How to buy an NFT

The NFT or Non-Fungible Token is popular among users of the Web3 who are looking to purchase tokens. Buying NFTs isn’t par­tic­u­larly difficult. You just need access to an NFT mar­ket­place of your choice and crypto­cur­ren­cies like Ether (ETH).

Buying an NFT is simple. You don’t need much to get started pur­chas­ing one of the famous tokens. The most important thing to consider is your choice of mar­ket­place. The es­tab­lish­ment of NFT mar­ket­places has turned into a bit of a trend of its own with the growing NFT hype. Tons of different mar­ket­places have sprung up. Selecting the right one can make all the dif­fer­ences in terms of NFT selection and security. So, first things first, to buy NFTs you need to register with your chosen mar­ket­place.

Once you’ve re­gistered an account, you’ll need money to pay for your NFTs. Instead of euros, dollars or other gov­ern­ment cur­ren­cies, NFT mar­ket­places use crypto­cur­ren­cies. The NFT product dictates which type of crypto­cur­rency you’ll need. Most mar­ket­places use the popular altcoins rather than the better-known bitcoins. Ether is one of the most widely accepted means of payment.

You’ll also need a digital wallet for your crypto­cur­ren­cies. Metamask is a good choice for this purpose as it can be easily connected to most NFT mar­ket­places. The wallet is available as a browser extension and as an app.

The NFT market is extremely diverse. Before pur­chas­ing NFTs, you should think about the types of tokens you’re in­ter­ested in.

One large category of Non-Fungible Tokens is NFT art. As the name suggests, this category spans different digital artworks. Many of the pieces on sale have been created by digital artists who sell their art online. However, artworks by renowned artists are now also being offered as NFT. In addition to images, NFT art also includes videos.

More and more musicians are offering their music as NFTs. In contrast to NFT art, available as col­lect­or's items in small quant­it­ies, NFT music lives through the resale of tokens. The advantage for musicians is that for every NFT resale on the block­chain, musicians receive a certain payout without having to share a per­cent­age of their profits with a music label.

NFTs have also gained a foothold within gaming. The idea of fixed, unique tokens is ideal for rep­res­ent­ing rare in-game items. In most games, these can be earned or purchased. Due to their limited number, they are very popular with players.

In addition, there are pure NFT games which pursue the Play2Earn strategy. This means that following an initial in­vest­ment, users get the op­por­tun­ity to earn money by playing the game and make money with their NFT. However, it’s not a par­tic­u­larly secure source of income because of fluc­tu­ations in crypto­cur­ren­cies.

Pre­vi­ously, wash trading of NFTs was a big problem. In wash trading, users pretend that select NFTs have increased in value. Fraud­sters tend to sell an NFT to another fraudster via a self-funded wallet. By choosing an es­tab­lished NFT mar­ket­place, you ensure you don’t fall victim to these scams. Be aware that reg­u­la­tions on NFTs are still patchy through­out the world. It’s advised you do your homework before com­mit­ting to a mar­ket­place or NFT.

Pay attention to the veri­fic­a­tion process when re­gis­ter­ing with a mar­ket­place as this de­term­ines its security. NFT mar­ket­places using two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion are a good choice. It also lowers the risk of accessing mar­ket­places dis­trib­ut­ing NFTs that aren’t coming from the original artists. Mar­ket­place ratings serve as useful guidance. Satisfied users are a good sign of trusted NFT trans­ac­tions and the prob­ab­il­ity of dubious trans­ac­tions is lower.

OpenSea is an example of a secure NFT mar­ket­place and one of the largest platforms for buying NFTs. OpenSea guar­an­tees user pro­tec­tion through various security features. Verified and approved accounts are marked by a blue tick, similar to those used on Instagram verified accounts. This way, you know which providers you can trust. OpenSea has made it par­tic­u­larly easy to report sus­pi­cious NFTs. The popular platform also provides two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion.

Binance is another popular, secure mar­ket­place for selling and buying NFTs based on the Binance Smart Chain. The platform provides extensive support. Users can report sus­pi­cious NFTs. Binance also features two-factor au­then­tic­a­tion for your account.

When buying NFTs for the first time, you may wonder how to store purchased tokens. After all, NFTs aren’t tra­di­tion­al pieces of artwork to be hung on a wall.

As with crypto­cur­ren­cies, you need a wallet to store NFTs. Es­tab­lished in 2012, Coinbase provides a suitable wallet. Boasting an easy-to-use and beginner-friendly user interface, the platform employs usernames for sending or receiving NFTs instead of a wallet address, making it harder for attackers to single out your NFT wallet as a potential target.

Want to resell one of your NFTs following a spike in value or for other reasons? Reselling NFTs is similar to buying them. You’ll need an NFT mar­ket­place and a crypto wallet with available funds to pay mar­ket­place fees. Taxes may apply for selling your NFT at a profit.