If you are thinking about buying NFTs or investing heavily in the non-fungible token market, you are certainly not alone. Even celebrities make money in the NFT market by buying and creating their own NFTs.
Inside Bitcoins reports that celebrities such as Mark Cuban, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have invested in the NFT sector, creating one-of-a-kind NFTs for fans and collectors. And this is one of the unique aspects of non-fungible tokens; they are a one-of-a-kind purchase and therefore can be very expensive depending on the original creator.
Buying NFTs can be risky and going into the investment sector with your eyes wide open is necessary to buy NFTs that are worth the money you spend. As one person found out, they can quickly turn from an investment into a costly bad buy if you don’t have enough knowledge on how to buy NFTs. With that in mind, here are five steps to help you buy your first NFT without any additional stress.
Step One: Cryptocurrency
The first step to take before buying an NFT is to find a reliable and popular cryptocurrency and buy it. Along with that, you also need to have a secure crypto wallet to store your crypto.
According to Alexander Kapa, co-founder and CEO of Kaplink, Coinbase and Binance offer great opportunities to buy and secure your favorite cryptocurrency.
Step Two: Choose an NFT Marketplace
You need a reliable and secure site to buy your first NFT. Choosing an NFT trading platform is your next step and one of the most important. Decrypt says these top three sites will make buying your first NFT a breeze.
- OpenSea – This hugely popular NFT marketplace is so popular that according to Tokenizedhq, 65% of their traffic is direct, meaning it doesn’t come from a search engine.
- Axie Marketplace – This NFT-powered video game hosts the second largest market for non-fungible tokens. They exclusively sell Axies, adorable Pokemon-themed digital pets. These unique NFTs allow you to create new pets by breeding existing ones. These new pets can then be sold to other users of the platform. However, one disadvantage of this platform is that it is quite complex. You will need some patience as you will need to complete several qualifications before you can start playing the game. But if you’re an NFT gamer, there’s no better place to combine two of your favorite assets.
- Crypto Punks/Larva Labs — development studio Larva Labs created CryptoPunks in 2017 on the Ethereum blockchain. When the NFT market exploded in 2021, CryptoPunks NFTs skyrocketed in value along with the NFT market reaching a whopping $2.5 billion in sales in the first six months.
These marketplaces aren’t the only way to get your hands on NFTs, but if you’re looking for something specific, they’ll cost you a pretty penny.
Step Three: Check and Recheck
Unfortunately, working in a digital world means that what you buy can sometimes be stolen. According to Alexander Cap, losing digital currency is much easier than it might seem. So when you buy your Ethereum, double and triple check the addresses you are sending it to.
Each marketplace can have its own ETH wallet, so you can send ETH to multiple wallets before buying your first NFT. These transactions can easily result in the loss of ETH coins, so be careful.
Step Four: Find Your NFT
Buying an NFT can be a fun and easy process if you’ve done it before. But it can also be a little overwhelming if this is your first time. Knowing which NFT you want to purchase can greatly reduce the stress of completing a transaction. So how do you choose?
- Money. The first item to check off your list is your budget. Not everyone can spend $2 million on NFTs, and even those who want to think twice about what NFTs they buy, especially if their goal is to resell them.
- Choose one or ten. Once you have decided on your price range, you will need to determine what type of NFT you would like to purchase and from whom. Celebrities often have NFTs that are related to their celebrity status. For example, Mark Cuban is selling NFTs associated with his Mavericks basketball team. “You can sell anything digital using NFT. We can sell Mavs virtual gear, sneakers, artwork, photos, videos, experiences, and anything our imagination can come up with, we can sell. We plan to add virtual jewelry, accessories and clothing that we create to real photos on social networks. So you can add cool virtual Mavs sneakers to your posts that look as real as the ones on your feet.”
- OpenSea has features to help you narrow down their selection of 19.6 million different NFTs to buy as of this writing.
- Always find out a little about the author of your NFT and see if the one you choose has any unlockable content or additional features. And, of course, it’s always good to know how rare the NFT you’ve chosen is. This will significantly affect the price you end up paying.
Step Five: Everything!
Buying your first NFT is an important milestone that you will probably remember. This should not be taken lightly and it can be confusing. Once you have purchased your ETH, you will need to find a wallet interface supported by the NFT site where you buy your NFT.
For example, Open Sea has a wallet icon in the top right corner where you can view all digital wallets that Open Sea can interact with. One of the main ones that is not shown is the Ledger Nano X. However, if you have stored your cryptocurrency in Ledger, you can connect your Ledger wallet to a wallet like Meta Mask and get both the security of the Ledger and the Meta Mask interface.
Future of NFTs
Over the past couple of years, NFTs have become more than just a purchase. They can be an investment or a collectible like bitcoin.
Everyone wants to get their hands on NFTs. This is the product to buy. Whether you’re a collector looking for a specially commissioned item or trying to find a unique gift for someone special, NFTs have grown to enchant the world.
As Paris Hilton said, “It has been very exciting to watch the digital art world evolve and become more visible with the growth of the NFT market. I am so happy to be associated with the Sevens Foundation, which helps emerging artists get into the NFT space. There is beauty and strength in the feminine perspective and it should be celebrated!”
On April 28, 2022, Hilton was one of over 1,500 artists who took part in the NFT Liverpool an event culminating in artists both big and small from all over the world in the NFT space.
“I see NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, as the future of the creator economy. They use blockchain technology to help creators add value to their work and share it with fans in real time… In addition to new funding opportunities, NFTs help lesser-known artists distribute their work more widely and at better financial terms. Hence, they receive the majority of the income. NFTs empower creators and I’m proud to be a part of that,” Hilton enthused on her website.
For the NFT market to thrive, ways must be found for creators to earn and retain more of their earnings. And so far it is flourishing. From major creators like Mark Cuban and Paris Hilton to unknown artists who have yet to create their first NFT, Web3 is evolving at an exceptional pace. It will be massive. Ready to be a part of it?
This post originally appeared on Wealth of Geeks.
