Heard about buying digital monkeys, moments, and virtual artwork? Not knowing where to get all this? No worries; we are here to help you with NFT Marketplaces where you can buy NFTs.
What is NFT?
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are quickly turning into one of the most explosive crypto trends since the “DeFi summer” in 2020. The number of cryptocurrency holders and traditional investors has increased since then, seeking to own and speculate on these unique blockchain-based assets.
NFTs are virtual tokens representing ownership of something, physical or digital, inherently distinct and unique, such as artwork, a soundtrack, a collectible, an in-game item, or real estate. These types of digital assets are different from regular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin or fiat money like the U.S. dollar since they cannot be mutually exchanged for one another because each token has a specific value based on its unique traits and attributes.
Moreover, unlike regular cryptocurrencies, NFTs cannot be purchased on centralized or decentralized crypto exchanges. They are only listed and traded on online marketplaces that are specially built for NFTs.
What are NFT marketplaces?
NFT marketplaces present platforms where NFTs are stored, displayed, traded, and sometimes created. Accessing and using these types of marketplaces requires knowing and having the following key items:
- A crypto wallet: A wallet should be chosen that is compatible with the blockchain network that supports the NFTs to be purchased. For example, if one plans to buy or sell NFTs based on the Ethereum blockchain platform, they need to use a compatible Ethereum wallet such as MetaMask. If a Solana platform is used to sell an NFT, a wallet service such as Sollet is required.
- Coins in the wallet: Wallets must be pre-funded before buying, listing, or minting an NFT. Again, it is necessary to find out which cryptocurrencies are supported by the marketplace intended.
- A user account: This is also needed to set up an account on the desired NFT marketplace used to purchase NFTs.
Note that listing and creating NFTs on a marketplace platform include a blockchain network fee which varies depending on which blockchain-based system is used. For example, the largest ecosystem of NFT Dapps is owned by Ethereum. However, it costs the most expensive fees.
As mentioned, The most popular system for buying, selling, and creating unique digital items by far has been Ethereum. However, the list of competitors entering the market is growing every day. Some are as followings.
- Binance Smart Chain
- Flow (by Dapper Labs)
- Tron
- EOS
- Solana
- Polkadot
- Tezos
- Algorand
- Cosmos
- WAX
- Hedera Hashgraph
Some of these blockchain systems are interoperable. For example, you can buy Ethereum-based non-fungible tokens with Ethereum-based tokens (called ERC-20 tokens, which include USDT, USDC, BNB, DAI, etc). On the other hand, others, such as Flow, form closed systems. In this case, it is not possible to buy NBA Topshot NFTs (that are based on Flow) with ether or BNB.
Explore best NFT marketplaces blockchain-wise:
How do these marketplaces work?
Signing up
Depending on the site used, signing up for an NFT marketplace could be slightly different, but the main steps involve creating an account, connecting a supported digital wallet, or doing both. The instruction to this is typically explained in NFT marketplace homepages. When the wallet is connected, it is asked to enter the password to complete the process.
Buying an NFT
A fixed price or an auction is conceded for directly purchasing NFTs. Also, buyers may offer a price to the owner and attempt to negotiate the purchase.
Selling an NFT
The process of selling digital assets could be more complicated than buying them, particularly when the users are trying to sell NFTs they have created themselves (artwork, a soundtrack, a tweet, etc.). Thus, more attempts should be made.
- First, it is required to upload the chosen digital asset onto the marketplace and set a fixed price or opt to sell the NFT via an auction.
- Then, the platform verifies the asset. If approved, the sale list is presented.
- When the seller accepts an offer, the marketplace conducts the transfer from buyer to seller.
Types of NFT Marketplaces
It is already known that universal and art-oriented platforms are the most popular among many other types of marketplaces. Furthermore, niche NFT marketplaces are available to list specific kinds of non-fungible assets, such as in-game items, digital collectible cards, and virtual real estate.
Top 10 NFT Marketplaces
1- OpenSea
OpenSea is one of the largest and best NFT markets. It was founded in 2017, and since then, it has entered the digital market with more than 17000 subscribers. It offers a wide range of NFTs based on digital art, domain names, CryptoKitties, trading cards, collectibles, Decentraland, and more. Furthermore, it is the greatest place for you if you want to sell, buy or get your hands on exclusive assets.
