Top 5 NFT Marketplaces Compared, NFT Markets & Trending Coins
In This Issue
- For this weeks portfolio tip, I’ll be talking about the king of NFT markets.
- Sam has a report for you on the top 5 NFT marketplaces compared.
- Rebecca has this week’s top trending coins.
Premium Subscription highlights this week:
- New token sales: Each week I compile the top token sales to keep an eye out for.
- Jesse’s altcoin report: The Open Network (TON) has doubled in price and is gaining more interest from the blockchain community.
- NFT mints: 3 upcoming NFT mints to keep an eye on.
Lark’s Portfolio Tips
Opensea The King Of NFT Markets
The first mover advantage of Opensea has proven very hard to tackle for newcomers. While we have plenty of contenders, none have managed to really even come close.
Often we get a little early interest for farming coins or whatever and then most NFT traders will migrate back to Opensea, or over to the new flashy option.
The list of competitors is getting long. But at this time the big competitor seems to be Blur which is nearing parity with Opensea’s daily volume. Solana’s Magic Eden and Ethereum based X2Y2 are about even and currently carrying ⅓ of the volume of the two top dogs.
IMX and Looks Rare are about tied as well, and do ⅓ of the volume of Magic Eden and X2Y2.
Brand new players like Gigamart have barely scratched the surface yet. And dozens of other old players languish in total irrelevance.
Anyone remember Rarible? Yeah… they did less than $20,000 in volume today, compared to Opensea’s 6.5 million. Outside of the top 20 markets we are literally looking at daily volumes in the hundreds. YIKES!
The reason I am contemplating this is because I have been thinking of cutting my Looks Rare bag. Competition has risen dramatically in the NFT marketplace space. There are so many new competitors which are in many ways better, or maybe not better, but just the hot new thing. Either way, I don’t feel great about my desperately underwater LOOKS bag. I might cut this soon.
That all being said, many of the major NFT markets could get a boost from Uniswap’s NFT aggregator which draws liquidity from across markets. Or, it could simply funnel more volume to the dogs.
One thing has proven true so far is that NFT marketplace tokens have been bad bets. There is often too much inflation of tokens, and too little reward for holders.
Mercenary capital often only shows up to wash trade and then moves on meaning that even rev share models can fall flat fast. All eyes on a potential Opensea token as well as the newest shiny thing, Blur.
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The Top 5 NFT Marketplaces Compared by Sam
As the NFT space has taken off and expanded, so too have NFT marketplaces. There is now a wide selection of platforms where you can go to pick up JPEGs, from established leaders, to niche operations, to newcomers bringing disruptive new approaches.
That in mind, here is a comparison of the current top five NFT marketplaces by trading volume, as identified by DappRadar over the last thirty days.
<h3 id="opensea“>OpenSea
This is the number one NFT marketplace. It has first-mover advantage and network effects on its side, and many NFT collectors remain content to stick with what they know.
Established back in 2017 (before most people had even heard of an NFT), OpenSea had a slow start. By the beginning of 2021, monthly active users were still below 10,000, but by the beginning of 2022 that number had soared to over half a million.
Most of 2022 has gone on, of course, to be a tough time for crypto, but OpenSea still clocked in with around 285,000 active users last month, despite bear market conditions and increased competition.
As OpenSea has grown, it has expanded its features, and in addition to Ethereum, it now also supports Polygon, Klaytn, Solana, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Optimism and BNB Chain. It recently implemented rarity rankings on some collections, and it has multiple payment options.
That all said, while OpenSea is still the primary NFT platform, competition is catching up and, despite the implementations mentioned above, OpenSea catches criticism for, according to some users, not being innovative enough.
One current glitch is that when using the analytics feature, you can only get a view up to the last thirty days, meaning you’ll need external tools to view the entire history of a collection, but overall, OpenSea is reliable, easy-to-navigate, and still the default NFT marketplace.
<h3 id="blur“>Blur
Launched in October this year, Blur’s investors include famous names from the NFT space such as Cozomo de’ Medici, Zeneca and Punk6529, and the platform is clearly moving away from the much-imitated format set by OpenSea.
As soon as you land on the site, the aesthetics set it apart, with a retro, early-computing vibe in tune with the style adopted by many NFT projects.
In terms of features and performance, the marketplace is aimed at more experienced NFT traders, and while OpenSea offers a relatively user-friendly shopfront experience, Blur may be confusing if you’re approaching NFTs for the first time.
It functions as an aggregator, meaning it brings together and lets you purchase NFTs listed across different marketplaces, and it’s focused on speed and sweeping (meaning buying several NFTs from a collection all at once).
Blur also has more advanced portfolio functions than other marketplaces, for example giving you a running indicator of your realized and unrealized profit-and-loss (which may or may not make for enjoyable viewing).
Gas costs are optimized and there are no trading fees so Blur should be cheap to use, and it has also pulled in new users through its rewards system. The platform has implemented three airdrops, with the first based on prior (pre-Blur) NFT trading and the second based on listings placed on Blur in November. The third airdrop is yet to happen, and will be based on bids made on Blur.
All airdrop packages will redeem the upcoming $BLUR token when it launches in January.
<h3 id="magic-eden“>Magic Eden
Over the past year, Magic Eden has risen to become the OpenSea of Solana, establishing itself as the go-to NFT platform for trading on the alternative Layer 1 blockchain. Magic Eden operates similarly to OpenSea, but also implemented its own launchpad for new NFT projects.
Not only is the launchpad a good place to find out what’s coming down the line, but it also created a degree of security when the NFT space (and Solana in particular) was overrun with rug pulls and shady operations.
