A marketplace at its core is a place where commercial transactions including buying, selling and negotiations happen. Marketplaces are usually associated with a large number of available products giving buyers a ton of options. There exist multiple sellers as well, selling in-demand items in exchange for currency. Traditionally marketplaces have been restricted to the selling of goods offline until the rise of giants like Amazon, eBay and Craigslist that take the marketplace experience online making everyday purchases easier and solving a major problem. Dedicated marketplaces to buy and sell unique products is an attractive idea after seeing the success of the existing online marketplaces.
Non-fungible tokens (NFT’s) are unique tokens that are created based on blockchain technology and can help artists, sportspersons, sports clubs and possibly many other sectors monetize certain aspects of their business. Marketplaces for NFT’s provide users with the option of creating a non-fungible token of their own unique creations and allow them to be traded online. Quite a few marketplaces exist already selling NFT’s online and unlocking opportunities for many.
Typically, the marketplaces that exist now allow users to buy their desired NFT’s using cryptocurrency wallets. This, on some occasions, hinders the buying capacity of the audience as not everyone has adapted completely to the volatility that cryptocurrency brings to the table.
As far as the current scenario goes, listing your own NFT on the marketplace does require a considerable amount of blockchain knowledge and comes at a high cost as well. NFT’s are popular for multiple reasons, one being the security they offer. To make the entire system secure, a substantial amount of testing and checking has to be done by the blockchain system itself. The fees charged for this process is called gas fees. The gas fees charged currently is quite high which tends to fend off some artisans and creators. Ethereum has been dominating the NFT space and is the most frequently used currency while minting, buying and selling. Owing to the popularity of this space, the competition seems to be getting tougher each day as newer currencies are coming into the market providing the users with similar features and security.
Minting an NFT is the process of creating it. The most popular and widely used system at present is Ethereum, as it is the most open-ended and well-established software platform. There are many existing marketplaces currently that have a universal approach. The marketplaces dealing especially with art are currently the most popular ones.
Some of the popular marketplaces now are:
NBA Top Shots- A marketplace built especially for the special moments in basketball, based on flow. The main NFT’s are digital collectables of videos from the best NBA games and from the best players in the business. It was on this platform that the famous Lebron James NFT named Slam Dunk was sold for an impressive price in excess of 200K USD.
Rarible- Rarible uses its own tokens called Rari tokens that are issued by them for users who actively participate on the platform. The marketplace is composed of different types of NFT’s, but their primary focus lies on digital art and memes. They have also included a community feature to encourage discussions and engagement on the platform.
Decentraland- a marketplace with their eyes focused on the sale of virtual land and in-game collectables. It is a 3D virtual reality platform based on the Ethereum blockchain technology. A record-breaking sale of a virtual piece of land for $913,808 on this platform was an event that sparked the attention of NFT fans globally.
SuperRare- an exclusive invite-only NFT marketplace where only approved creators can mint NFT’s. It uses Ethereum to allow minting, selling and buying of the tokens listed on its website. Their focus lies mainly in digital art.
OpenSea- One of the widest and most dynamic marketplaces now. The platform lists NFT’s from various sectors including art, music, domain names, trading cards, collectables, sports and utility. OpenSea leads the charts of the most established marketplaces now.
Nifty gateway- Popularly known for the sale of the most expensive NFT so far, the piece of art created by artist beeple. This platform also boasts of the premier artists they have on board, some of whom are Steve Aoki and deadmau5.
Valuables- A popular marketplace that primarily focusses on the conversion of tweets into NFT’s and their sale online. It was on this platform that Jack Dorsey- the CEO of Twitter, sold his first-ever tweet for a staggering $2.9 million.
Foundation- A high growth NFT marketplace that joined the race late but grew at an impressive rate. It touched soaring high sales values in the short period that they have been up and running.
AtomicMarket- A shared liquidity marketplace. Shared liquidity means that the NFT’s listed here are also listed on other marketplaces as well. This marketplace is based on eosio blockchain technology.
MythMarket- A dedicated marketplace for the sale and trade of digital trading cards is a cumulation of various other marketplaces which specialize in certain types of trading cards.
