By Reez Ndukwe
NFT is the abbreviation for non-fungible tokens. They are unique items that are irreplaceable with anything else. They are mostly digital goods that are priced high simply because of their psychological value. The craziest example is that of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet that was sold for an eye-watering $2,915,835.47 on March 22, 2006.
Another is a casual digital artwork called “Everydays: The first 5000 Days” sold for a jaw-dropping $69 million.
The NBA is selling NFTs of very short video clips of LeBron James top shots for above $200k.
NFTs are one-of-a-kind items that people have attached so much emotional value to them. To many people, it’s all just hype and to a few people, it’s an opportunity for them to hoard something of little value until its marginal value shoots up. Unlike the way you buy regular groceries at a mall or an eCommerce store; Non Fungible Tokens, on the other hand are sold exclusively at online marketplaces.
What are NFTs and Why are They so Valuable?
Source: Hobo.Video
The dictionary meaning of the word “non-fungible” means-
“been unable to substitute or replace a particular thing with something else of equal value or utility”.
The same dictionary explains that “token” is a thing that serves as an expression of something else. So logically the term non-fungible token (NFT) means a payment made for ownership of something either conceptual or real that is irreplaceable. If you go to Flipkart or Amazon to buy a pair of shoes for $18, a single pair can be randomly selected and shipped to you. That pair of shoes is fungible that that same kind with exact specifications can be bought again for $18. Thus they are tangible and replaceable. In contrast, most NFTs nowadays tend to be digital. A non-fungible item could be a near-worthless “Nyan cat” gif that was considered to be so unique that it was sold for $631,875. You may have noticed that some of these NFTs go for extraordinary prices.
Explanation on Non Fungible Tokens
There has been no particular explanation for the basis of valuing NFTs till date. Consumer psychologists state that NFTs are just scarce items of no significant backing apart from emotional value to the purchaser. This is true for physical NFT items (such as a baseball card of the late 80s valued at more than 2 million USD or the Mona Lisa artwork by Leonardo da Vinci). As well as non-physical NFT items such as all previous examples mentioned before. The latter is the most common kind of this generation; and it makes it easier for creators to give their supporters something rare and unique. Since most NFTs are digital or non-physical artworks, rich people are now collecting these digital artworks. Just similar to how collectors collect physical high-value paintings.
As you may have reasoned, marketplaces for Fungible Tokens differ from those of Non-Fungible Token. If you want to trade one ethereum crypto-coin for another crypto coin like DogeCoin, for instance, you will end up receiving the same value of Dogecoin although in more subunits. Therefore, the worth is almost the same as the one in your initial currency. But NFTs are not interchangeable with anything else in the world. The only value it holds is its originality and its emotional affixation. The market transaction site where you would purchase what appears to be a mere Jack Dorsey’s original first tweet is different and a bit complex from your traditional auction house or online store. In this article, Hobo.Video will not only provide you with NFT marketplaces but also how you can discover, safeguard and hype the value of your own token.
Marketplaces for Creators to Sell Non-Fungible Tokens
Frankly, NFTs are similar to Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies with the only two differences being that NFTs are not an absolute measure of value and they are non-fungible. In addition to this, most NFTs are stored on a blockchain derivative called ethereum. Therefore, most of the marketplaces where NFTs are sold require buyers to have a digital wallet and use cryptocurrencies to pay for their purchases.
Below are six marketplaces for creators to sell NFTs. After visiting one or all of these sites, those interested in some non-fungible items can do a transactional exchange on platforms like Coinbase, World Asset eXchange (WAX), or Binance.
NONFUNGIBLE.COM
Nonfungible.com is a website that is best suitable for discovering, tracking, analyzing, and even buying NFTs. It is a marketplace where you can find new assets or ongoing digital projects and collect very rare and unique non-fungible items of all categories.
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway is a marketplace for Nifties also known as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. The site is user-friendly with weekly updates on new releases including the date and time of auction sales. You can become a creator or reseller of your own tokens by opening an account with them. It is the site where the Beeple stays to launch some of his digital artworks to be sold at outrageous prices.
OpenSea
The biggest advantage of OpenSea over all other marketplaces is that they sell a variety of NFTs in addition to ERC721 and ERC1155 crypto derivative assets. Ethereum released those two standards recently and its competitor, Binance, has since released standards BEP-721 and BEP-1155. The two “1155” standards differ from the original “721” standards because they allow multiple NFTs to be bunched and transacted together. You can also sell custom digital assets like Axies, CryptoKitties, and ENS names. OpenSea is the best marketplace for NFT creators because they can create their own items on the blockchain using OpenSea’s minting tool.
Rarible
The platform places a particular focus on art assets. Creators can use the app to “mint” new NFTs. They can produce and sell their creations, be it books, photographs, music albums, or digital art. Just like Nifty Gateway, the creator can show an advert of their complete or incomplete creation to everyone who comes to visit Rarible but the full project is later released to the purchaser.
Atomic Market
It is a marketplace for Atomic Assets, which is a variant of non-fungible tokens. As a creator registered with them, you can create, modify and trade programmable art for crypto money. You can either buy the individual components that make up the master image (referred to as “Layers”) and modify in order to resell it or you can buy the limited edition or non-fungible art piece (called the Master image).
KnownOrigin
Only authentic and truly unique artworks are sold on KnownOrigin. It is secured by the Ethereum blockchain. You can also try Portion. The nice thing about Portion is that it allows anyone to be a collector. As you can manage your physical and digital collection in one place, it is easy to exchange crypto for art and other collectibles.
Concluding thoughts
Hardworking creators and resellers of non-fungible tokens have made million in recent years. The most successful creator in this new market niche is Mike Winkelmann more commonly known as Beeple. He has sold several multimillion-dollar digital arts on his platform. From his example, we learn that NFTs encompass anything from digital art to virtual real estate, digital trading cards, and gaming shots. For professional digital artists like Beeple, NFTs have opened a wide door leading to lots of profit. All the NFT marketplaces highlighted above are revolutionizing the world of digital art and in the process, they could make the traditional art markets degenerate. With the help of these NFT trading platforms, you can sell a non-fungible item either at a fixed price, a declining price listing, or an auction listing. It would be an unregrettable choice to be an NFT creator!
