Non Fungible Tokens or NFTs have already gotten the attention of a large audience from all over the world- from both the crypto and the non-crypto spaces. A market report from Verified Market Research showed the global NFT market was already valued at $11.3 billion in 2021. Furthermore, it suggested the value of the NFT market could swell up to as much as $231 billion by 2030.
If you are new to NFTs, you may be wondering what is the best NFT marketplace to start investing. To help you out, in this post we have rounded up a top NFT marketplace list for you! But first, let’s see what a NFT marketplace is.
Table of Contents
| 1. OpenSea NFT Marketplace |
| 2. Axie Infinity NFT Marketplace |
| 3. Larva Labs/CryptoPunks NFT Marketplace |
| 4. NBA Top Shot NFT Marketplace |
| 5. Rarible |
| 6. SuperRare |
| 7. Foundation |
| 8. Nifty Gateway |
| 9. Mintable |
| 10. Theta Drop |
OpenSea is one of the top NFT marketplaces where users can buy, sell, create, and trade NFTs. Having been launched in 2017, OpenSea has a completely user-oriented interface that allows account creation within minutes. The platform provides a comprehensive set of tools for minting NFTs. There is a free minting feature known as “lazy minting” that reduces the onerous gas fees that transactions can incur. OpenSea has the world’s largest inventory of NFTs for sale. As a result, it has become the de facto marketplace for retail users purchasing NFTs, as well as an important venue for developers. Investors such as Mark Cuban, Kevin Durant, Ashton Kutcher, and crypto powerhouse a16z have helped push OpenSea’s valuation to over $1 billion, seemingly overnight elevating the young NFT platform to unicorn status. It has one of the largest collections of NFTs, including digital artwork, music, photography, trading cards, and more. The platform charges 2.5% of any transaction as a fee, and if the transaction occurs through Ethereum, then a gas fee is also charged for the miners.
One of the top NFT marketplaces right now, this one acts like an online shop for the game Axie Infinity where people can purchase ‘Axies’: mythical creatures in the game. Users can train these Axies and use them to fight against other players’ creatures to earn rewards. These rewards can then be used at the Axie Marketplace to buy land and other game-related items.
The Axie Infinity marketplace, unlike many other top NFT marketplaces, only sells characters and items from the Axie Infinity ecosystem.
The Axie Infinity Marketplace definitely comes up on top when you ask ‘What is the best NFT marketplace?’. It allows users to buy and sell NFTs for Axie Infinity’s creatures, items, and land. When you trade on Axie Infinity Marketplace, the seller is charged a 4.25% marketplace fee. Buyers are not charged a fee on the Axie Infinity Marketplace. You can buy NFTs for free, which is unusual on NFT marketplaces. Keep in mind that there are gas fees associated with depositing Ethereum into your Ronin Wallet, which is required to use this platform.
Larva Labs has been a successful marketplace for CryptoPunks since 2017. Currently, Larva Labs has a large marketplace for NFT projects where the majority of these NFTs are based on the Ethereum blockchain. Autoglyphs and Meebits are among the top sought-after NFT projects on this platform. These algorithmically-generated 24 x 24-pixel artworks primarily feature punk-styled men and women.
Zombies, apes, and a few aliens are among the other NFTs in this one of the biggest NFT marketplaces. When purchasing NFTs on the CryptoPunks or Meebits marketplaces, Larva Labs does not charge any service fees. With this stand-alone open-source market interface available for contributions, forks, and even independently run instances, we hope to secure the Cryptopunks’ long-term future as a truly decentralized project with an ability to perform transactions that are not dependent on any single entity. The portal employs a color coding mechanism to highlight the status of these CryptoPunks NFTs.
