NFT marketplace is your gateway to the new world of the NFT craze. NFT marketplace is the online platform where you can create NFTs, as well as purchase and sell your digital assets – everything from tweets, art, music, and even virtual real estate.
You might want to start with these blogs if you are not sure what NFT is.
Since we are big on equating NFT terms with the current world analogies, think of NFT Marketplace as the eCommerce platform. Some of them might be Amazon, while others may be eBay.
NFTs, or the Non Fungible Tokens, haven’t been around for much longer, despite that, there are dozens of NFT marketplaces on the Internet today.
How to choose an NFT Marketplace?
NFT (a.k.a Non-Fungible Token) represents ownership of an asset. Your decision-making has to begin with the kind of digital asset you are interested in. As we head into 2022, we already know you can create an NFT (digital asset) out of anything, eg: written word, art, collector’s items, video games, and more.
These digital assets are tokenized on a blockchain (like Ethereum, Solana, etc), so it helps to narrow down your interest. Let’s say you are interested in art or gaming NFTs, there are certain NFT marketplaces better suited for you.
You should also consider the type of tokens supported in a marketplace. Some NFT marketplace supports different tokens while others are closed marketplaces and only utilize a specific proprietary token. You will need to fund your crypto wallet with the right token or crypto required by the NFT marketplace.
While every popular NFT marketplace has a good security protocol, you might want to look at the history of the marketplace, any kind of issues they might have had, or just looking for something you are comfortable with.
NFT Marketplaces function in a somewhat similar manner to the stock trading platforms. Read more about how NFTs are similar to the Stocks.
10 Most Popular NFT Marketplaces
We’ll tell you everything you need to know about the 10 best and the most popular NFT marketplaces in existence today. You can then go on to choose the NFT marketplace you want to explore further and work on. Okay, rockstar! Here are the NFT marketplaces you should know about in 2022.
OpenSea
OpenSea is the most popular NFT marketplace at the moment. It’s also one of the oldest. OpenSea went through a bunch of fundraisers starting with the Y combinator. The company received a valuation of $13.3 billion in Jan 2022.
Also, in January 2022, OpenSea acquired the Ethereum wallet maker company called Dharma Labs.
OpenSea certainly seems serious and committed and is currently the leader in NFT sales. This NFT marketplace has all sorts of digital assets available on its platform. You can sign up for free and browse the extensive offerings. Artists and creators can easily create their NFTs, the process is called minting.
OpenSea currently supports more than 150 different payment tokens and it’s a great place to start for beginners.
OpenSea does seem to care about its users as well. In Jan 2022, OpenSea reimbursed users about $1.8 million USD after a user interface bug allowed users to buy over a million dollars worth of NFTs at a discount.
Larva Labs
The landing page of Larva Labs website reads, “Hi! We’re Matt and John.” Honestly, I found that hilarious. Every other marketplace seems so corporate, and well, big. Then there is Larva Labs, who just seem so human, at least to me.
These are the folks behind the CryptoPunks if you didn’t know. Larva Labs gave away CryptoPunks for free back in 2017, but some CryptoPunks have sold for millions since then. Larva Labs were one of the frontrunners of the NFT world, and they are working on projects like Autoglyphs, Meebits, etc. Larva Labs NFT marketplace is worth keeping tabs on.
Foundation
Foundation.app has gained popularity rapidly since its launch in early 2021. Foundation NFT marketplace has managed to sell $100 million of NFTs.
The Foundation community is pretty active and they constantly invite artists to use the platform. Buyers only need Ethereum in their crypto wallet to start making purchases. The company also boasts a large number of testimonials on its about page.
Who is the Foundation NFT marketplace for?
Foundation is not the easiest marketplace to create your NFTs in, so as a collector or a buyer, you will find this platform more useful
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway is another popular NFT marketplace on our list. It is an Ethereum based art curation platform powered by the Crypto Exchange Gemini. The company is controlled by the famous Winklevoss twins. You know about them if you’ve watched the movie The Social Network.
They seem to do things a little differently compared to their competitors. They call NFTs Nifty, hence the name, Nifty Gateway. Also, they seem to be the only NFT marketplace with a tagline from what I could find.
NiftyGateway tagline: We will not rest until 1 billion people are collecting NFTs.
NiftyGateway was used to facilitate the sale of popular artists like Beeple and musician Grimes.
Is NiftyGateway NFT Marketplace for you?
Nifty Gateway hosts any NFTs purchased, meaning the Nifty won’t be stored in your wallet, and will actually be stored by Nifty Gateway (Gemini). If you are a collector who wants more flexibility with your digital assets, this won’t work for you.
