Do you make it a point to stay on the front edge of the latest cryptocurrency innovations? Are you always in pursuit of the newest and best exchanges, platforms, cryptos, and altcoins? If so, it's time to get on board with NFT marketplaces.
What are NFT marketplaces? The acronym "NFT" stands for non-fungible tokens, now growing in popularity at a breakneck pace. Unlike cryptos, NFT tokens are not exchangeable on a one-to-one basis with other tokens.
Unique assets, NFTs may represent collectible cards, art, a person's time, or even services rendered. They can also stand for domains, game items, and basically all real and tokenizable virtual assets.
Diving into a new area comes with a learning curve, but it doesn't have to feel overwhelming if you've got the right knowledge. Read on for our breakdown of the best NFT marketplaces.
NFTs vs Cryptos
Before beginning our exploration of marketplaces, let's take a moment to drill more deeply into what NFTs are. Think of them as a completely new class of tokens.
To understand their uniqueness, we'll compare them to Ethereum and Bitcoin, two crypto tokens that many people hold. Unlike these popular cryptos. NFTs are one-off coins that carry unique identifiers.
That means they derive some value from their scarcity, unlike Bitcoin, which proves more plentiful. NFTs are one-of-a-kind. Like a Picasso, there's often only one copy of each in the world, which makes for tantalizing prospects for investors.
The art analogy is a good one because some of the first iterations of NFT to hit the market utilized digital items and art. With this in mind, here's what you need to know about the top NFT marketplaces.
OpenSea
Any discussion of the best marketplaces has to start with OpenSea, the first and largest peer-to-peer NFT marketplace for cryptos. Think of it as the blockchain version of an online auction.
On the platform, you'll find everything your heart desires, from game items to virtual goods and collectibles, all secured by a blockchain. You can sell, buy, and trade items that fall into these categories with anyone worldwide.
For this reason, OpenSea represents the biggest general marketplace for user-owned digital items. It contains some of the broadest categories in NFTs and has more than four million items listed at any given time.
SuperRare
What is SuperRare? This social platform operates on the express mission of encouraging the collection and creation of crypto art. Established by Jonathan Perkins and John Crain (both of Pixura), the platform meets artists' and collectors' needs.
Since the company started, they've worked to forge a path as a high-end equivalent to Rarible, which we'll discuss next. Unlike Rarible, where anyone can get involved, SuperRare has higher entry barriers for new artists who must submit work for approval before listing.
The results? A zany and eclectic digital art platform populated by some of the most exciting, innovative art of the 21st century.
Rarible
Like OpenSea, Rarible is an NFT marketplace that lets you create, sell, and collect digital items that are secured with blockchain. But it's also a destination for artists interested in creating NFTs.
How does it work? Users can bring content they own to Rarible, including motion graphics, design templates, and digital imagery to create NFTs.
What's more, sellers can generate multiple NFTs for one image, selling it many times. Or, they can go the route of making the image rarer by only distributing a single version. Artists also retain control over the percentage they'd like to receive on lifetime re-sales, which represents a welcome bonus.
What does the platform look like from the buyer side? They may buy NFTs, assembling a portfolio in the process. While some collectors pursue their personal taste dictates, others may be in it chiefly for what they deem will prove collectible.
Atomic Assets
Are you looking for NFTs such as Cogs, Street Fighter, and Blockchain Heroes? If so, Atomic Assets is the marketplace for you.
A subsection of the Atomic Hub, Atomic Assets accommodates marketplace listings of non-fungible tokens hosted via WAX. To use the website, you must sign up to receive a WAX cloud wallet. Or, you may also sign up using Scatter or Anchor.
Of course, the WAX blockchain continues to dominate the NFT sector, boasting many complete sold-out campaigns in 2020. Some of these campaigns represent partnerships with Street Fighter, Blockchain Heroes, and Topp's.
Axie Marketplace
Another fun and innovative marketplace is Axie, a Pokemon-inspired digital pet universe. Here, players get to "play" cute characters known as Axies, interacting and competing in various games.
Through a "Play to Earn" gameplay model, the Axie Infinity Universe highlights blockchain technology's advantages in generating a player-owned economy. For example, players can bring their Axies to the marketplace to sell them in an auction setting.
Depending on the seller's intention, the price will increase or decrease from the start price to the end price. It's up to skilled players to risk it all, buying the desired Axies from sellers.
VIV3
The first general marketplace on the Flow blockchain, VIV3, was founded to help shift from physical to digital ownership. The marketplace maintains the vision of empowering a billion people to trade, create, and own the globe's most valuable creations on Flow.
A highly composable and scalable smart contract platform, it offers the performance required for mainstream-level applications.
A variety of creatives rely on the VIV3 platform to mint unique tokens. In the process, some have already risen to the position of stars in their industry. These include game studios, artists, and brands.
The result? NFTs can be purchased by gamers, collectors, fans, and digital asset traders.
Arkane Market
A digital marketplace designed for gamers, Arkane Market caters to general collectors and gamers. To purchase NFTs through this platform, you must pay with cryptocurrency.
Arkane Market was the first NFT marketplace to operate on Matic (now known as Polygon). A relatively new platform, it has pursued customers through innovative means such as a recent Battle Racers campaign that inspired immense interest.
What is Battle Racers? An adrenaline-spiking blockchain racing game where players get to design, construct, and drive NFT cars on arcade-sized tracks. In connection with the launch, a new vehicle premiered named the Arkane Hyperion.
TreasureLand
The first and largest NFT marketplace on the Binance Smart Chain, TreasureLand, permits users to buy and sell BSC NFT tokens. A spinoff from the developers of DEGO, the hybrid platform synthesizes the world of NFTs and DeFi.
The Treasureland marketplace boasts a complete NFT ecosystem, including:
NFT Casting
Crafting
Mining
Trading
Auction
And more
Purchasing NFTs is simple on the Treasureland platform. It allows for listings and auctions payable in a few different cryptos. You can also switch to DEGO to get involved in mining NFTs, a rare function in the collectibles world.
Decentraland Marketplace
Decentraland is powered by the Ethereum blockchain and is a decentralized virtual reality platform. Think of it as the first virtual world ever created and owned by users.
What can you do on this platform? Users can experience, create, and monetize what they own and build within the Decentraland world.
Think of Decentraland as a shared virtual world where users buy land known as “parcels.” These transactions get recorded on a blockchain-backed ledger.
Virtual properties, and the land itself, represent types of non-fungible digital assets or utility tokens called LAND. This LAND gets stored in an Ethereum smart contract.
What do LAND owners control? The content is published on their land, which gets coded into a smart contract. This content includes everything from images and scenes to applications and games.
Users can travel, explore, and visit venues in a way similar to traveling the real world. A peer-to-peer network, the platform also makes it possible for users to interact.
GitHub
What about the NFT marketplace GitHub? It's a code sharing and publishing service, a social networking site for programmers, and much more.
Central to GitHub is Git, an open-source project created by Linus Torvalds, a Linux creator. Git manages and stores revisions of projects like other version control systems. Git may be used to manage any other type of file, although it's mostly relegated to code.
When it's all said and done, GitHub lowers the barrier to entry, democratizing open source development in the process. Besides the company's public-facing open source repositories, GitHub also sells private repositories and on-premise instances of its software for institutions.
The Top NFT Marketplaces
In recent years, NFT marketplaces have gained in popularity worldwide. To meet this increased demand, a wide variety of cutting-edge companies have come onto the scene. From OpenSea to Decentraland, you've got countless options when it comes to places to shop for NFTs.
Which marketplace is right for you? The answer to this question depends on which types of NFTs you're most interested in purchasing.