A Non-Fungible Token (NFT) consists of tokens representing the ownership of a digital or physical asset. The term “non-fungible” means that the assets are unique and cannot be copied, subdivided, or substituted. As a result, NFTs are built on a blockchain using metadata and unique identification codes. As per the latest reports, the collectibles and NFT market size is expected to reach 1 trillion USD by 2032. A digital asset can be created with anything you own, such as collectibles, images, videos, music, or even playing cards you used as a kid. Once you own an NFT, your ownership gets listed on a public record that anyone can verify. Moreover, the applications of NFTs are limitless for the creators. NFTs make it easier for the creators to prove their ownership of their assets. Let’s take the case of Da Vinci’s masterpiece, “Mona Lisa,” as an example. If an NFT was created for his original painting, no one could succeed in claiming false ownership. Apart from that, the creator can set their price based on the scarcity of their asset.
What are NFT Marketplaces?
As we discussed NFTs, let’s understand the NFT Marketplaces and how it helps the NFT owners. The NFT marketplace is a public blockchain platform to store, buy, and sell NFTs. To use the features provided by the NFT Marketplace, you need to connect your crypto wallet with the platform. This connected wallet enables you to store your NFTs. The token required to buy or sell the NFT varies according to the marketplace. NFT marketplaces are built to be simple and user-friendly, allowing users to buy or sell their NFTs like other online markets. The owner of an NFT can set their desired price, whereas the buyer can either buy at that price or negotiate with the owner. In addition to that, the owner can also earn royalties whenever their NFT is sold. Apart from all the features mentioned above, NFT marketplaces allow users to sort various NFTs according to price, creator, and other major categories. You can also visit the marketplace to understand the ongoing trends and in-demand NFT collections. These platforms also provide all the details about the NFT transactions.
Advantages of Solana-Based NFT Marketplaces over Ethereum-Based NFT Marketplaces
NFT participants are now choosing Solana NFT marketplaces to replace the Ethereum NFT marketplace, the top NFT market based on sales. The demand for Solana NFT marketplace has resulted in over $2.5 billion in sales. Let’s understand why Solana’s NFT market has the upper hand over Ethereum’s NFT marketplace:
Speed
Who doesn’t like high-speed transactions? One major factor that gives Solana an advantage over Ethereum is its high speed. Solana can handle about 65,000 transactions per second. In contrast, Ethereum can only execute up to 15 transactions in a second. Apart from that, Solana hosts a 400-millisecond block time, making it one of the fastest NFT blockchains. Ethereum, on the other hand, is only capable of hosting between 12 to 15-second block time.
Gas Fee
The gas fee is the fee the user needs to pay to conduct a transaction on a blockchain. The gas fee plays a crucial role in the cost price of the NFT. The low transactional speed of Ethereum also results in a much higher gas fee when creating an NFT. The gas fees to mint an NFT on Ethereum start at $10, whereas Solana’s gas fee remains below $0.01. If you want to create an NFT using an Ethereum NFT marketplace, you will need $50 to $150 (excluding marketplace fees). Don’t worry; with the help of the Solana NFT marketplace, the cost gets reduced to between $0.04 and $0.12.
Price of NFTs
The NFTs listed on the Ethereum marketplaces are costlier when compared to the NFTs listed on the Solana marketplace. It is not a surprise, as the gas fees for NFTs are much higher on the Ethereum marketplace. The average price of an NFT at OpenSea, a top Ethereum NFT marketplace, is $535.6. But, the average price of an NFT at Magic Eden, a top Solana NFT marketplace, is $181.48. If you are looking to buy NFTs on a lower budget, the Solana NFT marketplace provides more options than the Ethereum NFT marketplace. While keeping in mind all the above features, let’s explore some of the top Solana NFT marketplaces;
SolSea
SolSea is the first and biggest NFT marketplace built on Solana. It is also the first NFT marketplace to enable creators to select and embed licenses (NFT-PROs) while minting NFTs. The major features available for the platform users include:
Creator dashboard. NFT shopping cart. Token swap. Access to live mint. Slide-in wallet.
SolSea gives the creator complete control over the royalties for their NFTs. A flat 2% marketplace fee is charged on every successful NFT sale. Apart from that, there are no additional marketplace charges. To create an NFT on SolSea, you must create a free account. If you are someone who wants to buy or sell NFTs, you need to create a Solana Wallet. The wallets supported by SolSea are Ledger, Phantom, Solflare, Sollet, Slope, Coin98, and Torus. Along with purchasing using cryptocurrencies, SolSea also allows users to purchase NFTs using fiat currencies. To buy NFTs using fiat currencies, you need to use a platform like Moonpay.
Solanart
Solanart is another popular Solana NFT marketplace with a strong user base. The top NFT projects on Solanart include Degenerate Ape Academy, SolPunks, Aurory, Monkey Business, and more. Solanart also provides a statistics directory that provides all the data related to the listed NFT collections. The stats include market cap, traded volume, and floor price. The user can view the stats in SOL or USD. Solanart charges a 3% marketplace fee from the selling price for each successful NFT transaction. Apart from the marketplace fee, a creator’s fee is also charged. If you want to buy an NFT on Solanart: After a successful transaction, the NFT gets transferred to your connected wallet.
