After digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, NFTs have made it to popularity in the crypto market. TECHBOOK shows you the best marketplaces to buy NFTs.
If you want to buy NFTs, your path will inevitably lead to one of the online trading venues. There you can often not only buy after registration, but also sell some of them. Such trading places are, for example, “Binance” or “OpenSea”, the largest stock exchange for digital art and other digital values such as videos, music, domain names, etc.
If you want to buy NFTs, you have to do it online
The path to a digital work of art is – especially for a beginner on the crypto floor – much more difficult than buying a physical painting. First of all, one should be clear that the uniqueness of a digital object can on the one hand bring an enormous price gain, from zero to a few million, so to speak, but on the other hand “the risk due to the extreme price fluctuations is even higher than with the already volatile crypto Currencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Co.”, according to the “Wirtschaftswoche”. This is the case when, precisely because of its uniqueness, nobody is interested in the work in question. The risk is therefore difficult to assess.
What are NFTs anyway?
NFT stands for “non fungible token”, which translates as “non-exchangeable token”. The essence of this token is its uniqueness, protection against counterfeiting and indestructibility, so that one could also speak of an NFT as a seal of authenticity. NFTs have been sold on the Internet since 2017, but in the past year something like “a real hype” and “a real price firework” developed, as the “Wirtschaftswoche” writes. So it’s not surprising that the other big auction house institution, Christie’s, is now also selling digital art. The work “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” grossed Beeple, an American digital artist, a whopping $69 million, which catapulted him into the top three most expensive living artists.
Read Next: What are NFTs and how do they relate to crypto?
The best marketplaces to buy NFTs
- binance: Strictly speaking, like “Coinbase”, a crypto exchange with a connected marketplace for NFTs. You can buy via the marketplace, via an auction or via a mystery box – which means a little “buy a pig in a poke”. Binance Coin (BNB) and Binance USD (BUSD) are also available as payment methods. Fee: One percent of the purchase price.
- OpenSea: In 2017 the first NFT marketplace ever and today the one with the largest offer (about 20 million NFTs). Unlike Binance, you can also sell your own NFTs.
- Super Rare: Specialist for the special taste and very rare, digital works of art. There is something like a virtual art scene here, whose members can exchange information about the profiles they have created. Anyone who is also allowed to sell – you are selected – has made it. Fee for buying three percent, for selling 15 percent.
- Rarible: Rarible also offers a wide range of digital art of all kinds, from images to videos to music. In contrast to Superrare, almost anyone can sell here. Buy/sell fee: 2.5 percent each.
- Nifty Gateway: Particularly suitable for NFT beginners, since neither ether nor wallet are required, but payment is made by credit card. According to “Wirtschaftswoche”, icons of pop culture, such as Mick Jagger or Eminem, are said to have sold NFTs here. The range of digital works of art is correspondingly exclusive. Here, too, anyone who not only wants to buy but also wants to sell must first go through a selection process. Anyone who passes pays five percent plus a flat rate of 30 cents for the sale.
Choosing the right wallet for NFT purchase
The catch when buying and selling NFTs: Only those who have the cryptocurrency Ether can trade, since the purchase is processed via the Ethereum blockchain. Ether can (also) be obtained via apps from online crypto exchanges such as “eToro”, “Coinbase” or “BSDEX”. Depending on the provider, a commission and/or the so-called spread may apply. These result from the difference between the purchase and sale value. The ethers can now be transferred to a crypto wallet such as “MyEtherWallet”, from which they can in turn be sent to one of the NFT marketplaces mentioned above. Since all costs incurred when buying most NFTs have to be paid with Ether, such a wallet is also a prerequisite.
In a way, “Coinbase” is a special case. “Coinbase” is one of the largest crypto exchanges and has its own wallet app. The “Wirtschaftswoche” pointed out that this wallet is only available as a mobile app, but for both Android and iOS devices. According to Coinbase, a browser extension is now also available. If the wallet is ready for use after installation, it still has to be linked to the buyer’s “Coinbase” account.
Custodial or non-custodial wallet?
The big advantage of such a ‘custodial’ app (‘custodial’ means guardianship or custody) compared to a hosted (also: ‘non-custodial’) app is the usually greater security, since providers like “Coinbase” keep backups, so that If you lose the ‘seed phrase’ (the password consisting of twelve randomly generated terms), the credit is not lost at the same time. A ‘custodial’ wallet could therefore be described as a digital bank which, like a real bank, should be trusted by the user. However: If the account is hacked, “you lose control and irrevocable transfers can be the result”, as the Internet portal “Blockbuilders” warns. In addition, a crypto exchange may be forced by a court to freeze a balance.
With a ‘non-custodial’ wallet, on the other hand, you have sole control over the data – which is what suspicious or already deceived users prefer. However, if the data is lost because you forget the seed phrase or you can no longer find the paper on which the password was written, the credit is lost at the same time.
“Blockbuilders” therefore refers to a third variant: a hardware wallet, such as that offered by “Ledger” or “Trezor”. This is a physical device, about the size of a USB stick, that stores the login data offline, so that a possible hack could only cause comparatively little damage. However, installing this software requires more effort. In short: You are best protected if several types of wallets are used.
You can see: Depending on the type, it takes time and/or money to set up the wallet. But then you are able to act. With “Coinbase”, for example, you click on the menu items ‘Trade’, then ‘Select coin’. Here you finally decide on ‘NFT’ and the previously determined marketplace and can now pay for the desired object from the ether balance.
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business week