With the recent non-fungible token (NFT) buzz lately, most of you might be wondering, “How do I get my hands on my very own BORED APE YACHT CLUB?” In every financial space, there might be scams trying to steal the hard-earned money of individuals; the crypto-verse is no exception. Therefore, why not do your research before purchasing a cryptocurrency or NFT? Here are my carefully selected NFT marketplaces where you can buy, mint, and sell NFTs.
1. Opensea
This is the most popular NFT marketplace, with over 18 million unique NFTs trading currently. I got my first NFT using Opensea— swift transaction, no hustle. Since this marketplace is new and flooded with lots of NFTs, other people might try and mint the same NFT. This is why Opensea’s verifiable account feature is helpful, as you can tell the originality of a popular NFT. Finzer (co-founder of Opensea) claims that the site is developing an automatic system to detect fake NFTs and moderators who look into odd sales. Opensea recently announced series C funding of about $300M. This funding will help them introduce different blockchains to their platform.
2. Looksrare
Buy and sell NFTs whilst you earn rewards. Yep, read that right! Looksrare allows you to earn rewards while trading on their platform. They introduce staking, which allows you to stake wrapped ETH (WETH) and LOOKS to earn rewards. They provide enticing APY% ranging from 343%-744%.
3. Rarible
The Rarible platform differs from Opensea with different integrations. First, it has its own cryptocurrency—RARI. The Rari tokens allow users voting proposals; these voting outcomes affect how the platform works. Many users prefer to use Rarible because there are different blockchain networks (Ethereum, Tezos, and Flow) to choose from when creating their NFTs.
Both upcoming and established artists and brands are using Nifty Gateway as their new “Record label.” I always say blockchain provides power to the people. The world will be seeing this decentralization with web 3.0. Nifty Gateway accepts USD, unlike other top marketplaces that accept native cryptocurrencies or ETH. With Nifty Gateway, you can withdraw your NFTs to an external wallet or collection.
5. Foundation
Just like the very basic NFT marketplace with buying and selling, you can comfortably explore the Foundation platform when trading NFTs. This platform is an “Invite only” for creators to be able to list their collection for minting and sale.
NFTs have different utilization in different sectors, some of these sectors owning their own NFTs or partnering with other NFT creators. The “Sussysharks” NFTs are planning an ocean clean-up with Pro2tect, and some collections also use their profits for charity. The most common one being implemented is the play to earn(P2E) feature, where holders of NFTs play games and gain rewards. So, NFTs aren’t just JPEGs so you can screenshot, but rather you get to become part of the elites. You have to do your own research (DYOR) so you don’t get the rug pulled.