Top NFT Marketplaces

Considering the fact that you are here to check about NFT marketplace places, I would assume you already know the nitty-gritty of what an NFT is. Therefore we won’t be doing the boring stuff, let’s dive into the real work here.

Source: Giphy

Since the advent of NFTs, several marketplaces have emerged for its trading purposes. In this article, we are going to look into each top NFT marketplaces, their features, sales volume,and other details about them. Follow along.

OPENSEA

Opensea has carried the badge of the world’s first and largest web3 marketplace since December 2017. According to Devin Finzer, one of the co-founders of opensea, opensea comprises a lot of things. Collectibles, digital products, audio files, virtual words, tickets, game items amidst others. They currently have about 2 million+ collections and more than $20 billion in total sales volume. Cryptokitties was one of their exciting projects built on the blockchain rather than the company server. They have since then had more than 80 million exciting NFT projects on their platform.

Opensea is a decentralized marketplace where users can buy, sell, trade and explore a vast variety of NFTs. Here are some of its features:

  • It is a platform where digital products on the blockchain are discovered and traded

  • Original digital product owners are allowed to list their products and sell

  • It supports multiple blockchains like Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana, Arbitrium e.t.c

  • It is digital, autonomous and transparent

  • Creators can earn on every resale of their digital collections through royalties.

  • Opensea’s interface is user-friendly.

  • They also have an API(Application binary Interface) that allows developers to interact with their marketplace.

Overall, while Opensea offers a wide-range of benefits to individuals, it is important to consider its potential downsides as well. Here, in a tabular form, we would look through what could be considered a non-exhaustive list of the pros and cons of using opensea.

PROS

CONS

It is considered a one-stop shop for digital products like game items, collectibles, arts, music.

During periods of high network congestions, gas fees to purchase NFTs are usually high on the Ethereum network 

It is easily accessible to create collections, buy and sell digital products on their platform.

Since opensea is not the only NFT  marketplace on the blockchain, there is high competition risk which may affect its market share and growth.

It has a relatively low fee of 2.5% on every transaction for people looking to sell their NFTs compared to other marketplaces.

The risk of counterfeit items is high, where stolen/fake items can be listed on the platform.

It supports multiple blockchains which allows flexible interoperability for the users.

Due to lack of regulations or quality control on digital products, it is difficult for creators and users to operate seamlessly.

It has a large and active community of creators which drives innovation and growth within the space.

Overwhelming volume of NFTs, making it difficult for buyers to filter through their choice.

FEES

Sellers/Creators on Opensea are expected to pay certain fees to list their collections on Opensea. Creators are allowed to set the price for each of their collections and its royalty fee for each sale. This way, creators can earn a percentage on each sale of their item listed.

Royalty fees set by creators range from 0-10, this is deducted per each buyer's purchase/minting payment. Then the balance is shared between Opensea and the creator where Opensea deducts 2.5% as transaction fee. All these are excluding the gas fee demanded by the blockchain network used.

Recently, Opensea has introduced the option of operator filter registry for collections created after 8 November, 2022. Here creators can claim their royalty on secondary sales of their NFTs. This is implemented in the creators contract.

GENIE

Genie was launched in November 2021 as the first NFT marketplace aggregator. NFT marketplace aggregators are platforms that gather NFT listings and data from various NFT marketplace into a single interface. This aims for users a centralized place to discover, trade and explore NFTs from different platforms and to simplify trading of NFTs.

On 21 June 2022, they announced that they had been acquired by uniswap. According to its founder, Scott Gray, Genie has completed over $560 million in transactions since its launch. Check his tweet here.

Below are some of the features offered by Genie:

  • Allows integration of several NFT marketplaces into a unified interface.

  • Users can track their data, NFT collections and even their purchase records.

  • Supports multiple other marketplaces like opensea, rarible, foundation, looksrare, x2y2 e.t.c

  • Users can check details of NFTs from various platforms to look out for bad actors/creators.

  • Users are refunded if an item becomes unavailable for purchase.

  • Users can save more gas fees compared to buying directly from the main marketplace.

  • Users can batch buy and sell NFTs in one transaction.

Since uniswap acquired Genie, its website has now been redirected here, making uniswap support both ERC20 and NFTs. Let’s look into the pros and cons of this NFT marketplace aggregator:

PROS

CONS

Users can find it easier to skim through a pool of NFTs to trade or explore.

Support might be limited since all other marketplaces are in a central platform.

Opportunity to choose from a variety of NFT collections from different creators and platforms.

There is also a limited selection of marketplace

With the aid of the advanced sorting and search features, this enables a more user-friendly experience.

Genie relies on the security of third-party marketplaces.

Offers access to exclusive NFTs through partnership with some of the NFT platforms.

It charges a 2% on every transaction, which may be relatively high compared to other marketplaces.

GEM

Gem is another NFT marketplace aggregator that collects transaction information from multiple NFT marketplaces and consolidates them into a single platform. It allows users to trade and explore NFTs from over 170 marketplace providing advanced analytics and optimized gas fee. It was launched in 2021 and known for its user-friendly interface and features that ensure a seamless user experience. It was considered one of the leading aggregators in the world and has since then been acquired by opensea. Gem is now Opensea Pro. Opensea Pro is the premium version of Opensea with added features and benefits for users.

Here are a non-exhaustive list of the Opensea Pro NFT marketplace’s features;

  • It’s user-interface is friendly and intuitive, making it one of the best

  • It offers a wide-variety of NFTs. There is something for everyone.

  • Opensea Pro has a strong community of NFT enthusiasts and creators where they can network, share and participate in various community events.

  • Ownership of NFTs are secure, transparent and verifiable.

  • Advanced analytics. Traders can track their NFT sale performance with the analytic feature

PROS

CONS

Has a higher exposure for your NFTs for easy search

It is subscription based. Users will have to pay a monthly subscription to access NFTs which might not be convenient for a number of people.

Opensea Pro offers more advanced tools such as API access, customized storefront,

Some users may also consider that the subscription price does not worth the extra features, especially if they have little to no use of them.

Users that use Opensea Pro have premium access to new features like batch transfer, live mint overview, inventory control e.t.c

They have a limited target audience. Opensea pro was built for power user community and people who have a big role to play in the ecosystem. 

They offer live cross-market data analytics. Users can monitor NFT Activities across marketplaces.

Users can list on Opensea through Opensea pro for free but only for a promotional period 

Aggregated from over 170 NFT marketplaces with more optimized gas fee

Users can only trade in cryptocurrency.

FEES

Opensea pro offers a 0% list fee for all NFTs, but for a limited time. Recently, Opensea has updated their creator earning from o-10% to a minimum of 0.5 %

LOOKSRARE

Looksrare is a community-first platform that rewards its users for trading, creating or being active on its platform. It is a community based NFT marketplace built by the slogan “by NFT people, for NFT people ''. It also prides itself in its community. Being a part of its community means you get rewarded and empowered, it is a way looksrare give back to its users.

In January 2022, Looksrare was founded by two anonymous founders named Zodd and Guts. They are considered anonymous because there is little to no information about them. Infact, their names “Zodd” and “guts” are barely a stage names. The project aims to help artist and community users get visibility on their creative works.

Features of Looksrare Nft marketplace are as follows:

  • Creators have total authority over sales made

PROS

CONS

Has a higher exposure for your NFTs for easy search

It is subscription based. Users will have to pay a monthly subscription to access NFTs which might not be convenient for a number of people.

Opensea Pro offers more advanced tools such as API access, customized storefront,

Some users may also consider that the subscription price does not worth the extra features, especially if they have little to no use of them.

Users that use Opensea Pro have premium access to new features like batch transfer, live mint overview, inventory control e.t.c

They have a limited target audience. Opensea pro was built for power user community and people who have a big role to play in the ecosystem. 

They offer live cross-market data analytics. Users can monitor NFT Activities across marketplaces.

Users can list on Opensea through Opensea pro for free but only for a promotional period 

Aggregated from over 170 NFT marketplaces with more optimized gas fee

Users can only trade in cryptocurrency.

FEES

Opensea pro offers a 0% list fee for all NFTs, but for a limited time. Recently, Opensea has updated their creator earning from o-10% to a minimum of 0.5 %.