The National Basketball Association’s marketplace for collectible moments in the NFT form has also gained attention. NBA Top Shot is one of the top NFT marketplaces that allows registered users to trade short video clips from NBA and WNBA games. Each video is its own NFT. It is a closed marketplace, which means the buying and selling of NFT projects is limited to this platform. It makes use of the Flow blockchain and is easy to use as well. The NBA Top Shot Marketplace is great for beginners as you can purchase collectible moments for just a few dollars, and get good returns later. The NBA Top Shot Marketplace is great for beginners as you can purchase collectible moments for just a few dollars and get good returns later. The platform was made operational in October 2020. This marketplace combines a collecting experience similar to traditional sports trading cards with the blockchain technology used in other NFT platforms. In 2021, the virtual platform had over 1.1 million registered users who traded approximately $800 million in NFTs.
Making the top NFT marketplace list is also Rarible. Being built on the Ethereum blockchain, Rarible is similar to OpenSea. It is a great marketplace for beginners, and the major difference with OpenSea is that Rarible only allows the use of the Rarible token- RARI. Along with providing a large marketplace for music, art, and other collectibles, Rarible has also partnered up with tech companies like Adobe to secure NFT projects.
The Los Angeles-based marketplace has 1.6 million users and a market capitalization of more than $270 million. When looking at collectibles on the aggregation platform, they will be encouraged to re-list their NFT on Rarible rather than their previous marketplace because there are no additional fees. There are no hidden fees, and credit card payments are accepted. However, the 1% service fee and limited supported cryptocurrencies may influence how experienced cryptocurrency users evaluate the platform. Rarible is the fifth-largest among the top NFT marketplaces at the moment.
SuperRare is an NFT marketplace that is expanding itself for digital creators. Different 3D artworks, music recordings, videos, and other artwork can be purchased using ETH on here. SuperRare focuses on the exclusivity of its digital artworks to set itself apart from other biggest NFT marketplaces. Any artist wishing to mint NFTs on SuperRare must apply and be approved by SuperRare Labs. To ensure that their pieces are “super rare,” SuperRare also requires artists to submit only one-of-one art NFTs. SuperRare DAO can be used by developers to edit and curate the platform.
Each artwork on SuperRare is authentically created by a network artist and tokenized as a crypto-collectible digital item that users can own and trade. Because SuperRare focuses on fine art NFTs, it has higher sales per token. SuperRare has also announced its token very recently, which can be used in the marketplace to purchase and trade NFT projects. NFTs purchased on this platform can also be sold on the OpenSea platform.
Foundation is a private one among the top NFT marketplaces for artists and collectors. Being launched in early 2021, Foundation has turned out to be a piece of great news for NFT investors and traders. The amount of NFTs sold on the platform has already touched $100M since its initiation. This marketplace provides a hassle-free platform to bid on digital artwork; it is an easy-to-use platform with quick purchase features using Ethereum. This marketplace attracts hundreds of thousands of artists because it focuses on digital artwork. You’ll be able to browse and buy a variety of one-of-a-kind images, videos, and 3D pieces.
Collectors have complete freedom to bid on auctions. To transact on the Foundation, users must have a Web 3.0 wallet, such as MetaMask. Original creators receive 95% of initial sales, with a 5% marketplace fee deducted by Foundation. Original creators are also paid 10% of all secondary sales. The platform’s goal is to provide a home for artists who are pushing the boundaries of digital art by experimenting with new creative techniques and highlighting the voices of underrepresented groups of people.
Another of the biggest NFT marketplaces today, this one allows the use of fiat currency for the purchase and sale of NFTs. NFT projects from celebrity sources like Grimes have been sold through this marketplace.
The Nifty Marketplace is a blockchain-based platform that ranks among the top when you ask ‘What is the best NFT marketplace?’. It allows you to access some of today’s most sought-after fine art and collectibles, including works by Cey Adams, Kenny Scharf, Jon Burgerman, and Trevor Jones, as well as popular crypto-game collectibles such as CryptoKitties. Nifty Gateway is well-known for its focus on high-end digital art and curated collections.
Through collaborations with top artists and brands such as Beeple, Daniel Arsham, and Pak, the platform regularly offers limited-edition collections. One of Nifty Gateway’s key differentiators is that it provides a custodial option. Crypto custody refers to who is responsible for keeping digital assets secure. Nifty Gateway also pays for 100% of the gas fees associated with the minting of an NFT on its platform at no cost to the collector. The NFTs bought on this marketplace are stored here for the users and can be used at other marketplaces.
