A Brief Guide to NFT Marketplaces

NFTs represent the ownership of unique digital or physical assets. Almost any asset can be created as NFT, including songs, art, virtual pieces of land, or real estate. 

A distinctive benefit brought by NFTs is the direct connection between creators and their audiences; the need for intermediaries is removed. 

Due to their popularities, many third-party platforms were born where you can trade NFTs. These are marketplaces similar to Amazon, where sellers and buyers from all over the world can exchange NFTs peer to peer. 

What’s Common Among Different NFT Marketplaces?

To begin with NFT trading, you need to possess cryptocurrencies. You can’t make transactions with any cryptocurrency; you must pay in the currencies accepted by the NFT marketplace. 

Furthermore, you must keep these currencies in a crypto wallet in order to connect with the platform. Not all wallets are compatible with every NFT marketplace, however. So, you should know which wallet is used to connect with the marketplace in question. 

Many NFTs are created on the Ethereum blockchain; therefore, most of the marketplaces also run on it. Nevertheless, there’re so many notable marketplaces for NFTs supported by other networks as well. 

NFT Marketplaces on Ethereum

The most well-known and the largest NFT marketplace is OpenSea. It covers a wide range of categories, such as art, collectibles, and domain names, to name just a few. 

To start trading Ethereum-based NFTs, you must have enough ETH currency in your wallet. In the case of Ethereum marketplaces, hence also in OpenSea, users connect with Metamask Wallet more often than not. You’ll need extra ETH to cover the transaction and gas fees, as well. The latter is the most severe drawback of all Ethereum-based NFT marketplaces. Gas fees are so high that for many NFT enthusiasts, ETH-based NFT trading is out of the question. 

OpenSea is non-exclusive, meaning there’s no review process. Anybody can list their NFTs and start selling. But not all marketplaces are like that. Some, like Foundation, have stringent rules. You have to receive an invitation from a fellow creator who previously published work on the platform. 

Other notable marketplaces for Ethereum-based NFTs are SuperRare, Makersplace, and KnownOrigin. These function as curated art platforms that work with a small number of hand-picked creators and only accept high-quality NFTs. 

NFT Marketplaces on Solana

The primary purpose of other blockchains is to allow faster transactions and higher scalability compared to the Ethereum network. Solana is one of them. It was founded in 2018 by Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald. 

The average minting cost on Solana is $1.5, making it very suitable for NFT creations. Over 5 Million NFTs were created on this blockchain. It also provides native NFT creation and distribution platforms like Metaplex. As a result, NFT generation on the Solana network is very popular. 

There are many widespread marketplaces for Solana NFTs. Solanart and Magic Eden are two of the most popular NFT marketplaces on the Solana network. They host the most popular Solana NFT collections. 

At the time of writing, per dapp radar’s last 30 days data, Magic Eden is the second largest NFT marketplace in the whole blockchain ecosystem, while Solanart is 22nd. For trading NFTs on Solana, you need SOL currency; at the moment of writing, its price is $42.42, and the market cap is over $14B. 

As with all other NFT marketplaces, you need compatible crypto wallets to store SOL and carry out the transactions. The popular Solana wallets are Phantom, Solfare, and Slope. 

NFT marketplaces on Cardano

Another widely used blockchain for NFTs is Cardano which was launched in 2017 by Ethereum co-founder Charles Hoskinson. It employs a proof of stake network that is an environmentally sustainable protocol. As a result, it’s an energy-efficient and scalable network. Since the transaction costs and other fees related to buying and creating NFTs are lower than those of Ethereum, many traders prefer Cardano NFTs. 

In order to engage with Cardano NFT marketplaces, you need ADA currency, so before trading, fund your wallet with enough ADA. The most popular Cardano NFT marketplace is jpg.store and CNFT.io. The popular crypto wallets for the Cardano network are Nami, Eternl, Flint, and Gero. 

NFT Marketplaces on Flow

The origins of the Flow blockchain date back to the time when a Canadian company, Dapper Labs, was developing the now iconic NFT project CryptoKitties on the Ethereum network. The team wanted to create a more efficient alternative for future work when the network couldn’t handle the vast amounts of transactions once the CryptoKitties became very popular. They developed the Flow blockchain that can handle 1,000 transactions per second (TPS), with FLOW as the native currency. 

Following the popularity of CryptoKitties, other Flow-backed NFT projects also attracted popular collections. One of them is the famous NBA Top Shot, a basketball-themed NFT marketplace. 

Another leading NFT marketplace backed by the Flow Network is Gaia. You can use Dapper Wallet to carry out transactions on this marketplace. VIV3 is one of the first examples of Flow NFT marketplaces which hosted the Evolution collection by the renowned artist Ben Mauro. You can connect to VIV3 with the Blocto wallet. 

Some NFT marketplaces have cross-compatibility. For example, on the Rarible marketplace, you can trade both Ethereum and Flow NFTs. 

Final Words

One of the reasons why NFTs are very attractive is that they remove the barrier between us and the creators we admire. But don’t let their charm distract you from the precautions you typically take when dealing with cryptocurrencies. Always check the official links of the NFT projects and buy from verified collections. You’re still in the crypto realm, thus prone to frauds and copy-cat projects.