Marketplaces: The Best Places To Purchase An NFT
As more and more creators, collectors, and investors adopt NFTs, there are more and more marketplaces popping up to cater to this demand. With so many options, choosing the right marketplace to buy NFTs can be overwhelming, especially for those new to the scene.
In this blog, we'll go over the benefits of using marketplaces to buy NFTs and highlight the top marketplaces for buying them. This guide will help you navigate the exciting world of NFTs and make informed buying decisions.
Diving into it 🏊♀️
Marketplaces play an important role in the NFT ecosystem, serving as platforms for creators, collectors, and investors to buy and sell NFTs. These marketplaces are a one-stop-shop where buyers and sellers can come together to discover, trade, and invest in NFTs.
We have identified 3 main benefits that marketplaces offer to buyers and sellers:
- One of the main advantages of marketplaces is the wide range of NFTs. With thousands of creators and collectors offering their NFTs on these platforms, buyers have access to a wide range of digital assets, from art and music to virtual real estate and gaming items. Some marketplaces are specialized and focus on only one type of NFTs, such as music, art, and photography, while others are more general and offer all types.
- Another aspect of marketplaces is the transparency and authenticity they provide. Most reputable marketplaces use verification procedures and smart contracts to ensure that the NFTs offered are genuine and original. This not only helps buyers make informed purchasing decisions, but also provides creators with a safe platform to showcase their work.
- In addition to authenticity, marketplaces also offer security and ease of use. Transactions on most reputable marketplaces are processed through secure and reliable payment systems. Some marketplaces now allow buyers to purchase NFTs using ''web2" methods such as credit cards, paving the way for wider adoption.
Overall, marketplaces are critical to the NFT ecosystem because they provide a trusted and efficient platform for buying and selling these unique digital assets. Without them, NFTs would lack the necessary infrastructure to support their growth and adoption. Now that we've provided an overview of what NFT marketplaces are and why we need them, let's introduce you to 5 of the most popular marketplaces currently available for you to start buying.
1. OpenSea
Let's start with the first one, OpenSea! OpenSea was the first player in the NFT marketplace scene to offer a dedicated marketplace for buying and selling NFTs in early 2017, which has played a key role in the recent surge of interest and adoption of this new type of digital asset. It operates on a peer-to-peer basis, meaning it allows users to trade with each other in a trustless, immediate, and absolute manner.
Currently, it's still the leading marketplace in terms of number of traders and trading volume. It has more than 2 million unique traders who have generated a total volume of $34.86 billion (DappRadar, 2023).
You can register on OpenSea for free just by using your web3 wallet. OpenSea supports many different wallets like MetaMask, Coinbase, WalletConnect and others. After you create your account, you can start purchasing NFTs. Any NFTs you may already have in your wallet will automatically show up on your profile page in OpenSea. Don't worry, if you don't want others to see them, you can hide them.
On the OpenSea landing page, you can choose from categories like art, gaming, PFPs, memberships, and photography, or manually search for specific NFT collections. Once you've selected your NFT, you can make the purchase using the same wallet you logged into with your cryptocurrencies. OpenSea currently supports payments with Ethereum (ETH /WETH), SOL, AVAX, USDC, BNB, and DAI. Note that it's currently not possible to use non-cryptocurrencies such as USD or Euro to purchase your NFTs.
You can get to know the pioneer of NFT marketplaces here.
2. Rarible
Rarible, founded in 2020, is another peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs that, like OpenSea, offers a wide range of NFTs and has a vibrant ecosystem. One of the main differences between these marketplaces is that Rarible puts more emphasis on decentralization, as it's governed by its native token $RARI - it was the first marketplace to introduce its own token. This means that decisions about the direction and development of the platform are made collectively by its users. Its goal is to become fully decentralized.
Another advantage of Rarible is that you can buy NFTs with your credit card, which makes it easier for those who don't already own cryptocurrencies to enter the NFT industry. However, like OpenSea, you'll need to create an account with your web3 wallet. Rarible supports wallets based on the Ethereum, Polygon, Tezos, and Solana blockchains.
Become part of the Rarible community here.
3. Blur
Blur is currently the fastest growing NFT marketplace and has taken the NFT scene by storm. According to dappradar, Blur has overtaken OpenSea, the former undisputed leader in the NFT marketplace scene, in terms of volume traded and average price of NFTs sold in the last 30 days.
Volume (ETH) by Fill Source - Blur vs. OpenSea (Dappradar, 2023)
Volume (ETH) by Fill Source - Blur vs. OpenSea (Dappradar, 2023)
Blur markets itself as the NFT marketplace of choice for professional traders, boasting 10x faster sweeps, zero marketplace fees, expedited acquisition of rare items, exclusive airdrops for loyal users, and other benefits. It also recently introduced their trending tab feature, which allows traders to receive real-time updates about popular projects. So, the platform isn't so much focused on the actual NFTs and creators, but specialized in trading.
The increase in trading activity can be attributed in part to the distribution of $BLUR governance tokens to NFT traders as a reward for their activity on the marketplace. With a market cap of $466 million, some NFT collectors have reinvested their airdropped tokens in buying more NFTs.
If you're a trader or want to try it out, you can join Blur and start trading.
4. Magic Eden
Across chains, Magic Eden is the most popular marketplace on the Solana blockchain. To use Magic Eden, you'll need a Solana-compatible wallet (e.g., Phantom, Trust Wallet, or Exodus Wallet) and a sufficient amount of SOL to cover the cost of your NFT purchase and transaction fee on the Solana blockchain. Although the primary ecosystem is Solana, it has recently implemented its multichain functionality to support Polygon and Ethereum blockchains. Their goal is to give their users the freedom to buy and create NFTs on any blockchain without being restricted in their usage.
On Magic Eden, users can also buy Magic Tickets (an NFT), which grant access to a DAO called MagicDAO that allows users to participate in voting on the operational decisions of the marketplace.
Are you curious about Solana's largest NFT marketplace? Get some $SOL and start shopping!
5. LooksRare
LooksRare is another interesting peer-to-peer marketplace founded in 2022 that positions itself as a community-first marketplace. How are they working toward that goal? The premise is to reward people who participate in the development of the platform - buyers and sellers (creators). NFT buyers and sellers are therefore eligible to earn the platform's native utility token called $LOOKS. According to the website, 75% of the token supply is distributed to the community in the form of airdrops, staking and volume rewards.
Giving back to users is also one of the main premises of web3 in general: rewarding people who use platforms and empowering them. However, their token isn't (yet) a governance token and therefore doesn't allow holders to vote on the future of the marketplace.
Want to join a community of NFT creators, investors, and collectors? LooksRare got you covered.
The future looks…
To keep the blog digestible, we have focused on only 5 marketplaces. Besides these, there are of course many other marketplaces like SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Binance NFT, Foundation, Known Origin, Async Art and others. If you want to see us deep diving into any specific marketplace, let us know and we'll do that!
The competition among marketplaces for user engagement is heating up, and we're seeing a lot of exciting momentum in the NFT market. A perfect example of this is Blur, which has already made a name for itself but still has plenty of room for innovation and growth. Our analysis indicates that the future of NFT marketplaces will be hyper-specialized (targeting specific market segments), decentralized (thanks to governance tokens), and multi-chain (utilizing a variety of blockchains). This will enable these marketplaces to take on giants like OpenSea and provide even better service to their communities.So get ready, because the NFT market is about to get even more interesting!