This best platform allows developers to build marketplaces for their digital assets on Ethereum and interoperable standards like ERC721 or ERC1155 and get a commission from secondary products. A big advantage of this market is its easy-to-follow onboarding skills for new users to crypto.
The interesting thing about OpenSea is that many celebrities like Logan Paul, Chamath Palihapitiya, and Mark Cuban have shown their attentiveness to the platform and trading their NFTs.
You might also be interested in How to Create NFT on OpenSea Marketplace.
These wallets work with OpenSea:
• MetaMask: A browser extension with excellent power and pliability.
• TrustWallet: A non-custodial mobile wallet that keeps your private key locally with more security layer.
On the OpenSea platform, you just pay a fee for one time for listing your artwork, and transaction fees from there are on buyers. If you wish to know which crypto wallet to use, the best thing you can do is to try one of the many choices available. All of them have various features.
Gaining such high-profile customers, this market has established itself as one of the best NFT markets.
Pros and cons of the OpenSea marketplace include:
Pros:
- The NFT mining tool in OpenSea is its main advantage as it is easy to use and can help NFT creators develop their token and NFT collections easily and safely.
- Creators may use smart contracts with their own NFT games or collections.
- OpenSea not only supports a variety of digital currencies but also provides low platform costs, which is a great way to make more money.
Cons:
- Opensea merely accepts cryptocurrency as a payment mode. It does not offer any fiat support; hence one cannot make payments with currencies like Euros and USD.
2- Rarible
Rarible, the second of the best NFT markets, was launched in 2020 by Alex Salnikov and Alexei Falin. It is a community-owned NFT marketplace, with its “owners” holding the ERC-20 RARI token. Rarible gives the RARI token to active users who buy or sell on the NFT marketplace. It also lets you mint your NFTs, which consist of books, movies, digital arts, and music albums. The platform is specifically creator-friendly, making it easy for a user to tokenize their work.
A good advantage of Rarible is that aside from being a marketplace, it works as a distributed network where trade is promoted without the
existence of an agent. Currently, 75,000 RARI tokens are distributed weekly to Rarible users making purchases or sales on the platform.
This marketplace also buys and sells photographs, domain names, music, games, etc. But, Rarible is known as one of the best art-based NFT marketplaces. Rarible permits their share as royalty for secondary transactions.
Rarible got attention for launching its own governance token, RARI, which is more generally used in the DeFi field, with the aim of becoming a decentralized self-governing organization where the platform customers will make all decisions. The tokens created on Rarible can also be managed on OpenSea.
A special aspect of Rarible is the introduction of the community. Somehow, it is possible to share or look for new ideas based on industry trends, like YouTube.
Many celebrities and important figures have minted their NFTs using Rarible, including billionaire Mark Cuban and famous boxer Floyd Mayweather.
Here are the pros and cons of using Rarible:
Pro:
- It is quite simple and easy for even novice users to use Rarible. Users will also find it easy to learn the transaction procedure.
- Rarible is a beginner-friendly platform where users do not need technical knowledge or coding required.
Cons:
- Customer Support in this platform does not provide acceptable support compared to other platforms.
- The gas fee is relatively high on Rarible, so it seems a good choice for professional NFT artists.
You might also be interested in How to Create NFT on Rarible Marketplace.
3- SuperRare
If you are interested in buying or selling a unique digital artwork, SuperRare is your right choice and the third Best NFT market. SuperRare is a platform trading unique, single-edition digital artworks. Each artwork is authentically created by an artist in the network and tokenized as a crypto-collectible digital item that you can own and trade.
It is built on the Ethereum blockchain that permits users to go over the total history of the art. In this marketplace, artists can display their works without being afraid of forgery.
In addition, the SuperRare marketplace allows creators to share a snippet of their work instead of the whole piece. You can think of SuperRare as Instagram meets Christies. A new way to interact with art, culture, and collecting on the internet!
You might also be interested in A Complete Guide on How to Mint an NFT.
SuperRare is an exclusive platform that helps make high sales prices. The artist receives a 10% royalty on any sale of their art. This thing helped gather top artists in the world. SuperRare platform allows you to offer a piece even if it is not for sale. By doing so, you show your interest to the owner, which may enable you to buy a piece you wanted that wasn’t posted for sale.
At present, SuperRare collaborates with a few exclusive artists, and it is considered difficult to get accepted. There is a concentration on quality over quantity for this platform.
