Dear Bankless Nation,🏴

There is rarely a dull moment in the world of NFTs and we often have Yuga Labs to thank for this: the spectrum of their action is increasingly broad and involves the entire ecosystem more and more, so much so that they may evolve into a dedicated chain. It is definitely something that we will all follow with passion.

The NFT world would not be what it is today without the main projects that driven adoption, but also without the main marketplaces (including our sponsor Rarible!). What follows is an overview of some of the most popular NFT marketplaces. Join us as we provide some brief insight into each, and describe what to look for when deciding where to get involved.

Welcome to Decentralized Arts.

Contributors: BanklessDAO Writers Guild (Grendel, Kouros, Kaf, nonsensetwice, Frank America)

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🌐 Curated NFT News

Yuga Labs Makes Over 300 Million USD with Otherside NFT Drop

On Saturday, Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) released its first batch of Otherseeds NFTs as part of their metaverse project Otherside. There is little information available about the Otherseeds NFTs, but it is widely considered that they will represent plots of land in Otherside.

The 55,000 NFTs each had a price of 305 APE, abandoning previous plans of running a Dutch auction. ApeCoin was valued at just under $20 at the time of mint, ringing Yuga Labs over 310 million USD, as users bought up APE to participate in the mint.

The mint was only available to pre-registered wallets before April 1st, and they had to pass a KYC verification to be able to mint. The NFTs sold out in three hours.

In other news regarding the BAYC ecosystem, OpenSea, the leading NFT marketplace, has announced that they are now accepting ApeCoin as payment.

SuperRare to Open an NFT Gallery in New York City

The curated pop-up gallery will be open in SoHo from May 19 to August 28 and will showcase rotating NFT exhibitions highlighting the development of digital art.

The first exhibition, Visions from Remembered Futures, will feature works from 15 different artists exploring futuristic and science fiction themes.

“Showcasing artists from diverse backgrounds, the SuperRare Gallery aims to explore art’s future place in the web3 ecosystem, while reflecting on the past astronomical year when NFTs entered the mainstream consciousness,” the company says.

For more information, please visit the gallery’s website.

Cool Cats NFT Project CEO Steps Down

The Cool Cats NFT project team announced last week in a Town Hall meeting that CEO Chris Hassett has stepped down from his role. The founding team is working with a recruitment firm to find the next CEO. In the meantime, they will be leading the project.

🙏 Sponsor: Rarible.com - multichain community-centric NFT marketplace 💛

NFT MARKETPLACES

WHERE TO BUY/SELL NFT?

By Kaf

In the midst of the digital revolution, there is no doubt that more users buy and sell digital assets every day. According to DappRadar, the NFT industry has gone from less than a billion USD to 44 billion USD in the last two years, which shows the enormous potential of this market.

As with cryptocurrencies, most users buy NFTs in dedicated markets. Many marketplaces allow you to transfer NFTs directly between different wallets, thus making those marketplaces similar to peer-to-peer networks (P2P) or decentralized exchanges.

When you start in the world of NFTs, it can be overwhelming to see the number of platforms that are dedicated to the exchange and creation of NFTs, but that does not turn you back, because you are Bankless people!

What exactly is an NFT marketplace?

An NFT marketplace is a decentralized platform where users can mint, buy, sell, or bid on various types of NFTs. Users visiting a marketplace are able to register them, as well as exchange with others. An NFT marketplace can specialize in a particular niche or include a wide range of categories such as art, video games, trading cards, music, virtual fashion, and many more.

How to choose the right NFT marketplace?

Given the available choices, it is often difficult to choose between one platform or another. This is due to the paradox of choice. However, we at Decentralized Arts are here to help simplify the process.

To begin, learn about the network on which a platform is built. Pay attention to certain aspects: speed ​​of transactions and transaction cost–to buy or sell an NFT as efficiently as possible–and the functionality of the underlying smart contract, to determine security, a key aspect.