DigitalEyes
DigitalEyes is one of the Solana ecosystem’s largest verified open NFT marketplaces. The openness feature of the platform helps the creators to mint their NFTs easily. The top NFT collections on DigitalEyes include Pesky Penguins, Crypto Idolz, Frakt, Solana Monkey Business, Stylish Studs, Solsteads Surreal Estate, and Solarians, to name a few. You can also use the mint calendar to anticipate the release of your favorite NFT collections. The calendar depicts the collection’s name, date, and time of its release. Apart from that, you can also customize the mint calendar on a weekly or monthly view. DigitalEyes charges a service fee of 2.5% for each NFT transaction. Apart from that, this Solana NFT marketplace also provides discounts on service fees. To buy or sell NFTs, you need to connect Solana wallets supported by Digital Eyes, such as MathWallet, Phantom, BitKeep, Sollet, and Solflare.
Metaplex
Metaplex differs a lot from the NFT marketplaces mentioned above. This platform is a collection of smart contracts and tools designed to simplify the NFT creation and launch process. The ease of NFT creation resulted in the minting of 15 million NFTs on the Metaplex platform. Apart from that, the Metaplex protocol has provided tools and standards for over 100k projects and communities. Metaplex users can also build a basic storefront to showcase their NFTs to visitors. Moreover, the security features provided to users prevent the interference of bots. The creators can also mint generative pieces or collectibles and set up their royalty fees.
Magic Eden
Now let’s look at Magic Eden, a community-centric Solana NFT marketplace. Magic Eden is another major player among the NFT marketplaces built on Solana. Magic Eden provides its community members with Magic Tickets. These Magic Tickets can be used to access their MagicDAO, Discord-based DAO, and reward programs. The popular NFT collections at Magic Eden are Okay Bears, Froots, DeGods, Primates, Rakkudos, and so on. Magic Eden has unique monthly visitors of over 2.2 million, with over 100K daily wallet connections. Apart from that, the secondary trading volume at the platform is nearing $2 billion. You can also download the Magic Eden app from Google Play or the App Store. A fee of 2% is charged at the marketplace for all NFT transactions. If the creator sets royalty fees, they must also be paid. However, there are no fees charged for making or canceling a bid. Magic Eden supports both Solana and Ethereum wallets on their NFT marketplace. The most recommended wallet by the platform is Phantom. Still, you can also connect Ethereum wallets such as MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Coinbase.
Artz
Are you looking for some interesting NFT artworks? Then, you need to check the Artz Solana NFT marketplace. This platform is filled with highly creative NFTs. Artz aims to transfer the marketplace into the top Metaverse-based NFT marketplace. The peculiarity of the Artz marketplace is that the creators are facilitated with tools to mint their NFTs and put them up for sale. Moreover, the convenience provided by the platform has attracted hundreds of creative creators. Artz chose Solana blockchain to build the NFT marketplace for cheap transaction fees, high-speed transactions, and low energy usage. The most popular NFTs listed on the marketplace include ChickenTribe, Haunted London, Candy Dragon, ForeverShape, etc. You can also buy NFTs ranging from 0.2 SOL to 32 SOL. Artz platform doesn’t charge any membership fees. The platform charges a flat 2% commission on all successful NFT sales. The user only needs to pay for the blockchain charges, whereas there are no fees for listing and mining.
SUPADROP
SUPADROP is yet another community-driven Solana NFT marketplace. The goal of this marketplace is to empower digital creators. SUPADROP provides a beautiful visual experience for the users. SUPADROP’s alpha membership program rewards the NFT creators and the collectors. This marketplace supports various video, audio, AR/3D, image, and HTML assets. The creator receives 97.5% of their NFT sale price. A service fee of 2.5% is charged. The standard rate for mint and NFT is 0.01 SOL. If the creator wants to list their NFTs on auction, an additional 0.03 SOL is charged. Do you want to get started on SUPADROP? Then create a profile on the platform, and connect wallets like Sollet, Solfare, or Phantom. Finally, load your wallet with SOL tokens and explore the NFT marketplace.
LIQNFT
The rapid growth of the NFT market has led to the creation of many community-led NFT marketplaces. LIQNFT is one such prominent NFT marketplace built on Solana. LIQNFT aims to provide support for web3 projects to become truly independent. This marketplace uses Candy Shop, a decentralized solution for NFT listings. Apart from that, users can modify and customize their NFT projects. The top features of NFT collections listed on LIQNFT include Solice Land, Serum Surfers, SolanaLand, Moon Cubes, and more. The crypto wallets supported by LIQNFT are Phantom, Solfare, Torus, Ledger, Solong, MathWallet, and Sollet. LIQNFT charges a transaction fee of 1% on NFT sales. Apart from that, there are no setup fees or other additional charges.
Conclusion
The popularity and market size of NFTs are expected to grow on a massive scale. For both NFT creators and sellers, the speed of transactions and gas fees involved play a crucial part in selecting the NFT marketplace. Solana NFT marketplaces offer these features to their users. The rapid adoption of Solana-based NFTs helps Solana to attract more users to their NFT marketplace. As an informed user, kindly conduct some research before buying NFTs. Also, consider the challenges and risks involved with NFTs. Interested in minting your first NFT? Here are some easy steps to follow.