There are some inconveniences about SuperRare; first, its commission is high, 15% for the initial sale. This amount is high compared to other platforms like OpenSea and Rarible. Another thing is that only one payment method is acceptable for everything on the site, Ethereum. While most NFT marketplaces accept Ethereum and multiple forms of crypto.
Mr. Misang, MiraRuido, Eclectic Method, and Trevor Jones are artists who follow the SuperRare marketplace.
Let’s check the pros and cons of the platform:
Pros:
- Since this market is a social network at a moderate level, users can be sure that they will not be spammed with unrelated content.
- There is no restriction with the items on SuperRare, and creators can portray everything, including nudity.
Cons:
- The platform required significantly higher fees, up to 15% commission for the first sale. The later sales give a 10% commission to the creators.
4- Foundation
The 4th in the best NFT marketplace list Is a special platform that works with unique creators, particularly in the option music and art sites. And it is designed to gather digital creators, crypto natives, and collectors together to move culture ahead. The foundation platform’s first blog post was in August 2020. This platform helps artists mint their art and get money. The platform’s team determines which artwork is going to be shown on which web page of the platform.
Whenever an NFT trades on Foundation, the artist makes 10% on that secondary transaction.
Minting an NFT and listing it are two different costs. The price to list the NFT in Wingfield’s case was the same as minting, about $75. After the payment goes through, the process to list on the blockchain and the Foundation marketplace can take anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes.
If you want to join the Foundation as a creator, you must be invited to join by a current creator. To receive an invitation, you have to join the community upvote.
Here are the pros and cons of the Foundation marketplace:
Pros:
- Both creators and buyers find it easy to use the Foundation platform since its action process is relatively smooth.
- Unlike most other platforms, it is a piece of cake to search and browse NFT art here.
Cons:
- The Foundation is an invite-only marketplace; therefore, creators require an excellent network to enter the platform. Such restrictions may lead to the loss of some great talents.
- The gas and minting cost could be high, varying based on the current gas rates. A 15% commission is considered on the first sale.
5- Async Art
And the last in the best NFT markets list Is an art movement built on the blockchain. It is known for” programmable art”. Programmable art means that each piece has a master that contains a set number of individual layers, and at the time that the collector is ready to own the master, the collector can own the individual layers and fix their credit by the time.
You can create, collect, and trade art. You can buy both “Masters” and “Layers.” A Master is a 1/1 edition art piece, while Layers are the individual components that make up the Master image. Layers are provided with special abilities decided by the artist. When you change something on a Layer, the Master image will show this, despite this who owns it. Artists choose the parameters of their art and allow exclusive management over any features to individual collectors. For example, they might let a person change the state of the background, the position of a character, or the color of something.
Since February 2020, there has already been over $6M in bid volume on the platform and over $1.5M in artist sales.
Check the pros and cons of the platform here:
Pros:
- Due to its programmability component, the platform provides space for multiple creators and owners.
- It is a place for future art with opportunities to go at Master and Layaers.
- The number of users is comparable to the ones at the beginning of the list
Cons:
- Many argue that the platform is not user-friendly and that users require advanced NFT knowledge and background.
- It charges high fees (up to 30% for the first sale) and commissions.
6- Axie Infinity
Axie Infinity manages to be one of the top NFT marketplaces with gaming assets. It makes billions of dollars as the market cap through focusing on video game assets. Axies are unique digital creatures, just like Pokemon, which are the main characters in battles. This marketplace holds almost more than 270 million tokens (called Axie Shards). Like many others, Axie Infinity also is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Therefore, the tokens can be traded on a variety of other NFT marketplaces, and also some cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN).
Axie charges 4.25% of all Axie transactions and also charges a fee for breeding. It has been one of the safest platforms since its introduction.
In the following, you can check the pros and cons of the platform:
Pros:
- Axie Infinity’s NFTs own a lot of utilities that can be used in combats. The better the utilities the more token is earned, and therefore users can breed new Axies. The profit could be made by selling their Axies on the Axie NFT Marketplace.
- Full-time gamers will enjoy huge money-making opportunities.
- Everyone, even beginners, can easily learn how to use Axie Marketplace.
Cons:
- As a first-time visitor, it might be difficult to navigate the Axie Infinity platform. It takes some time for people to get used to the interface.
- Both the Ethereum wallet and Ronin wallet are necessary if one wishes to pay. They will have to deposit ETH to Ronin.
- It is obligatory to purchase a minimum of three Axies, which can be more costly and time-consuming compared to other marketplaces.
