving, NFTs will be a huge part of the gaming community and it's one of the biggest reasons for someone to invest in the technology.

Non-fungible tokens are like the physical cards we were furiously buying as kids back in the day. Now, they are digital. And now, they can make us thousands of dollars as well.

4) Decentraland

A rather different NFT marketplace.

Decentraland offers its players a chance to buy virtual land and build a virtual community on its platform. 

Decentraland's online community is gaining a lot of clouts, especially in the art world. Digital artists have hopped on to Decentraland to buy real estate and build art galleries to exhibit their work. Even Sotheby's, one of the world's most renowned auction houses, is now on Decentraland with a virtual gallery.

If you watched Ready Player One, a movie set in the future of Virtual Reality, you can see how close we are getting to such an approach.

Remember when your dad wanted you to have a piece of land with the prospect of selling it one day when the market booms?

Well, now you can own digital land, decentralized, or better, Decentraland.

With lands selling to up to $900k, there's an untapped potential for digital land, and it's fairly cheap if you ask me

5) Rarible

Rarible is the place for art-focused projects. It will be the place where I will personally mint (create) my first ever NFT. It's like going to your local gallery, finding a gem, and buying it for your house, with the thought that one day you might sell it and make big returns for it. Well now, you can do it from the internet.

The creator can even show a sneak peek of their creation to everybody who comes to Rarible but limit the full project to the purchaser.

It's the place where you can, as a buyer, find exceptional art in many fields. Photography, music, paintings, etc.

In my opinion, it's one of the platforms that will stay for a long time in the scene and has the power to grow even more. Open seas, which is the biggest of them all, has had a 1 billion dollar trading volume in the last 30 days.

And if that's not enough for you, the 30-day volume it has reaches $18m. Currently, it's in the top 5 of NFT marketplaces and only one of the two in the top five that offer a variety of collectibles.

Final Thoughts

After the auction of Beeple's NFT-based artwork, which got sold for $69 million, NFTs as a model of ownership seems to be attractive to new investors and artists as well. The ease of access for both parties makes it like a child's toy to make or earn an NFT.

Due to the growth of crypto art, which doesn't seem to slow down at all, the Ethereum network has exploded by NFT art markets. And traditional auction houses have recognized the power of NFTs and trying to capitalize on it.

But there are problems with this model as well.

Many people suggest that creating NFTs in the not-so-friendly environment Ethereum network is bad. The high fees and the cost of energy make it sometimes unusable to create and own non-fungible tokens.

For this reason, people try to focus on other blockchains. Blockchains that use Proof-of-Stake (PoS). These networks are eco-friendly and they are thriving in 2021.

Algorand, Tezos, and Polkadot are three of the top picks as of now.

They are trying to bring artists there in an attempt to grow their community (a community that you can be a part of if you are visionary enough). They are also trying rightfully to prove that their platform is better than existing platforms because of their environmental signature which is minimum.

As a new investor, it's nice to look at alternatives as well. Even if this top 5 list is showing you the most trending platforms to use, there are other alternatives that offer you the ability to be a part of a growing community with low volume and more possibilities.