Non-Fungible Tokens, or NFTs, have created an upheaval in the crypto world over the last two years and are the hottest items attracting cryptocurrency owners and traditional investors. There’s a mad craze about NFTs, and everyone is keen to know what is an NFT and where to get it. NFTs are digital assets such as art, gaming, collectibles, and other virtual assets exchangeable over blockchain platforms like OpenSea, Axie Marketplace, Raible, NBA Topshot Marketplace, and other NFT marketplaces. NFTs confer ownership of the digital asset to the person possessing specific NFTs related to the asset. The growing popularity of NFTs allows creators, celebrities, and businesses to buy and sell NFTs to expand the avenues of commercialization of the brands and increase revenue in the process.
What are NFT marketplaces?
You can make out from the name that the top NFT marketplaces are virtual platforms for trading NFTs and allow creators and NFT owners to store and display their ware and, in some cases, facilitate mining. To better understand these marketplaces, you can compare these to the eCommerce platforms like eBay and Amazon that sell goods. However, you need to have the requisite accessories to access these markets besides opening an account with any reputed marketplace for NFTs.
What do you need to access the marketplaces?
Although you can access multiple marketplaces, it is better to choose anyone that’s most suitable and convenient for you. Regardless of the choice of the market, you need to have three things ready to access the virtual platforms where NFT buyers and sellers meet.
Firstly, you must choose a crypto wallet compatible with the blockchain network associated with the NFT you wish to buy. For example, MetaMask, an Ethereum compatible digital wallet, is what you need to start accessing any marketplace that supports the Ethereum blockchain platform if the NFTs are compatible. If you use the Solana platform, you need to use the Sollet wallet service.
Secondly, you must have some digital currencies filled in your wallet before you can start listing, buying, or mining NFTs. The cryptocurrencies should be compatible with the chosen marketplace because all marketplaces do not support all kinds of cryptocurrencies, and it applies to all the top NFT marketplaces.
Thirdly, you must set up a user account with the chosen marketplace.
Blockchain options for NFTs
Interestingly, Bitcoin, the first and most popular digital currency, does not relate to NFTs. Instead, Ethereum is the most preferred cryptocurrency for trading, mining, and displaying NFTs. In addition, there are many more blockchains developed for NFTs like Binance Smart Chain, Tron, Solana, EOS, Flow, Tezos, Polkadot, WAX, Cosmos, Algorand, and Hedera Hashgraph.
Despite slight differences in the signing up process to the NFT marketplaces, the main steps are broadly the same. It starts by creating an account on the chosen marketplace, provided you have a compatible digital wallet that supports the platform. Having a digital wallet is not always a pre-requisite for opening an account with the market because many marketplaces offer built-in digital wallets to clients. After connecting your wallet to the platform and entering your password, you are ready to trade in NFTs.
