TL:DR:
- An NFT marketplace allows you to trade, display, and occasionally to mint NFTs.
- As an investor or trader, NFT Marketplaces like LooksRare & X2Y2 allow you to do bulk purchases, saving you time and gas fees.
- Different NFT Marketplaces have various features that can benefit users based on their needs and requirements.
- Coins have summarized a marketplace comparison table for first-time buyers to get started on their NFT journey.
What are Non-Fungible Token (NFT) Marketplaces?
NFT marketplaces are platforms where you can trade, display and sometimes mint NFTs.
There are 2 main markets for NFTs – primary and secondary markets.
The primary market is where users can directly purchase the NFT from the creator either through a launchpad or a minting event.
The secondary market is where users purchase NFTs from a collector, who has bought the NFT and is either reselling or listing it for sale. This is usually done through a marketplace that acts as a middleman that facilitates the transaction and in return, they do charge a small fee.
What are the different NFT marketplaces?
There are several NFT marketplaces that will always be available for you at any time of the day. Now, you might be wondering, what are the best marketplaces to buy NFTs?
To get started, here's a comparison table on the top NFT marketplaces:
Where can I start buying and selling NFTs?
OpenSea
OpenSea is the first NFT market and has been the market leader since its inception in 2017. Being the world's first and largest web3 marketplace for NFTs and crypto collectibles, Opensea has more than 200 employees, over 2 million collections, 80 million NFTs, and a sales volume of $20 billion. It’s clear why they’ve become the go-to marketplace for NFT collectors and traders.
When you visit OpenSea, you will be greeted with featured projects. From there you can easily navigate through the platform with the menu bar on top. OpenSea supports different blockchains like Ethereum(ETH), Solana, and Polygon(MATIC) which gives it an edge over its competitors.
As impressive as OpenSea is, the platform does come with a number of caveats surrounding its frozen asset policy. Some marketplaces have attempted to respond to OpenSea’s inadequacies.
Pros:
Cons:
- Minting Fees can be high
- Highly Centralized NFT Marketplace
LooksRare
A strong competitor to OpenSea is LooksRare, which was just launched in January of this year. LooksRare is the community-first NFT marketplace that rewards traders, collectors, and creators for participating. All transactions are done in WETH, not ETH.
What stands out about LooksRare is the fact that you’re rewarded with $LOOKS for buying, selling, and even listing your NFTs. At the same time, creators of various collections get their royalty payments at the moment of sale, which is certainly a more preferable disbursement method as compared to OpenSea, as creator royalties would often be distributed at a later date. When you browse through the different collections, you’ll also be able to see its rarity ranking beside the prices with the data sourced from Rarity Sniper.
One of the benefits of trading on LooksRare is the fact that the marketplace’s royalties are set to 2%, which is lesser compared to OpenSea’s 2.5%. At the same time, if you stake $LOOKS, the WETH collected from that 2% royalty per NFT sale is divided and distributed among $LOOKS stakers.
Read more: What is LOOKS Token?
Pros:
- Users get rewarded in $LOOKS Token for interacting with the platform
- Competitive Fee of 2%
- Users can bulk purchase a whole collection at once.
- $LOOKS is listed on Coins.ph, where users can easily convert PHP to buy $LOOKS and get started on their NFT journey
Cons:
- Creators are not able to mint their own NFT on the platform yet
X2Y2.io
Another strong competitor in the NFT Marketplace is X2Y2.io, which aims to build a truly decentralized NFT market and give it back to the community. Similar to LooksRare, 100% of market fees collected are rewarded to X2Y2 stakers and distributed in the form of $X2Y2.
The platform has a plethora of great features, such as bulk listing, batch purchasing, and rarity integration. The bulk listing enables users to list multiple NFTs in just one quick transaction. Batch purchasing allows you to sweep NFT floors at a more efficient rate. Meanwhile, rarity integration gauges how rare a certain NFT is, and you can see some of the NFT’s rarest traits when you hover over it on the collection page.
In terms of fees, X2Y2.io has one of the lowest marketplace fees on the market at 0.5%. Listing your NFT on X2Y2 could potentially earn you much more ETH than you would on other marketplaces because of the low fees.
Stakers and traders on X2Y2.io will get rewards in $X2Y2 and as stated on their website 624,902 $X2Y2 will be distributed to NFT sellers and buyers on a daily basis, as a token of appreciation for using the platform. Fees collected from sellers in the form of WETH (Wrapped Ethereum) will also be distributed proportionally to X2Y2 stakers.
