Getting Started with NFTs | NFT Marketplace

NFT has been breaking sales records since 2021.

From Twitter co-founder selling his first tweet as NFT for $2.9 million to Beeple’s NFT art collage auctioned at $69.3 million to NBA generating over $230 million in NFT sales.

In the first article on our NFT series, we explained what NFTs are and if they are a good investment and concluded with some touchpoints on the biggest NFT sales.

In this article, we’ll uncover where to buy NFTs and what to consider before purchasing them.
If you are new to the crypto space, we recommend starting with our free 5-day crypto starter kit course.

What Is An NFT Marketplace?

NFT marketplace is an online platform where non-fungible tokens (NFTs) can be minted (created), displayed, traded, and stored. 

They are similar to Amazon and eBay except that they are built on blockchains and the goods being sold on these platforms are digital assets (NFT).

Building an NFT marketplace on a blockchain keeps the record of the NFTs minted immutable and ensures an easy way to prove ownership.

The blockchain a marketplace is built on influences its features; for instance, building an NFT marketplace on Solana improves the scalability of the transactions on the marketplace.

Where To Buy NFTs

Ethereum Marketplace

1). Opensea

Opensea is a decentralized non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace where users can create, trade, and exchange NFTs. It was founded by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah with its headquarters in New York City.

Opensea is built on the Ethereum blockchain and offers cross-blockchain support on Polygon and Klatyn. 

The Polygon technology adds to Opensea’s scalability by enabling instant transactions with Ethereum currencies like ETH, DAI, and USDC.

In December 2020, Opensea unveiled its Collection Manager feature that lets users create NFTs for free.

How To Use Opensea

Connecting Wallets On Opensea

Opensea allows you to connect with multiple wallets for example, Metamask, Wallet Connect, Coinbase wallet, etc.

How To Connect A Metamask Wallet to Opensea

1). Go to www.opensea.io

2). Click on the profile icon at the right.

3). Select ‘Metamask’ from the wallet list. Your Metamask application will open. Allow Opensea to view your public address.

4). Click on ‘connect.’ You can add your email address or username. Note that you can change these details (like username) later.

How To Buy NFTs On Opensea

1). Go to opensea.io, click ‘explore.’

2). Select ‘All NFTs.’

3). Click on the NFT you want to buy.

4). Click on ‘Buy Now.’

5). Click on the box to agree with Opensea’s terms.

6). Click on ‘checkout.’

7). You would be asked to confirm the transaction with the crypto wallet linked to your Opensea account.

2). Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway is an online non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace built on Ethereum blockchain specifically for the purchase, sale, and storage of art NFT collections referred to as Nifties on the platform.

It was founded by Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster in 2018 and acquired in November 2019 by the crypto exchange company Gemini (headed by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss).

In April 2021, Nifty Gateway partnered with the auction house Sotheby, for the release of “The Fungible Collection” NFT series by Pak.

In February 2022, Nifty Gateway became a hybrid NFT platform providing a custody option for new users who are unfamiliar with crypto and a non-custody option that supports ETH wallets for experienced users.

The custody option lets users store their NFT directly on the platform without linking to external crypto wallets.

How To Connect External Wallet To Your Nifty Gateway Account

1). Login to your Nifty Gateway account, click on the profile image icon on the top right corner.

2). Click ‘Account Setting.’

3). Navigate to ‘External Wallets.’

4). Click ‘Connect Wallet’ and follow the instructions in linking external wallets.

What Are Nifty Drops On Nifty Gateway?

Nifty Gateway provides a primary and secondary marketplace for NFTs.

Nifty drops are the primary marketplace where users buy nifties directly from the creators.

After these nifties sell out, the only way to purchase them is through the secondary market sale from other users.

How To Buy From Nifty Drops

Nifty Gateway provides several ways for creators to list their nifties in the primary sale. This influences the way collectors can purchase these NFTs.

1). Open Editions

Open edition NFTs are set to a fixed price (e.g $200) and timeframe. The number of purchases dictates the number of NFTs minted and distributed.

Delivery of open edition nifties is not immediate, this is because the NFTs are minted according to the number of purchases.

2). First Come, First Serve (FCFS)

FCFS nifties are similar to open edition drops except that they have a fixed number of editions (NFTs) available and the drop time elapses when all the NFTs have been purchased.

Distribution of FCFS drop is on a first come first serve basis.

3). Drawings

Drawings drop have a fixed number of nifties available, timeframe, and specified requirement for entering the drop.

Once the entry period elapses, winners are randomly selected and requested to make payment within a timeframe.

If payment is not made within the timeframe, a new winner is selected. 

The distribution of nifties in drawing drops is random.

Pack:

A pack is a set of nifties. Each pack contains a unique mix of nifties. Packs can be used in drawing drops or FCFS drops.

4). Auction 

In auction drops, collectors enter publicly visible bids for NFTs with auction duration usually within 24 hours. At the end of this period, the collector with the highest bid wins.

5). Silent Auction

In this drop, the bids are not publicly viewable. At the end of the auction period, the 100 highest bidders receive one nifty and are requested to pay the price they bidded.

6). Ranked Auction

Ranked auction is similar to silent auction except that the bids can be publicly viewed. At the end of the auction period, the highest bidders receive the NFT and pay the price they bidded.

How To Create NFT on Nifty Gateway

Unlike Opensea, Nifty Gateway requires interested creators to apply to create on the platform. They encourage applicants to put enough information that helps their chances of being selected.

This process allows Nifty Gateway to list quality nifties from top-rated artists.

How To Buy NFT On Nifty Gateway During Secondary Sale

After drops, nifties can be purchased from the Nifty Gateway marketplace by making a global offer. 

When this is done, a notification is sent to all the NFT owners of the artwork you made the offer on.

The owners can decide to accept or reject the offer.

Nifties can be bought with a credit/debit card or Ethereum using an ETH prepaid balance.

All collectors on Nifty Gateway are required to open an account on the platform to be able to purchase NFTs.

Solana Marketplace

1). Solanart

Solanart is the largest NFT marketplace built on the Solana blockchain. According to Business Insider, it is a top 5 NFT marketplace with a trading volume of $518.23 million and 34,544 traders as of November 2021.

Solanart lets users list Solana-based NFTs for free, collecting 3% as a transaction fee for every successful sale.

How To Get Started With Solanart

1). Create a Solana wallet.

Solanart is compatible with Solflare, Phantom, and Sollet.

2). Download the wallet extension for your browser. Solanart recommends using Google Chrome.

3). Deposit SOL in your wallet.

4). Go to www.solanart.io, click the ‘connect wallet’ button in the top right corner and connect your wallet to your Solanart account.

How To Buy NFTs on Solanart

1). Explore the marketplace, click on the NFT you want to buy.

2). Select the ‘Buy’ button on the NFT.

3). You would be asked to approve the transaction in your SOL wallet connected to Solanart.

4). All the NFTs you purchase are visible in your Solanart dashboard under the ‘My NFTs’ section.

How To List An NFT On Solanart

Listing on Solanart is free but every creator is required to apply. 

Cardano Marketplace

1). CNFT.io 

CNFT.io is an NFT marketplace built on Cardano blockchain for the minting, sale, and purchase of Cardano-based NFTs. It was launched in July 2021 by a team decentralized across the world.

Verified Cardano NFTs on CNFT.io are displayed with a yellow tick to help collectors identify quality NFTs.

CNFT.io also has a betadex feature that swaps NFTs for $CNFT utility token.

How To Buy NFTs On CNFT.io

1). Sign up on CNFT.io by providing your email address and creating a password.

2). Go to www.cnft.io

3). Click on ‘buy NFT’ on the top left.

4). You would be shown the CNFT.io marketplace where you can explore several NFTs. Click on the NFT you want to buy.

5). You will then be shown the asset details, price of the NFT, and option either to ‘instant buy’ or ‘instant buy with other wallets.’

6). If you click ‘instant buy,’ you would be redirected to an instruction page that details the meaning of instant buy. Click the ‘continue’ button.

7). Select a wallet to proceed. CNFT.io supports several Cardano wallets including Nami, ccvault, Flint, Gero, and Yoroi wallet.

8). Clicking ‘instant buy with other wallets’ will give a prompt to confirm your purchase.

Avalanche Marketplace

Avalanche is a decentralized open-source blockchain launched in September 2020 by Ava Labs. It is considered Ethereum’s competitor as it prioritizes scalability and cheaper transaction fees.

Avalanche processes 4,500 transactions per second. 

In 2021, several NFT marketplaces were built on Avalanche:

1). Yeti Swap

Yeti Swap is a decentralized exchange and NFT marketplace built on Avalanche in September 2021. 

It lets users create, buy, and sell NFTs using $YTS (its governance token) and $AVAX (the native token of Avalanche blockchain). 

Yeti Swap collects 2% commission for transactions made with $YTS and 3% commission for transactions made with $AVAX.

It is the only NFT marketplace built on Avalanche blockchain that offers royalties. Creators get to choose royalties option between 0% -15%.

This means that the creator gets the percentage they choose on every secondary market sale.

2). Kalao

Kalao is an NFT marketplace built on Avalanche that integrates both metaverse and virtual reality to NFTs.

Creators can display their NFT collection in virtual reality galleries (accessed with or without a VR headset) offered by Kalao.

Certified collections are listed to help collectors choose quality NFTs.

3). NFTKey

NFTKey is a decentralized multi-chain NFT marketplace that supports Avalanche, Fantom, Ethereum, and Binance Smart Chain.

It helps users explore, buy, and sell NFT from various artists across the different blockchains.

Conclusion

First things first, make sure you are visiting the correct NFT website, hackers are real. The marketplace you choose highly depends on the token you have or the perceived value of the NFT that’s been sold in the marketplace. 

In case you want to pay with a credit card you can also check if they support it as well, otherwise, you will have to purchase the token used on the NFT platform, ensure you check the terms and conditions, transactions fees, etc before starting the process. It’s good to know what you will get at the end of the day.

NFTs are here, learn as much as you can about them and decide how much investment you’ll love to be in it.

Good luck