CHAPTER 5
If you’re looking to create, sell, or buy non‐fungible tokens (NFTs), your best bet would be to do it on one of the many NFT marketplaces. By creating and minting an NFT on a marketplace, you won’t need to know how to code a smart contract or need any technical knowledge at all. This is a major breakthrough that allows the average person to create and mint NFTs.
Of course, you’re still going to need to get on the blockchain because NFTs are blockchain assets. We’ll guide you through this, as well as with the creating, minting, selling, and buying of NFTs in Chapters 6–8. We’ll be using OpenSea, the largest and most popular marketplace, as the platform on which we will guide you. Nonetheless, we recommend that you explore all of the marketplaces detailed in this chapter. Each has its own character, focus, and community. By exploring them all, you will get a broader sense of the overall NFT market.
This chapter provides an overview of several of the most popular NFT marketplaces.
OpenSea
Website: Opensea.io
OpenSea is the largest and most popular NFT marketplace. It also claims to be the first as well. As of this writing, OpenSea features 15.5 million NFTs and has sold $354 million of NFTs.
We find OpenSea to be the easiest to navigate and most user‐friendly when creating, selling, and buying NFTs. It’s great for beginners who are just getting into NFTs. Collectors can also find a wide variety of NFTs on OpenSea, including the following:
· Digital art
· Collectibles
· Music
· Domain names
· Virtual real estate
· Digital trading cards
· In‐game items
You can choose various ways to sell your NFTs, including English auctions and Dutch auctions.
Overall, we highly recommend OpenSea, which is why we use it as the go‐to marketplace in the chapters that follow.
Pros
· Largest NFT marketplace
· Easy to create, sell, and buy NFTs
· Free to mint NFTs
· Only a one‐time double gas fee to list NFTs for sale
· Fee of only 2.5 percent of sales
Cons
· Can buy and sell NFTs only with cryptocurrency
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
Rarible
Website: Rarible.com
Like OpenSea, Rarible is user‐friendly and easy to navigate, and you can create, sell, and buy various types of NFTs.
Rarible has incorporated some social media elements into its site, such as a “follow” feature, allowing users to follow NFT creators and get notified when the creator drops new NFTs.
Rarible also created the RARI token, which is the native governance token of the NFT marketplace, designed to reward active platform users with a voice on the platform’s future.
Rarible takes a 5 percent commission from every sale, charging 2.5 percent to both the buyer and the seller.
Pros
· Easy to create, sell, and buy NFTs
· Vibrant community
Cons
· Can buy and sell NFTs only with cryptocurrency
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
· Must pay a gas fee every time you mint an NFT
Nifty Gateway
Website: Niftygateway.com
NFTs are called nifties on Nifty Gateway. The marketplace sells nifties of only established digital artists, celebrities, and brands. For example, Nifty Gateway featured drops by Beeple, Deadmau5, Eminem, and Paris Hilton.
Nifty Gateway portrays itself as a high‐end marketplace, like an exclusive art gallery. Creators need to apply and go through an extensive vetting process to sell on Nifty Gateway.
Nifty Gateway is one of the rare marketplaces where you can purchase NFTs with a credit or debit card, which opens up nifties to collectors not familiar with cryptocurrency.
Pros
· Can buy nifties with a credit or debit card
· Easy and intuitive to use
Cons
· Fee of 15 percent of sales
· Sellers need to create a Gemini account to cash out
· Need to apply to sell nifties
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
SuperRare
Website: Superrare.co
As the name implies, SuperRare sells only single‐edition (1 of 1) NFTs. Additionally, only digital art NFTs are sold on SuperRare, which are not available for purchase anywhere else.
SuperRare describes itself as “Instagram meets Christie’s. A new way to interact with art, culture, and collecting on the Internet!”
SuperRare has built a strong community, and it also tracks the top collectors and trending artists.
Like Nifty Gateway, SuperRare has an elegant design. Additionally, an editorial section of the website features a few digital art‐related articles each day, akin to a glossy art magazine.
Pros
· Rare, single‐edition NFTs
· Easy and intuitive to use
· Strong community
Cons
· Fee of 15 percent of primary sales
· Need to apply to sell NFTs
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
Wax (Atomic Hub)
Website: Wax.atomichub.io
Atomic Hub is based on the WAX blockchain, which is entirely separate from the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. WAX is not as popular as ETH, but WAX transaction fees are minimal compared to ETH gas fees. Additionally, WAX uses proof‐of‐stake validation, which means that it has negligible effects on the environment.