The compatibility of the platform with different wallets is also an important aspect. The most common crypto wallet is Metamask, which supports many blockchains, although others, such as Phantom or Wax Wallet, are gaining in popularity.

In addition to compatibility, transaction speed, and transaction cost, many platforms have their own governance token with their own tokenomics. Understanding how these tokens are used and distributed within the platform will help in deciding which one to utilize.

As NFT markets continue to proliferate into the mainstream, so do the number of copycats targeting unsuspecting buyers and collectors. For this reason, make sure that a marketplace uses a strict verification process to block unscrupulous creators and users from using the platform.

Now that you have an idea of what to pay attention to, let’s look at the most popular marketplaces currently.

What are the top marketplaces to buy and sell NFTs?

There is no doubt that the king of NFT marketplaces is OpenSea. However, due to the congestion on Ethereum and the abusive gas fees, many developers have created alternative networks and platforms. As it is unreasonable to discuss all NFT marketplaces in existence, we are going to leave you with a brief description of some of the most outstanding.

1. OPENSEA

OpenSea was founded at the end of 2017 by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah. Their idea was that "it would become a kind of Amazon of the guild." Currently the platform has more than 20 million collectible assets hosted. OpenSea is the best known market due to the large number of Blue Chip projects created on its platform. Likewise, it has a user base of more than 2 million active users and around 200 different categories by which to explore NFTs. OpenSea now offers cross-blockchain support on the Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn, and Solana blockchains.

1. RARIBLE 

Rarible is a very popular and easy to use platform for buying and selling NFTs. The ability to mint NFT tokens without the need for programming expertise and governance of the platform through its native RARI token is what really sets Rarible apart. Rarible operates across Ethereum, Polygon, Flow and Tezos. It also has useful features such as the floor bid function which allows users to place bids for an entire NFT collection, allowing any holder of that collection to accept the bid.

With the development of a DAO to be released in the future, Rarible could become one of the first truly decentralized marketplaces for NFTs.

1. LOOKSRARE

LooksRare was born with the idea of being community-first. According to LooksRare, “community-first means that LooksRare rewards, empowers, and gives back to the platform's users and creators.” One difference between LooksRare and OpenSea is that LooksRare has its own token which allows the platform to create a community-based economic system. Another big difference are the rates. At OpenSea, the fees for trading NFTs are 2.5%, and the profits go entirely to the owners. At LooksRare, the fees are 2%, and the profits go to users who stake LOOKS, LooksRare’s native token. In terms of web design and processes, both platforms are very similar.

1. BLOCKTOBAY

BloctoBay, Flow Blockchain’s new NFT marketplace, launched in October 2021 with a more user-friendly interface and an impressive amount of product. BlocktoBay continues to experience huge liquidity in a highly competitive and saturated NFT space with its launch although it is still in beta.

1. PANCAKE SWAP

On September 30, 2021, PancakeSwap, the #1 automated market maker (AMM) and decentralized exchange (DEX) by volume, formally launched its NFT marketplace. NFT collection creators can earn creator royalties on trades on PancakeSwap, as well as getting visibility for their project on the most prominent NFT marketplace on the BNB Smart Chain.

1. CRYPTOPUNKS MARKETPLACE

CryptoPunks Marketplace allows users to buy, sell, and trade NFTs with other members of the community. In the beginning, anyone with an Ethereum wallet could claim these NFTs for free. Now CryptoPunks enthusiasts can buy them from other CryptoPunks owners.

1. MOBOX

MOBOX is a community-driven GameFi platform built on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) that combines the features of decentralized finance (DeFi), NFTs, and blockchain gaming to create a free-to-play and play-to-earn ecosystem. It was released in April 2021. MOBOX is also working on a game creator and NFT creator. Developers can use the platform to launch their own games and NFTs with hardly any fees.

8. MAGIC EDEN

Magic Eden is a decentralized application (dApp) built on the Solana blockchain. These NFTs can be used for a variety of purposes, including digital collectibles, gaming assets, and more. The high performance of the Solana blockchain makes the fees in Magic Eden almost negligible and thus it is fast becoming one of the most popular platforms for trading NFTs.