7- Crypto.com
Crypto.com is a popular Ethereum NFT marketplace and a top cryptocurrency exchange globally. In addition to its crypto-trading services, Crypto.com developed its own NFT marketplace in 2021. It is a room for NFTs from categories such as art, celebrities, gaming, sport, music, and crypto.
Crypto.com users find it easy to create an account and invest in the market. The platform launches NFTs via auction or for a fixed price. Users can also buy NFTs using the ‘Crypto.com Pay’ gateway. Unlike other platforms, there is no transaction fee to purchase an NFT with Crypto.com.
Many high-profile names, such as Snoop Dogg and Boy George are using Crypto.com. Crypto.com also provides a top NFT app that allows trading NFTs.
Here are the pros and cons of using the platform:
Pros:
- It comes with low gas fees and commissions, while it provides an easy interface to exchange money
Cons:
- New users mostly find it difficult to navigate the platform. The interface does not look beginner friendly to many.
- Customer support seems poor in many aspects and they do not provide strong educational resources to let users learn about transactions and purchases.
8. Larva Labs
A recently popular NFT collection on the Ethereum network is CryptoPunks. CryptoPunks are 10,000 randomly generated pixel characters with unique attributes. Although CryptoPunks were available for free, nowadays the only way to own them is to buy them through Larva Labs marketplace, which makes it one of the best NFT marketplaces. Larva Labs is a mobile software company that is famous for making NFT collections such as CryptoPunks and Meebits.
MetaMask wallet is required to invest in CryptoPuncks. Searching through the list of available Punks, investors need to enter their bids.
At the time being, the Larva Labs website has not set any commission fee on Cryptopunk transactions. Although the most unique and rare punks are known to make high profits, the platform does not support other modes of payment, such as Paypal and credit cards.
Here are the pros and cons of using Larva Labs marketplace:
Pros:
- The platform guarantees a high return on investment on rare punk portraits.
- The platform provides transparent details on its NFTs and the verification of their authenticity.
Cons:
- Using Ethereum, Larva Lab comes with quite high fees. Besides, it doesn’t support other modes of payment like Paypal and credit cards.
- Cryptopunks are limited to 10,000 items.
9. Mintable
Another open NFT marketplace is Mintable which is backed by billionaire Shark Mark Cuban. This platform provides the chance to trade all kinds of NTFs, from photography to music.
Mintable uses Ethereum as the cryptocurrency for transactions. Mintable considers the nature of NFTs to set minting and trading commissions; therefore, fees change in a range from 2.5% commission on everyday items, 5% on gasless items, and a massive 10% commission on the printable series.
Let’s see the pros and cons of the platform:
Pros:
- Compared to other counterparts, Mintable is a cheaper option since it provides a gasless minting option.
- Mintable has a huge collection of photography and other forms of art which makes the platform an attractive place for investors who look for variety.
Cons:
- No chances are provided to filter the top-quality art here. Therefore, it could be confusing and difficult for buyers to reach the best digital asset.
10. Decentraland
A young but top NFT market is Decentraland which is completely based on the modern term Metaverse, and therefore Ethereum. Decentraland is an immersive VR world to trade digital real estate and has pretty much the same functionality as the real world. The platform provides the opportunity to trade assets, lands, and many other items. Further, Decentraland owns a builder app that helps users create fascinating Avatars and personalize unique scenes and architecture.
The market cap with Decentraland is more than 6 Billion dollars which turn it into the biggest meta platform. Along with properties, it launches a lot of fun events like casino nights, parties, and virtual galleries lined up in this marketplace.
This top NFT market asks for a %2.5 commission fee which seems less than the fees on most marketplaces. The most interesting thing about this platform is that it allows consumers to participate in policy revisions and land auctions, which makes Decentraland the first to have a free and open market structure.
Have a look at the pros and cons of the Decentraland marketplace:
Pros:
- Consumers can directly vote for policy revisions and land auctions, in order to provide a free and open market structure on this platform.
- The platform makes use of an Ethereum-based smart contract to store digital assets and, as a result, change to one of the most secure marketplaces.
Cons:
- Compared to other marketplaces, Decentraland comes with lower liquidity compared; people are still learning about the crypto world, digital real estate, and making money out of it. It could be the reason for the slow growth of the market.
However, What’s more attractive than NFT drops? Despite everyone ending up buying NFTs on the aftermarket, you can make use of our up-to-date list of free NFT drops and hunt your favorites:
