Buy NFT – How can you buy, hold and sell NFTs? In this article you will learn everything. From a quick explanation of the term NFT to marketplaces, your wallet and trading NFTs between marketplace and wallet. In less than 10 minutes you will have learned everything you need to know and save yourself a lot of time with the question: “How do I buy an NFT”?
To trade digital art, you need a wallet, the right marketplace for digital art, but also knowledge about the collections and artists behind the digital artworks. As with physical art, it’s all about the artist behind the projects. The more you know, the more you can survey the market of tens of millions of works. Even individual collections sometimes contain 1,000 or 10,000 individual digital images or content.
First of all, for those who don’t yet know what an NFT is, here’s a quick explanation.
What is an NFT? Meaning
The abbreviation NFT stands for “Non-fungible Token” and translates as “non-replaceable token”.
Quickly explained: Until now, digital works could be copied at will. NFTs document the history of a digital work. This makes the history from creation through all transactions visible to everyone. Similar to physical works of art, the authenticity can be confirmed. The success of NFT art is demonstrated by examples such as the “5,000 Days” project, which was auctioned at Christies for $69 million.
For documentation, an NFT uses a blockchain, often Ethereum. The blockchain then documents all transactions, as described from publication, across all transactions.
Trading (buying and selling) takes place on marketplaces.
Marketplaces for NFTs: List
There are now relatively many NFT marketplaces and platforms. Binance, Crypto.com, OpenSea, GameStop, Rarible are just a few of the most important names. Fewer are not coming, as digital art is gaining in importance. Larger investors, even hedge funds are also investing in digital art.
Here you get a good overview of the most important marketplaces for NFTs.
The next step to buy and sell NFTs, you need a wallet and cryptocurrency (mostly Ethereum). Wallet means “digital wallet.” We store your digital money (cryptocurrency), but also your purchased NFTs.
Instead of many sentences, simply explained in bullet points (with technical terms):
Cryptocurrency = digital currency
Ethereum (cryptocurrency/blockchain) = very commonly used currency on marketplaces
Wallet = purse (also NFT storage place)
Again, there are various providers for this.
EtaMask
Coinbase Wallet
WalletConnect
Formatic
Trust
…
That was the small introduction with further articles. Now to the central topic: buying, holding and selling NFT.
Buy NFT: Example purchase from Opensea
Let’s summarize the “preparation” again. NFTs are digital art, you need a wallet and a marketplace. Steps in preparation:
Before the sale, another term of the NFT world: Minting.
Minting: Publication of NFTs in the marketplace
The term “Minting” refers to the publishing of new NFTs. “Minted by X” therefore means that an NFT was published by person X. Thus, every documentation in the blockchain starts with the minting of an object.
Buy NFT: Example (Opensea) in 4 steps
In the example, we buy from Opensea (marketplace) with a Coinbase wallet. First you need to buy Ehtereum, most marketplaces trade Ehtereum as a digital currency.
In 4 steps you connect your wallet to the respective marketplace where you want to buy crypto art. This is done with a few clicks, directly in the marketplace.
Set up wallet and buy cryptocurrency (mostly Ethereum)
Link wallet and marketplace
Step 1: Set up wallet
In the example you can see the Coinbase wallet. You can then buy various cryptocurrencies in your digital wallet. Most marketplaces or NFTs work on the basis of Ethereum. As a rule, you will have to buy Ethereum to be able to buy NFTs.
In the second step, you connect your wallet to the respective marketplace. In the example you see Opensea. The link is very easy with QR code and QR code scanner on your smartphone. As soon as marketplace and wallet are linked, you can buy NFTs.
In the menu you can link marketplace and wallet. This will automatically create a user account.
Step 3: Browse collections
Continue searching for collections and individual NFTs. You will come across millions of different NFTs. It is therefore important that you familiarize yourself well with the matter of buying and trading art in advance.
Tip: Successful artists in the real world, have the greatest chance to perform in digital environment as well.
Search on Opensea with result: collections, accounts and individual items.
Once you have found an object that you want to buy, you are ready to go. You can buy a piece of art directly, but often you are also allowed to make price suggestions. Similar to ebay and all other auction houses.
Direct purchase
Make offer
Here is an example of the interface of a single item with both options: Direct purchase and offer.
Screenshot: OpenSea / CryptoPunks
The purchase of the NFT is then settled in Ethereum. After the purchase, you have your ETF directly in your wallet.
Hold NFT: Coinbase Wallet Example
Your purchased NFTs are not “stored” or held in the marketplaces, but in your wallet. As mentioned before, there are many providers and apps, Coinbase is just one. MetaMask, WalletConnect, Bitski are other options.
Just like BitCoins or even Ehtereum, NFTs become part of your wallet and assets.
Hold NFT: Example (Coinbase Wallet)
Seen here in the example, a held NFT in a Coinbase wallet.
Here you can see our purchased NFT in the portfolio:
Sell NFT: Example resale
Selling NFTs is basically as simple as buying them.
Sell NFT: Example (Opensea)
Here you can see the sale of a NFT in the portfolio:
You have your NFT, now you just click “Sell”.
In the screenshot you can see that you can set different ones here as well.
Fixed price / auction
Price
Runtime
…
Conclusion: Buy and sell digital art
Digital art is not so different from real art. The market determines the price (supply and demand). The matter is still in its infancy, but in 10 or 20 years, we will be talking about Picasso, as well as … – we will find out in the future!
You can buy at any time, sell only if you find someone who wants to buy.
