You first heard about NFT after the hype of 2021-2022. That’s it. You’re ready to get started. You too want to make money easily and quickly. You may even be a buyer. After a lot of research on where to buy nft, how to buy nft and at what price, you haven’t found anything clear? Whether you’re a beginner, a stockbroker or an experienced trader, Coinpri is here to help you.
The point before seeing where to buy NFTs
What are NFTs, I don’t get it
Before looking to invest in NFTs, you should already understand what they are and what they can be used for.
Remember that you should never invest in something you don’t understand.
An NFT is a “Non Fungible Token”.
Non-fungible means that no two NFTs can be identical, just like a work of art.
On the contrary, the so-called “fungible tokens” correspond to money: the euro, the dollar or crypto-currencies like BTC. A U.S. dollar bill can easily be replaced by another of the same amount. Similarly, one bitcoin can easily be exchanged for another. A work of art, on the other hand, is unique.
But what guarantees this uniqueness? Well, its registration in the Blockchain, this distributed, peer-to-peer register, visible to all, unfalsifiable and secure.
Without Blockchain, no NFT.
If there are currently many blockchains (the best known being Bitcoin), the main blockchain used for NFTs is none other than Ethereum, the blockchain of Vitalik Butterin known for its smart contracts
The field of applications of NFTs is absolutely enormous, and goes far beyond simple JPEGs sold for several million dollars.
What are NFTs used for?
NFTs can be applied to fields as varied as education (certification of a diploma to prove that you have obtained it), real estate (to guarantee that you are the owner of a particular property) or video games (to prove that you are the owner of items, skins or land).
NFTs have three main characteristics that make them very interesting assets to own:
- Immutability: “State of being that which cannot change in nature or time”, in other words an NFT cannot be copied, and this makes it a unique digital asset. You can visually create the same NFT, but the code will be different, and therefore worthless.
- Transparency: Everyone can see all the exchanges of an NFT in a transaction explorer (or Blockchain explorer), just like any fungible token. All data is public and freely available.
- Security: The majority of NFTs are created on the Ethereum Blockchain, and are stored in databases on a worldwide account registry, secured by thousands of people. It is difficult for hackers to hack it thanks to the Proof of Work.
Why should I invest in NFTs?
What follows is obviously not an investment advice, just an observation. The NFT market is booming, as shown in the graph below.
The total value of NFT sales reached $2 billion in Q3 2021 while the capitalization was low just a few years ago. Some NFTs have been able to reach astronomical prices.
Here’s just one example: in March 2021, artist Beeple (Mike Winkelmann) sold a digital photo called “Everyday: the first five thousand days” for $69 millions at Christie‘s auction house.
Why did the buyer spend so much money on this digital artwork? A monetary reason, no doubt. You might think it’s just an image, but it’s much more than that: it’s a digital asset, issued by a famous personality, whose traceability is guaranteed by the Blockchain.
The NFT market is therefore currently comparable to the contemporary art market (due to speculation), with the blockchain layer added.
This is what guarantees the value of the asset, even if it is a simple image. This image can be accessed and copied by anyone, of course, but there is only one person who can claim ownership of this work of art.
However, this is not the only interest of the blockchain: it also allows to trace the history of the NFT and to know in which hands it passed. Another interest and not the least, NFTs also allow artists to be better paid. Thus, no doubt that more and more artists will want to get into NFTs, which will further increase this market and give new opportunities to earn money.
Some NFTs have seen their value increase significantly since 2021. This is the case for Cryptopunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club (see chart above). Prices are very volatile, but if you bought a Bored Ape Yacht Club in May 2021 and sold it at the end of 2021, you would have multiplied your bet by at least 50. Also note that Cryptopunks were basically free NFTs. Yes, you would have gotten a free NFT.
Since the art of NFT is so vast, there is an NFT to suit everyone. An alien NFT, an eagle NFT, a giraffe NFT, a llama NFT, a wolf NFT, a bull NFT, a simpsons NFT, a xiaomi NFT… A long list with of course extravagant collection names: wow nft, super fat apes nft, ape beast nft, alien secret society nft, prime kong nft, big cats nft, moon boyz nft, cyberkongz nft, boss beauties nft. We are not going to do all of them and many collections in this list are probably already dead.
In short, as you may have guessed, it is quite possible to make money with NFT. So, what the heck! How and where to buy NFTs? What are the best sites to trade NFTs?
Where to buy NFTs, step by step
First of all, you need to buy cryptocurrency on an exchange platform like Binance, Kraken, Coinbase or Kucoin.
Create an account and fill in your personal information. Then, you must create a “Hot wallet” (connected to the Internet) of which you have the key (type Metamask or Trust Wallet). For maximum security, do not hesitate to secure these Wallet with a Cold Wallet of which you have the key (type Ledger).
Finally, you must transfer your cryptocurrency to your Wallet with your address. Some exchanges will ask you for an ID to do a KYC (Know Your Customer). You will have as payment method SEPA transfers or your credit card to pay in Fiat currency (traditional currency like US dollar or euro).
The last step is to choose your NFT. This step is the most complex because many factors come into play. You should pay particular attention to the following points:
- The blockchain used: As said before, most NFTs are created on the Ethereum Blockchain. However, the network is sometimes congested and gas fees can sometimes be high (tens of dollars or more). The gas fees are there to reward the miners who secure thousands of transactions (it is an economic incentive).
- The exchange platform: The main platform to buy NFT is currently Opensea and works mostly on the Ethereum network. However, other blockchains also offer their NFT marketplace and are less expensive. Think for example of Solanart which works on the Solana blockchain or cnft.io which works on Cardano. Depending on the sites, you can pay with different virtual currencies: BUSD, USDT, ADA, ETH, … Note that there are NFT platforms without fees like Binance NFT.
- The story behind the NFT: you need to look into everything behind NFT to know if it’s a good idea to invest. First, look at the NFT project itself. Is it just a Jpeg image or is there a real project behind it? Real values? A long term vision? What added value does the project bring? Then, look at the community. Whether you like it or not, the community plays a very important role in the value of an NFT. Check the main social networks (Twitter, Discord in particular) and see if the community is active, ask questions.
“I’m going to get rich with my NFT!” This is what an inexperienced person might say to himself before realizing that it’s not so easy to make a profit with NFTs. But thanks to this article, you have a clearer picture of what NFTs are and where to buy them. Note that there are many tools to maximize your profits in buying and selling NFTs and to find a free NFT. See the next article to find out!
Coming from a teaching background, I’ve become passionate about the world of Blockchain. I’m eager to learn more and share the fruit of my research through my articles.