Atomic Hub is most notable for selling packs of NFTs, like a pack of baseball cards, where you don’t know what you’re going to get inside the pack. Similarly, NFTs found in packs have different levels of rareness. For example, Topps sells packs of Major League Baseball NFTs, which are traded on an active secondary market.
Pros
· No ETH gas fees
· Environmentally friendly
· Only 2 percent fee on sales of NFTs
Cons
· Creating NFTs is complicated.
· The WAX blockchain is much less popular than the ETH blockchain.
· NFTs are not transferable to the ETH blockchain.
Foundation
Website: Foundation.app
Foundation calls itself a “playground” for artists, curators, and collectors. The marketplace design seems heavily influenced by social media, particularly Instagram. Users are encouraged to link their social media to their Foundation account.
Anyone can sign up, but if you want to sell your NFTs, you have to be upvoted by other community members. This community‐led curation makes it more difficult to sell your NFTs but maintains a certain level of quality of the artwork.
Pros
· Nice variety of quality art NFTs
· Active community of artists and collectors
Cons
· Fee of 15 percent of primary sales
· No way to filter searches
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
NBA Top Shot
Website: NBAtopshot.com
Created by Dapper Labs, the creator of CryptoKitties, NBA Top Shot is a marketplace where you can buy video NFTs of historical NBA moments. The marketplace has been wildly popular, with hundreds of millions of dollars in sales.
Like Atomic Hub, collectors buy packs of unknown NFTs of varying rarity, which they can then sell on the secondary market.
Collectors can also compete in challenges to earn free NFTs.
The marketplace is on the FLOW blockchain, which uses proof‐of‐stake validation, like WAX.
Pros
· Awesome NBA video NFTs
· Environmentally friendly
· Can purchase NFTs with your credit or debit card
Cons
· NFTs are not transferable to the ETH blockchain.
· It can take weeks to withdraw funds.
· Market gets flooded with NFTs due to the regular release of new packs.
VeVe
Website: Veve.me
Veve is a mobile app, available on the App Store and Google Play. Veve sells only 3D image NFTs of major brands. For example, Veve features NFTs of Ghostbusters, Batman, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.
You can manipulate the size and angle of the 3D images from the NFTs and place them in other apps, add them to photos, and share them on social media.
Pros
· High‐quality 3D files
· NFTs of some popular brands
· Don’t need cryptocurrency to buy NFTs
Cons
· You can’t transfer your NFTs out of the Veve app.
· You can’t sell Veve NFTs; you can only trade them for other NFTs.
· The user interface is a bit clunky.
Known Origin
Website: Knownorigin.io
Known Origin prides itself as an artist‐driven marketplace, which is limited to NFTs of digital art. It features a primary marketplace of new art NFT drops and a secondary marketplace where collectors can sell NFTs they own.
Artists need to apply in order to create and sell NFTs on the marketplace. Know Origin tries “to ensure a very high level of due diligence” when selecting artists for the platform.
Pros
· High‐quality art NFTs
· Elegant, user‐friendly interface
Cons
· Fee of 15 percent of primary sales
· Currently not accepting new artist applications
· Based on the Ethereum blockchain, which can have high gas prices for transactions
Myth Market
Website: Myth.market
Myth Market focuses on trading card NFTs and is actually just a hub for five distinct markets:
· GPK.Market (Garbage Pail Kids trading cards)
· GoPepe.Market (trading cards featuring the Pepe meme)
· Heroes.Market (Blockchain Heroes trading cards)
· KOGS.Market (KOGS trading cards)
· Shatner.Market (trading cards featuring William Shatner)
Like Atomic Hub, Myth Market (and its submarkets) utilize the WAX blockchain.
Pros
· No ETH gas fees
· Environmentally friendly
Cons
· You can only buy and sell NFTs offered on each submarket.
· The WAX blockchain is much less popular than the ETH blockchain.
· NFTs are not transferable to the ETH blockchain.
Wrap‐Up
Keep in mind that there are dozens of NFT marketplaces. The NFT space is evolving rapidly, and new marketplaces will pop up, while others will fade into obscurity or simply cease to exist.
You can find links to the previous marketplaces and several others, on the book’s Resources page at TheNFThandbook.com/Resources, which we will keep updated.
Now that you have a sense of the NFT market, let’s start creating your first NFT.