Pros and Cons of 5 Top NFT Marketplaces
What is NFT?
NFT is simply stands for Non-Fungible Token, and it represents the ownership of a digital asset. Unlike regular money, NFT can not be exchanged with another item. However, NFT can be sold and bought with tokens or cryptocurrencies, such as Ethereum, Solena, Dogecoin, Bitcoin, or BNB.
If you want to invest in NFT and want to know more, you better read here first.
Where can you buy NFT? The answer is, of course — NFT Marketplace.
With many marketplaces out there to choose from, it is natural to raise a question in your mind; which one is the right place for your NFT investment?
Don’t worry.
I have already sorted out the top 5 of NFT marketplaces with their pros and cons for you. Check it out!
1. Opensea
Who doesn’t know of this marketplace? Opensea is the first NFT marketplace, the more popular and the largest by far, with its trade volume over $47.79M according to DappRadar. It supports multiple blockchains and uses ERC-721 and ERC-1155 token standards. It is also well-known as the best marketplace for beginners in crypto art.
Pros:
- Low gas fees (OpenSea charge of 2.5% service fee and original creator earnings of 10%.)
- Wide option of digital collectibles
- Gas-free for highest bid auctions
- Easy transaction process and simple platform
- Safe and strong reputation
- It has a mobile app
Cons:
- Limited customer support
- No consignment option
- Only accepts cryptocurrency
- Royalty fee fixed on 10%.
2. Rarible
Rarible NFT marketplace was founded in 2019 by Alexei Falin. What makes this platform stand out is that it established a partnership with big companies and celebrities. It is rather similar to Opensea — one of the largest NFT marketplaces lately built on the Ethereum blockchain. Rarible has its cryptocurrency called RARI. This platform takes 2.5% on the buyer and seller sides 2.5% each on every sale happening in the marketplace.
Pros:
- Integration with Opensea
- Easy for creating and selling NFTs
- Fast-growing marketplace
- Flexibility on royalty fee (up to 50%)
- It established a decentralized governance system
Cons:
- Charges 2.5% on both sides (seller and buyer)
- It doesn’t have a mobile app
- It doesn’t support APIs or IPFS storage
- Limited customer support
3. Larva Labs — CryptoPunks
The popularity of CryptoPunks is why this marketplace is in the top 5. CryptoPunks are 10.000 unique collectible punk characters. Back in 2017, CryptoPunks were given away for free to anyone with Ethereum, but then they became rare, and now to own one, you have to purchase it — which is really expensive. The current lowest price for one is 66.5 ETH which is around $173.103,49. Phew~
Pros:
- High ROI for owning unique CryptoPunks
- Secure transaction using Ether cryptocurrency
- A transparency marketplace and complete with statistics
- Simple platform
Cons:
- Limiting wallet option
- The fee is high
- It doesn’t support another payment method
- Not friendly for beginner
4. SuperRare
If you are looking for quality NFT collections, SuperRare is the platform you are looking for. Unlike Opensea and Rarible, in order to mint an NFT, an artist would be waiting for approval from the system. Hence, the NFT arts you bought are guaranteed valuable since SuperRare focuses more on quality than quantity. It also uses its own cryptocurrency with the same name — SuperRare.
Pros:
- High royalty for the artist
- Deliver high-quality NFT arts
- More flexible in organizing and controlling your digital artworks
- Super safe
Cons:
- It is hard to mint an NFT
- File sizes limited to 50MB
- Only accept ETH as its payment
- High fees (Charges sellers 15% commission on each sale, and 3% buyer’s premium)
5. Foundation
Foundation is a newer marketplace than the others. It was launched on February 2021 by Kayvon Tehranian, and since then, creators have earned 55.484 ETH or around $144,535,177.43. Foundation allows creators to buy and sell NFT art in an auction setting. It will run for 24 hours when the minimum bid is placed. In this marketplace, artists usually are invited to the platform by the Foundation’s community. Arguably, this marketplace is good for artists or creators.
Pros:
- Easy to use and navigate
- Community driven and easy to build a connection with other creators
- It runs on Ethereum blockchain
- High royalty for creators (10% for the secondary transaction)
- Better customer service
Cons:
- Required fees when doing transactions asides from the Ethereum Gas fee
- ETH only
- The artist needs to pay commission (15% from the primary sales)
- Pay per listing
Based on the list of pros and cons above, it concludes that all the platforms have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is also based on the need and circumstances of your state. If you are a beginner and just about to start in the NFTs world, you should choose Opensea or Rarible, since both marketplaces are beginner-friendly.
Furthermore, please do more research about the market conditions and Cryptocurrencies values when you are ready to invest.