On the other hand, you can directly trade NFTs (buy and sell) in a real-world currency like US dollars without making a crypto purchase first.
Mintable
Mintable got in the news recently, thanks to its Billionaire investor Mark Cuban. Mintable is another NFT marketplace where you can create, purchase, and sell digital assets in the form of NFTs.
Mintable is fairly new to the competitive world of the NFT marketplace, and it plans to make it easy for an average person to create and trade in NFTs. Mintable has also put up learning videos under Mintable University targeted at newcomers to the NFT world.
Mintable supports Ethereum as standard, however, if you do not want to pay any gas fees, you can use Immutable X to mint your NFTs.
Rarible is another NFT marketplace similar to OpenSea. It allows all kinds of digital assets to be created, purchased, or sold, like art, collectibles, videos, music, and more. The only difference here is that you can only use the platform’s own token/crypto “Rarible”. It is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Rarible also uses Flow and Tezos blockchains, both of which are considerably cheaper to mint. Note: You can also use Rari tokens on OpenSea.
Rarible has partnered with some popular brands. Taco Bell has listed art on Rarible. The mega-giant Adobe also recently partnered with Rarible to secure NFT creators’ and artists’ work.
Rarible is community-owned, promotes decentralization, and users get to vote on any marketplace updates.
Zora
Zora is another NFT marketplace based on Ethereum and launched in 2019. Zora started as an artist invite-only platform similar to Foundation but has since turned into an open marketplace. The focus point of Zora is that it enables perpetual bids. So, users can freely bid on NFTs in any currency. Zora claims to be devoted to providing more ownership and power to creators over their art.
Recently, Zora has been the NFT marketplace to bridge the real and digital worlds. Zora is becoming the marketplace for superfans. Nike designer Jeff Staple has sold some limited edition trainers on the platform. Likewise, musicians have also turned to Zora to sell their albums. RAC’s Boy album (cassette) was auctioned off on Zora.
SuperRare
SuperRare is the NFT marketplace that actually stays true to its name. It is an artist-first, highly curated NFT marketplace that prioritizes true artists. You won’t find celebrity NFTs or any meme-to-the-moon NFT arts on SuperRare. Reportedly, SuperRare only accepts about 1% of all artists who apply.
Think of SuperRare as a high-end gallery, and its goal is to enable artists to mint their original art. SuperRare is for two kinds of people. One is artists. Good luck getting accepted.
The second one is collectors. As a collector, you are sure to find some interesting NFT projects here.
Binance NFT
Binance is another big player in the space of the NFT marketplace. Binance already has a reputation in the crypto trading space. The company started its NFT marketplace in June 2021, and ever since they have been onboarding a wide range of creators, and there are varieties of digital assets on the platform, like art, esports, videos, gifs, memes, and more.
Binance NFT is the company’s attempt to further expand the Binance ecosystem, and they have been quite successful at it. You can do everything from purchasing crypto to trading in NFTs within Binance. Binance also has its own tokens (BNB).
Binance offers interesting propositions to the users. All trading fees are flat 1%.
However, due to the scale of this platform, it doesn’t cater to specific niches. For instance, if you are an artist, you might find it difficult in this marketplace.
NBA Top Shot Marketplace
NBA Top Shot is the National Basketball Association and Women’s National Basketball Association’s entry into the NFT world. The marketplace is entirely focused on collectible moments around Basketball like videos, pictures, and more. NBA Top Shot Marketplace offers art from the world’s premier basketball leagues.
Top Shot Marketplace is a closed platform for NBA exclusives, built by Dapper Labs using Flow blockchain.
We know everyone might not be interested in Basketball, but we had to include this NFT marketplace for what it represents and what the future holds.
We can expect to see more niche NFT marketplaces, where you can choose to collect NFTs of your favorite sports, artists, and much more.
Investing in NFTs [NFT Marketplace Conclusion]
There is no such thing as the perfect NFT Marketplace. There are some more popular than the other, and some more suited for specific art, assets, or purpose. Make sure you do your homework before you make your investments be it creating or buying NFTs.
Keep in mind that this industry is fresh and highly speculative. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say no one actually knows what the future holds. The technology behind NFTs, and blockchain as a whole is amazing and it’s here to stay in one form or the other. However, the value of NFTs is subjective as you might have seen from the constant fluctuation happening in the market.
Final word for the NFT buyer
The value of the NFTs, aka digital assets, is associated with the value of the artist, its uniqueness, and what it can potentially provide for you in the present or the future. So, be speculative and extremely careful, as there are just as many NFT scams out there as there are opportunities.
Disclaimer: This blog is only meant for educational purposes, and does not encourage the creation, purchase, or sale of NFTs. You hold all accountability for the investments you make.
