NFTs have probably been the hottest topic in crypto over the past year. Their applicability in many sectors and the possibility of monetising the value of one’s own products or artworks has made them the subject of much attention for those interested in the crypto world. There are now daily announcements, even by large companies, that they are offering their products for sale in the form of NFTs.
As a result of this success, platforms specialised in the trade of this type of digital object have sprung up, with OpenSea, Rarible, Foundation and Super Rare being the most important of the many existing platforms.
The marketplaces
OpenSea
OpenSea is the largest marketplace whose specialty is buying and selling digital objects.
It was founded in 2017. The vision is that people would soon value digital objects as much – or more – than physical ones and therefore there would be a huge potential market. Since then, OpenSea has experienced an impressive growth.
In August 2021 alone, it recorded well over $3.5 billion in NFT trading volume. Considering that it had only recorded $21 million in volume throughout 2020, a 12,000% increase in trading activity is evident. This demonstrates the success of the platform, but also the huge increase in interest in NFTs.
OpenSea is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
The way Opensea works is also what has driven its growth in the market. It is, in fact, an extremely simple system. All you have to do is create a profile on the platform, connect an Ethereum-based wallet, the most popular of which is MetaMask, and put all the digital objects you want to sell into it.
Once this is done, other users can freely view the objects contained in the wallet and, if there is one they are interested in, propose a purchase price or simply accept the one set by the seller.
The operation is therefore very similar to that of EBay.
Anyone wishing to sell an object must indicate the conditions of sale by choosing between two types of auction: Fixed price or Best offer.
Opensea charges a 2.5% commission on each successful sale transaction. Opening an account is free, but the creation of an NFT token will depend on the price of the transaction on Ethereum.
Opensea is available both as a web version and as an Android and IOS app.
Rarible
Founded by Alex Salkinov and Alexei Falin in early 2020, Rarible is an online sales platform based on Ethereum blockchain. It is also a DAO, hence the community is governing it. Governance takes place through its RARI token which gives decision-making power over the platform to those who own it.
To create, sell or buy NFTs you need a wallet. Again, Metamask is the most popular and is compatible with Rarible.
Once the wallet has been connected to the platform, it will be possible to proceed with all operations, but only after requesting authorisation from the community, which may or may not decide to accept the request. This is to avoid uploading unsuitable material that could damage the reputation of the platform.
On Rarible, we can participate in auctions for NFTs, sell them, buy them and display them. All at much lower costs than the Ethereum network, as Rarible operates as a kind of layer 2, which then only records the final transactions on the blockchain.
Rarible is one of the most important marketplaces in the world. It also has the distinction of making it possible to issue “options” that are based on smart contracts. These can then be auctioned on the platform.
Foundation
Foundation is another NFT marketplace that allows the buying and selling of NFTs. It relies on the Ethereum blockchain.
Foundation’s NFT marketplace has established itself as a particularly curated NFT marketplace.
The founders’ vision is clear from this sentence: “BRINGING DIGITAL CREATORS, CRYPTO NATIVES, AND COLLECTORS TOGETHER TO MOVE CULTURE FORWARD.”
It thus describes itself as a crossroads of crypto and culture, fostering a community of artists, creators and collectors.
Creators must have ETH in their MetaMask wallet before they can open an artist profile and mint an NFT that will be available on Foundation.
When an NFT is minted on the Foundation marketplace, it is also automatically made available on OpenSea and Rarible.
Foundation takes about 15% of the sale price as commission, with the result that the creator receives is 85% of the total sale price.
If the item is then resold on Foundation (or OpenSea and Rarible), a royalty of 10% is returned to the creator’s wallet.
This is because Foundation has an agreement with OpenSea and Rarible whereby all secondary market sales will receive a 10% royalty if the upon object sale.
Once the auction has been successfully closed, the artwork is transferred to the collector’s wallet and displayed on the collector’s profile.
You can then put the artwork in your virtual gallery, publish it on social media or sell it on the secondary market.
SuperRare
Among NFT marketplaces, SupeRare is among the most coveted by digital artists around the world.
Founded in 2017, SuperRare is to date one of the most popular marketplaces to sell digital art in NFT. It is based on the Ethereum blockchain.
Through the end of January 2022 there has been nearly $90 million in digital art sales on SuperRare, with over $3 million in royalties to artists.
SuperRare seeks to offer unique features compared to arts marketplaces, e.g. SuperRare Spaces. They are a sort of independent shops that can showcase artwork and artists, advertise auctions, bid and earn commissions.
As a result, any Space can become a stand-alone cryptographic art exhibition.
SuperRare has a small number of carefully selected artists. It is difficult for artists to have access to the marketplace. The SuperRare platform focuses on quality rather than quantity.
SuperRare also distinguishes itself by being a platform where Crypto Art lovers can connect and interact with each other. The idea behind it is the belief that collecting is a social glue. Therefore, users can see who the best collectors and trendy artists are, how many pieces they have bought or created.
The collector interested in buying on this marketplace must have ETH in a wallet linked to the marketplace.
For the first sale of a new piece, the artist receives 85% of the profit. SuperRare gets a 15% commission.
Furthermore, the smart contracts operational in SuperRare allow the creator of any item to receive a commission from the resale prices for the second market, similar to a royalty. Every time the NFT undergoes a new sale, its creator will receive a 10% commission.
According to the terms of smart contracts, this guarantees them an automatic royalty even after many changes of ownership.
The buyer, on the other hand, pays a 3% commission for each purchase.
Conclusions
Marketplaces for digital goods and in particular for NFTs are a fundamental tool to make it easy to trade NFTs. Consequently, NFTs also have a great impact on the creation and circulation of Tokens.
All this makes the use of Tokens and thus the Token Economy more widespread and important.
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