One of the direct impacts of the rapid development of NFT is the emergence of a large number of NFT trading platforms.
According to statistics, the world's largest trading market OpenSea had a trading volume of US$14 billion in 2021, and its profit from transaction fees alone was as high as US$280 million. This is why so many projects are scrambling to seize this track.
NFT trading platforms generally refer to places used to store, display, and trade NFTs. Some platforms also provide users with the function of creating or minting NFTs themselves.
For most people, the first thing that comes to mind when talking about the NFT trading market is OpenSea. In terms of the number of users and trading volume, OpenSea is indeed the undisputed overlord in the current market. Although many competitors have challenged OpenSea for a long time, it seems that none of them can shake OpenSea's market position.
Therefore, in the NFT trading platform track, there is a "one super and many strong" pattern. OpenSea is far ahead in market share, while other platforms such as Nifty Gateway, Blur, X2Y2, etc. may get a "piece of the cake" from the market by virtue of different market entry points, unique operating methods or excellent practical functions.
This article will introduce some of the major NFT trading platforms on the market.
OpenSea
OpenSea was launched in 2018 and is currently the largest NFT platform with the largest number of users. It is a comprehensive NFT trading platform that can trade NFTs in categories including PFP, art, games, sports, collectibles, virtual domain names, etc. Users can also directly mint NFTs on it. It is the best platform for novices or those who are just getting started with NFTs.
Almost all well-known NFTs can be traded on OpenSea, such as Azuki, CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club, etc., and many new projects will also use OpenSea as the preferred platform for release. So if an ordinary user has passed the threshold of using a Web3 wallet, then OpenSea is his first choice to experience the world of NFT.
Link:
https://opensea.io/
LooksRare
LooksRare is a comprehensive NFT trading platform and one of the first platforms to challenge OpenSea.
LooksRare airdropped the platform token LOOKS to OpenSea users when it went online, but users needed to trade at least one NFT on LooksRare to receive the airdrop, thereby converting the "airdrop recipients" on OpenSea into "traders" on LooksRare, completing the "vampire attack" on OpenSea.
Transaction mining is another way for LooksRare to acquire early users. Specifically, LooksRare will charge a 2% service fee for all NFT transactions (Opensea charges a 2.5% service fee for each transaction). These fees are 100% earned directly by LOOKS stakers and are directly issued in the form of ETH or WETH, not the platform token LOOKS.
Link:
https://looksrare.org/
X2Y2
X2Y2 is also a comprehensive trading platform, which was launched slightly later than LooksRare.
When X2Y2 was first launched, it also adopted the method of airdropping to Opensea users to attract the first batch of seed users, and then competed with Opensea and Looksrare through methods such as order placement rewards and low transaction fees.
In the early days, X2Y2 attracted users to trade on X2Y2 by exempting them from transaction fees. Later, X2Y2 increased the platform fee to 0.5%, but it was still lower than Opensea's 2.5% and LooksRare's 2%. For sellers, being able to complete transactions with a lower transaction commission is still attractive.
X2Y2 was also the first platform to launch “order mining”, where users could get rewards by listing NFTs, and the platform could get better liquidity. However, due to the poor design of the reward mechanism, the wool party was seriously cheating, and finally X2Y2 had to cancel the order mining.
Link:
https://x2y2.io/
Blur
Blur is an NFT aggregation platform for professional traders, providing traders with highly innovative professional functions such as cross-market bulk buying, placing orders, convenient portfolio management, etc. It is known as the "best NFT viewing tool" and mainly meets the needs of professional traders.
Blur designed three rounds of airdrops around its platform tokens, using the blind box method to attract a large number of users to participate.
In the first round, Blur airdropped Care Packages to participants who had traded NFTs in the past six months. The number of packages received was related to the transaction amount of NFTs. Care Packages have three rarities. The most numerous is Uncommon, the middle is Rare, and the least is Legendary, but the relationship between rarity and the number of tokens has not been announced.
In the second and third rounds of airdrops, Blur distributed airdrop packages to all participants who actively participated in placing orders, bidding, and trading on its platform. The airdrop details were also not announced, and only some hints were given, such as the more NFTs posted, the more airdrops you will get, there will be bonuses for placing orders for blue-chip NFTs, there will be bonuses for placing orders for actively traded NFTs, etc.
In addition, Blur has introduced the concept of loyalty. The higher the loyalty, the greater the probability of opening a higher-level attribute package, and the greater the probability of receiving more BLUR tokens. Since users do not know the details of the airdrop, it stimulates users to participate more actively in the interaction of the platform, achieving the purpose of early traffic diversion.
Link:
https://blur.io/
Binance NFT
Binance NFT is an NFT trading market launched by Binance in 2021, where you can buy and sell various NFTs such as art, sports, games, collectibles, entertainment, etc. It also provides users with the function of creating and issuing NFTs.
Functionally, there is almost no difference between Binance NFT and OpenSea. For buyers, the advantage of Binance NFT is that it is built on the BSC chain, so the transaction fee is lower. In addition, they can purchase some NFT series or works that are exclusively cooperated with Binance.
Link:
https://www.binance.com/en/nft/home
Nifty Gateway
Nifty Gateway is an NFT trading platform founded by twin brothers Duncan Cock Foster and Griffin Cock Foster in 2018. It was acquired by crypto trading platform Gemini in 2019. The platform has successfully introduced well-known artists such as Pak, Beeple, and FEWOCiOUS. Nifty Gateway has high requirements for creators, and creators need to be reviewed before they can enter the platform and publish their works.
Nifty Gateway is one of the most popular trading platforms for artworks and limited editions. Nifty Gateway provides users with a legal channel for fiat currency, which gives it a great advantage in introducing traditional IP and attracting old money.
Link:
https://www.niftygateway.com/
SuperRare
Like Nifty Gateway, SuperRare is an NFT platform focused on professional artists. It is also one of the earliest NFT platforms, developed by Pixura and established in 2018.
Due to its professional positioning, those who want to create and sell NFTs on SuperRare must go through a strict review mechanism, and the threshold for artists is high; but relatively speaking, the NFTs that buyers can buy on SuperRare are usually works by professional artists.
In addition, SuperRare has also issued its own governance token RARE, and users can also participate in the platform's DAO governance by holding RARE tokens.
Link:
https://superrare.com/
Fees and royalty settings of major NFT trading platforms
Summarize
For ordinary users, there are two main factors to consider when choosing a trading platform: security and liquidity.
When it comes to activities in the Web3 world, asset security always comes first. Therefore, when choosing a platform, you should not choose some unknown small platforms just for the "small profits" such as free handling fees or rebates, so as to avoid asset losses. In terms of liquidity, it is the same as choosing a cryptocurrency exchange. Try to choose an NFT platform with large scale and high trading volume, which means it has better liquidity and a smoother trading experience.
