Where to Buy NFTs?

Digital assets are more accessible than ever before, especially as NFTs continue to become more pervasive in mainstream society. NFTs can represent a wide variety of different items; they also provide a range of functions and utilities. For some, buying and selling NFTs can be quite lucrative and provides an interesting side gig for those willing to take a risk. For others, NFTs are a way to collect and show support for artists and other creators, and for others, they represent a new form of digital and physical utility. So, where can you buy NFTs?

Marketplaces

An NFT marketplace is a platform where users can buy and sell NFTs. The specific features vary between each platform, as some are centralized while others aren’t, some give users the option to mint new NFTs while others don’t, and so on. Let’s have a look at the best NFT marketplaces available today.

NFTrade

NFTrade is the first decentralized NFT marketplace that offers multi-chain support and is blockchain agnostic. It combines the features of all NFT marketplaces, allowing anyone to build, buy, sell, exchange, farm, and leverage NFTs across many blockchains in real time. As of December 2022, NFTrade supports Ethereum, Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, Polygon, Moonbeam, Immutable X, and SKALE.

NFTrade is the only multi-chain NFT marketplace with advanced features such as Peer-to-Peer swaps, NFT farming and advanced statistics. 

OpenSea

OpenSea is the first and largest marketplace for buying and selling NFTs. The platform supports multiple blockchains like Ethereum, Klaytn, and Polygon. The platform allows users to search through millions of NFTs organized into dozens of categories, including digital art, game goods, collectibles, domain names, and virtual worlds.

Because the NFT isn’t transferred on the blockchain until the purchase is made, OpenSea allows creators to mint NFTs without incurring any gas fees. That implies you can convert a digital file to an NFT for free and just pay the gas price when the item sells. After the NFT is sold, OpenSea also takes a 2.5 percent cut. The buyer pays the cut on fixed-price items, whereas the seller pays it on auctioned items.

Rarible

Another popular NFT marketplace for tokenized digital assets is the decentralized Rarible. It is only compatible with Ethereum, so you must have an Ethereum wallet in order to register on the platform. Photography, music, digital art, domains, metaverses, and games are among the NFT genres available on Rarible. Certain NFTs are for sale at a fixed price, and others are auctioned. 

On both ends of the transaction, Rarible charges a 2.5 percent service fee, which works as a listing fee. The seller, on the other hand, has the option of paying the charge, which will be 5% of the final amount it is sold for. 

Magic Eden

Magic Eden is a decentralized marketplace that originally launched on Solana, but is now branching off to other layer one and layer two blockchains. As the go-to Solana NFT marketplace, it established itself as a dominant player in the NFT marketplace ecosystem and wants to continue fighting for dominance across Polygon and Ethereum as well.

Blur

Blur positions itself as an NFT marketplace for professional traders, allowing users to sweep NFT collection floors across a variety of marketplaces, easy NFT sniping, porfolio management, and analytics you’d expect to see from a DEX or CEX. Blur currently charges zero fees, and is giving OpenSea a run for its money as an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace.

LooksRare

LooksRare launched as a community-owned and incentivized alternative to OpenSea, allowing for users to earn tokens based on their trading volume. Initially drawing in a lot of hype and users after its launch, it has since been rife with wash trading, as traders can arbitrage the difference in fees versus $LOOKS tokens they earn from trading. LooksRare is also positioning itself as a more advanced alternative to OpenSea but does not seem to have a lot of mainstream usage outside of wash trading NFTs.

AtomicMarket

AtomicMarket is a centralized shared liquidity NFT market smart contract that a number of websites use to provide the most pleasant experience to their visitors. Atomic Market doesn’t have a minting feature, and it isn’t compatible with multiple blockchains either, but Atomic Hub Marketplace is one of the cheapest NFT marketplaces, with a platform commission fee of 2 percent of the entire sales price, which is automatically deducted at the time of sale using smart contracts. Atomic Market is live on the WAX blockchain.

SuperRare

SuperRare, like Rarible, is creating a marketplace for digital creators; however, SuperRare isn’t fully decentralized like NFTrade or Rarible just yet. Collectors can purchase artwork using Ethereum on the site, which includes art, films, and 3D imagery. SuperRare allows creators to mint NFTs on their platform, but it is neither multi-chain nor cross-chain compatible.

Creators will need to pay 15% of their proceeds as gallery fees, and all purchases are subject to a 3% transaction fee, which is paid by the buyer.

Nifty Gateway

Nifty Gateway is a cryptocurrency exchange-backed art curation site. The NFTs, sometimes known as Nifties, are Ethereum-based. Nifty Gateway, in addition to being a curated platform, also hosts any NFTs acquired, which means the NFTs aren’t stored in your wallet but rather by Nifty Gateway and Gemini. While this may not suit NFT collectors who like more flexibility in their art investments, Nifty purchases, and sales can also be made in fiat currency without first purchasing cryptocurrency.

When a Nifty is sold, the platform deducts 5% of the sale price in fees and taxes, plus an additional 30 cents for transaction fees. On secondary sales, 10% of the sale price goes to the original artist, so bear that in mind if you’re seeking to resell a Nifty for a profit.

Auctions

NFT auctions are one of the most common ways for users to obtain NFTs. NFT auction websites are where sellers and buyers engage to agree on a price for the NFT that is being auctioned rather than simply picking an NFT and buying it. NFTs have been featured in the catalogs of traditional art galleries like Christie’s and Sotheby’s, and notable NFT auctions are held on a regular basis.