Mintable provides a great platform for aspiring digital creators as it aims to be a versatile and large NFT marketplace like OpenSea. It is backed by the billionaire Mark Cuban and is an open platform for selling and purchasing all sorts of NFTs. Mintable.app, founded in 2018 by Zach Burks, had a successful public launch in December 2020, with over 18,000 users transacting on the platform. This platform provides a wide range of non-fungible tokens, such as digital collectibles, music, art, in-game items, and more. All of these digital art forms can be purchased on Mintable using Ethereum (ETH).
Mintable’s gas-free minting option enables users to participate in NFTs without prior coding knowledge or the upfront cost of minting an asset – a great way for everyone to get into crypto. Users can start minting NFTs for free using JPEGs, GIFs, sound bytes, video clips, and other images on Mintable, counted among the biggest NFT marketplaces today.
ThetaDrop is the world’s first real-time NFT marketplace powered by the Theta blockchain. Theta is one of the fastest and greenest blockchain platforms designed for media and entertainment. With its in-house cryptocurrency, Theta Drop is an NFT marketplace built to provide decentralized distribution of TV and videos on the internet. As a real-time NFT marketplace, ThetaDrop incorporates live streaming during auctions and NFT drops to increase creator-fan engagement, as well as tie-ins with live television and cable broadcasts to millions of global viewers. It also has agreements with cable broadcasters and live television stations to broadcast these live streams. Creating and transacting NFTs on the Theta Network costs pennies and is 100 times faster than Ethereum. The platform sold World Poker Tour’s collectibles as its first NFT project. In order to take part in the bidding or sale of NFTs on this platform, users are required to have the Theta Token.
Here are a few things to keep in mind when picking among the biggest NFT marketplaces:
As a beginner, it is important to understand NFTs thoroughly before you invest. Learning to buy, sell, and trade NFTs comes next, and you will need to be knowledgeable regarding the right time to purchase a project, when to sell it, and how to do so.
For instance, current trends in the NFT markets suggest that gaming projects are giving great returns, and therefore have a huge demand at the moment.
Finally, it is also important to know that NFTs may have a serious environmental impact- NFT creation can be highly energy intensive at times. This is because most NFTs are minted using Proof of Work. However, there are still some NFTs that are created with more energy efficient methods, and you can try consciously investing in these projects.
In the search for top NFT marketplaces, it is also important to look for cryptocurrency apps that can support the easy trading of NFTs on different platforms. Cryptocurrency apps come in handy when you want to purchase NFTs.
While there are quite a lot of cryptocurrency apps available in the market at the moment that facilitate the trading of NFTs, you need to conduct your own research on them before picking one.
If you are thinking of starting to invest in NFTs, make sure you are aware of the risk factors. NFTs, like cryptocurrencies and stocks, can prove to be volatile, and therefore they classify as a high-risk asset class. As a beginner, the safest option is to start out with one of the top NFT marketplaces today, so your investment has the maximum possible security.
A NFT marketplace is where all the purchases, trading, and other activities related to NFTs can occur. They help NFT creators store their NFTs and are built on a blockchain server. NFT marketplaces offer non fungible tokens through auctions, or you can directly purchase them.
NFT marketplaces function like an e-commerce platform where the asset owners post their works for sale. Some NFTs go up for auction, while others are put up for a specific price. A crypto wallet is required to start trading in NFTs. Blockchains are the basic support for an NFT marketplace; they facilitate smooth operations and provide support for private, encrypted transactions.
The process of creating or producing something is referred to as minting. In the crypto world, minting is the process of validating information, creating a new block, and recording that information into the blockchain. Minting an NFT entails publishing a one-of-a-kind digital asset on a blockchain so that it can be bought, sold, and traded. This establishes an unchangeable record of authenticity and ownership.
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