Pros:
- Users can bulk list NFTs in one transaction
- Low Fee of 0.5%
- Rewards in $X2Y2 are shared with users who stake $X2Y2
Cons:
- Lower Sales Volume
- Supports Ethereum (ETH)
Magic Eden
Magic Eden is viewed as the number 1 trading platform for all Solana (SOL) NFTs. They have branded themselves as a community-centric company where they strive to work hard to be responsive, close to the ground, and in service to the best interests of the creators’ collections.
With over 22 million unique monthly visitors, 8,000 collections, and $1.9 billion in trading volume, Magic Eden is establishing itself as a force to be reckoned with in the NFT Marketplace. They’re also putting themselves in the best position to take on OpenSea as the number 1 NFT marketplace, as they will be adopting Ethereum (ETH) NFTs onto their platform.
One of the features of Magic Eden is its Launchpad. The Launchpad is an exclusive minting platform. It only accepts 3% of all applications and features only the best projects. Having your project featured here gives you the best exposure and widest reach on Web3. And the best potential for secondary trading volume post-mint, and a hassle-free mint with dedicated development support. As of 2022, this feature is only available for Solana (SOL) projects, but once Ethereum (ETH) NFT adoption is rolled out, expect to see some ETH projects getting featured on the Launchpad as well.
Pros:
- Launchpad Feature allows creators to launch their projects seamlessly
- Low Market Fee of 2%
- Highest Volume for Solana-based NFTs
Cons:
- Higher incidences of listing rip-off projects compared to other marketplaces
BLUR.io
BLUR is an NFT marketplace that launched in February 2023. It caters to professional traders, where it allows users to trade NFTs at a faster speed and allows users to compare NFTs across various marketplaces. Users can list an NFT on the BLUR Marketplace and upload it to other NFT marketplaces with a push of a button. Best of all, BLUR charges no trade fees at the current moment.
The native token $BLUR was airdropped to the marketplace users who used the platform for trading and listing. The BLUR marketplace also features a 'sniping' tool that allows users to 'snipe' NFTs even before they hit the mainstream markets.
Since the platform launch, BLUR has overtaken OpenSea's NFT trading volume.
Pros:
- Analytics tool to value portfolio
- 0 Fees
- Tools to compare prices of NFT across different marketplaces
Cons:
- Platform is still fairly new at time of writing
What are the factors I should consider when picking my first NFT Marketplace?
Blockchain
Depending on the NFT collection you are looking for, different marketplaces support different NFT projects on blockchains. OpenSea supports popular blockchains like ETH, SOL & MATIC while NFT marketplaces like LooksRare, X2Y2, and Magic Eden support a single blockchain as of now.
Fees & Sales Volume
If you are planning to trade NFTs, selecting an NFT marketplace with lower fees will definitely give you better returns but at the same time, NFT marketplaces with lower fees usually have fewer sales volume.
For example, if I wanted to sell a Bored Ape Yacht Club for 70 ETH. Selling it on OpenSea, would mean I will receive 66.5 ETH after royalties. Selling it on LooksRare will give me 66.85ETH after fees, but selling it on X2Y2 will give me 67.9 ETH.
Selling via X2Y2 will give me the highest return in ETH after fees, but it might take a longer time to sell X2Y2 as compared to selling on OpenSea. Hence, many traders still prefer to sell on OpenSea because of the high sales volume and people being accustomed to OpenSea as their primary platform.
Security
As with anything financial transaction, security is of utmost importance. Selecting an NFT marketplace with high security can protect you from fraudulent activities. Most NFT marketplaces will encourage users to enable 2FA or allow users to connect to the marketplace via their hardware wallet which makes transactions safe and secure.
NFT Marketplace Scams
As you browse these marketplaces to shop for good NFT deals there are some scammers who are lurking around with phishing sites that can look similar visually, but their links are misspelled and will bring you to a phishing site where they can steal your details. Be mindful to double-check the links that you’re clicking on as some websites can be phishing links to take advantage of unsuspecting users. Such phishing websites target clueless users where if you carelessly connect your wallet to these phishing sites, your wallet might get drained of its digital assets.
How to purchase my first NFT?
Once you have selected your NFT marketplace of choice, the next biggest decision is selecting which NFT or collection to look out for.
ICYMI: We have covered some of the important things to look out for when purchasing an NFT.
As with any kind of investment, investing in NFT does carry its own risks and it’s recommended to do your own research before investing any money into any type of investment.
Disclaimer: The information and publications set out in this article are not intended to be and do not constitute financial advice, investment advice, trading advice or any other advice or recommendation of any sort offered or endorsed by Coins.
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