Turn art and digital items into a sustainable income.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are looking to take the spotlight. Over the past few weeks, the hype has really started to grow and it feels like everyone is talking about them. Crypto art appears to be dominating the headlines, but the potential of NFTs may go far beyond that.
NFTs are now being used by yield farmers looking for new ways to leverage digital assets through available DeFi and exchange protocols.
In our September collectibles flash report we highlighted the headline figures:
- NFT Marketplace trading volumes surged by 1127% surpassing $7 million in September.
- Rarible.com is responsible for 81% or $5.5 million of the transaction volumes generated in September.
- Rarible.com has launched the first governance token in the non-fungible token ecosystem.
With that in mind, it is vital to understand the main players in the development of the sector. Here are the top 5 Ethereum Marketplaces ranked by volume currently leading the NFT drive.
Rarible
Rarible is an NFT marketplace, similar to sites like OpenSea. It’s also a platform for creating NFTs. So users can go to Rarible with content they own such as a digital image or motion graphic and create an NFT.
Sellers can create multiple NFTs for one single image and sell it a multitude of times. Or, instead distribute just a single item which is then deemed more rare. Furthermore, artists can set a percentage to receive on lifetime re-sales.
Buyers can purchase NFTs and build a portfolio. Some are building personal portfolios of what they personally like, whilst others are building a collection of art they see future value in.
OpenSea
OpenSea is the first and biggest peer-to-peer NFT marketplace for crypto goods. You can think of it as eBay on the blockchain. Items available include collectibles, game items, and other virtual goods secured by a blockchain.
On OpenSea, you can buy, sell, and trade any of these items with anyone in the world. OpenSea is currently the largest general marketplace for user-owned digital goods, with the broadest set of categories and currently has over 4 million items.
Axie Marketplace
Axie Infinity is a Pokemon-inspired digital pet universe where players use their cute characters called Axies in various games. The Axie Infinity Universe highlights the benefits of blockchain technology through a “Play to Earn” gameplay model and a player-owned economy.
In the marketplace, players can bring along their Axies and sell them in the form of an auction.
Over time, the price can go up or down from the start price to the end price, depends on the seller’s intention. Other players have to be well-calculated to take the chance to buy the desired Axies from sellers.
CryptoPunks
Launched in the summer of 2017, the concept was simple. 10,000 punky faces – each of which had a random number of attributes to make a 24×24 pixel image – were procedurally generated on the Ethereum blockchain and sold.
Since then, a small but growing number of collectors – starting with tens but now over 50 daily active users – have sprung up, buying and selling these items.
In total, these 10,000 CryptoPunks are now distributed between 850 unique wallets and the average price per punk has risen to well over 1 ETH. Of course, at the top end, the price of the most significant and rare CryptoPunks – such as the 88 zombies, the 24 apes, or 9 alien punks – is increasing very rapidly.
SuperRare
SuperRare is a social platform that encourages the creation and collection of crypto art. Founded by John Crain, Chief Executive of Pixura, and Jonathan Perkins, Chief Product Officer of Pixura. SuperRare has worked with artists since its conception and makes a point of listening to the artist and collector’s needs.
It could be argued that SuperRare is the high end equivalent to Rarible. Entry barriers are higher and artists must submit their works for approval before they are listed. Whereas on rarible, anyone can get involved.
The NFT and collectibles space is exploding right now. Hot on the heels of Decentralized Finance as the main talking point for the remainder of 2020. Evolution is fascinating to observe and as always we will continue to track and monitor the space through the new DappRadar marketplace’s rankings page.