9. NBA TOP SHOT

NBA Top Shot is a platform that allows you to buy, sell, and trade NFTs officially licensed by the National Basketball Association (NBA). NBA Top Shots are a great example of digital trading cards, being reminiscent of collecting trading cards as a child. However, instead of just a card with a player's statistics, you can now exchange videos of the best NBA plays, thanks to the underlying blockchain technology.

10. AXIE INFINITY MARKETPLACE

You have probably heard of this collection of NFTs. Axie Infinity is the most famous play-to-earn game. The game is filled with fascinating creatures, known as Axies, that players can collect as pets. Players aim to battle, breed, collect, raise, and build kingdoms for their Axies. The Axie Infinity Marketplace only sells characters and items from the Axie Infinity ecosystem, and nothing else. The game runs on the Ethereum blockchain with the help of Ronin, a sidechain that helps minimize fees and transaction delays.

11. NFT TRADE

NFTrade is a decentralized multi-chain and blockchain-agnostic NFT platform. NFTrade is an indexer of all NFTs across all of their integrated chains, hosting the complete NFT lifecycle (create, mint, and swap). Using NFTrade, anyone can gain access to the entirety of their NFT, unlocking the total value of the NFT market. The best thing about it is that it supports the Ethereum, Polygon, Binance, Avalanche, and Solana blockchains. The future is interoperability and NFTrade is working hard on that.

12. WAX MARKETPLACE

WAX is a blockchain specifically made for trading virtual items in video games and virtual worlds. Since it was launched in 2017, the founders have been working on scalability solutions and are one of the most advanced in this area. WAX is a platform and a token that allows anyone to create a marketplace for digital assets and has some of the best collections of NFTs ever released.

These are the marketplaces with the highest volume traded, but we cannot forget others, such as Objtk (Tezos network), or CNFT (Cardano network). If you are looking for high quality art, Foundation is your marketplace since you can only be a creator by invitation. There are also marketplaces of different Metaverses such as Decentraland, where you can exchange wearables, lands, and names through their $MANA token. One of the latest marketplaces to come out is that of Coinbase, the largest centralized crypto exchange in the USA, which is expected to position itself as one of the largest NFT marketplaces in the near future.

There are tons of NFT marketplaces, each with its own utility. Because everything on most blockchains is open source, you can even create your own Marketplace, if you know how to code.

Conclusion

NFTs represent a great opportunity for digital artists to maintain control over the ownership of assets and have a greater claim to royalties. In a few years, it’s anticipated that we will spend more time in the metaverse than in the real world, and as all items in the metaverse will be NFTs, this market is only expected to grow.

At the moment, NFT marketplaces are mostly oriented towards art, collectibles, and objects for the metaverse, but the incursion of NFTs into real estate will be an opportunity for housing markets to be one of the next trends. Other industries that still do not have a well-defined marketplace are books (read this article) and music, two markets with enormous potential.

Despite the good work of other marketplaces, as DCLBlogger says in this tweet, Opensea presents itself as the best candidate, although it will have to continue fighting day by day so that users decide to continue using its platform. With the incorporation of the Solana network, it will bring thousands of new users closer together, and with the performance that Polygon offers, more and more creators are choosing to launch their collections there.

The key for a successful NFT marketplace is interoperability. The prevailing spirit in the crypto space is that of collaboration and decentralization, and this is why the marketplace that integrates with different networks and can unite all the creators will be the one who takes control.

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Rarible

Rarible.com is a top multichain NFT marketplace underpinned by Rarible Protocol, an open source, community-governed NFT API that simplifies building community marketplaces and any other NFT projects and integrations. 

💸 Connect up to 20 Ethereum, Polygon, Tezos, Flow wallets to your profile on Rarible.com

🙋‍♀️ Place a floor bid on BAYC, BossBeauties, mfers, and other NFT collections 

📲 Monitor and manage your NFT portfolio in Rarible mobile app (iOS, Android) 

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