Magic Eden has subsequently implemented support for NFTs on Ethereum and Polygon, making it a direct competitor to OpenSea, and it’s notable that–despite OpenSea adding Solana support–it’s Magic Eden that has continued to gain ground on OpenSea, rather than OpenSea opening up the gap from Magic Eden.
<h3 id="x2y2“>X2Y2
If you’re familiar with OpenSea, then X2Y2 should be easy to get to grips with, since it uses a similar format to the original market leader.
However, there are also some key differences. Launched in February 2022, X2Y2–unlike OpenSea–created and airdropped its own token, and implemented a profit-sharing scheme, with earning enabled by staking the X2Y2 tokens.
More recently, X2Y2 launched a peer-to-peer NFT loan function, allowing lenders to earn a profit, and borrowers to access liquidity using their NFTs as collateral.
With its own token, loan facilities, and trading fees set at a low 0.5%, X2Y2 is worth exploring as a direct but more function-loaded alternative to OpenSea.
<h3 id="looksrare“>LooksRare
Launching in January 2022, just before X2Y2, there was LooksRare. This was the first big threat to OpenSea, setting itself apart with its own token, which was airdropped to OpenSea users, and could be earned through trading, offering a significant incentive to ditch OpenSea.
The $LOOKS token can be staked to earn rewards, offering the potential to make some passive income, although the price of the token remains flat.
Also on the negative side, since $LOOKS is earned through trading, wash trading was incentivized, something that many users have claimed occurs frequently. On the whole, though, LooksRare, like X2Y2, is worth keeping in mind as an alternative option.
And Also…
There really are a lot of NFT marketplaces out there, so here are just a few others to check out.
Arguably the most prestigious, well known NFT collection is CryptoPunks, and it also happens to have its own dedicated marketplace.
If you want to treat NFTs more like fungible altcoins, then take a look at Sudoswap, which utilizes a DeFi-like approach to NFT trading.
If you’re in it for the art, then you need to visit Foundation, SuperRare, and–on Solana–Formfunction.
For Cardano NFTs, you should go to JPG Store, and for NFTs on Tezos, take a look at Objkt and fxhash, the latter of which specializes in generative art.
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Trending Coins This Week by Rebecca
Here are my key takeaways from the trends this week, and the market is seeing launch after launch as crypto builders keep on building.
1 – Osmosis is a Layer 1 DEX on Cosmos that’s launched a stableswap, a stablecoin trading exchange for the Cosmos ecosystem.
2 – Toncoin is the native token for the TON blockchain inherited from Telegram, that’s seen the Founder and CEO announce plans to build a DEX and crypto wallet.
3 – Chain is a blockchain infrastructure company that’s officially launched to the public. Chain Cloud supports over 18 EVM-compatible blockchains.
4 – LooksRare is an NFT marketplace that was created to rival competitor, OpenSea. Uniswap has launched an NFT aggregator on its native protocol allowing users to view NFT listings on LooksRare.
5 – GMX is a derivatives exchange that’s partnered with Chainlink to make price feeds available for the GMX token on both Avalanche and Arbitrum. GMX has also announced the winners of the dune dashboard design contest.
6 – Solana is an L1 blockchain that’s seen tensions run high between the NFT marketplace, Magic Eden, and NFT maker, Metaplex. The public spat on Twitter between the two is due to the enforcement of NFT royalties.
7 – IX is an NFT-based strategy game that’s partnered with Coinbase to allow Coinbase Wallet users to claim an NFT base pack, to redeem in the Planet IX metaverse. Users have until 17 December to claim.
8 – ApeCoin is the utility token for the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) community. ApeCoin has launched its staking feature consisting of four staking pools, and APE holders aped in by staking almost $32M within the first two days.
9 – Aptos is a Layer-1 blockchain created by ex-Meta employees that’s set to airdrop APT tokens to 5,000 users in a partnership with Binance.
10 – LeverFi is an on-chain leveraged trading platform that’s giving away 60,000 USDC tokens as part of the launch of its upcoming trader incentives program.
11 – Ethereum developers have announced they are targeting March 2023 for the Shanghai hard fork and May or June for the EIP 4844 upgrade.
12 – Bitcoin’s African Conference just wrapped featuring Jack Dorsey and Jack Mallers. Bloomberg’s lead commodity strategist, Mike McGlone, says Bitcoin is ready to outshine gold, explaining it could be transitioning to a high beta version of bonds and gold.
13 – Optimism is an L2 Ethereum scaling solution that’s seen Coinbase launch ETH, DAI, and WBTC transactions on Optimism. Optimism has also announced 10M OP tokens will be distributed through the Retroactive Public Goods Funding Round 2 in February 2023.
14 – Evmos is an EVM on the Cosmos network that’s seen Aegis Trust announced as the new custodian of several treasuries within the Cosmos ecosystem, including Evmos. Aegis Trust will also deliver institutional graded staking as part of the agreement.
15 – Polygon is an Ethereum side chain that’s seen its Starbucks NFT rewards program go live for beta testing for a limited number of users. The Polygon-based NFT project, Shatterpoint, will be the first to launch on Solana’s NFT marketplace, Magic Eden.
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Final Notes
Wondering how to get rich in a bear market? Well check out my YouTube video: The Bear Market Get Rich Guide For Crypto Investors
Thank you so much for your support, and I truly hope that today’s issue will give you insights needed to help you master your wealth.
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Lark and the Wealth Mastery Team
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TCL Publishing ltd (director Lark Davis, owner of Wealth Mastery) is not providing you individually tailored investment advice. Nor is TCL Publishing registered to provide investment advice, is not a financial adviser, and is not a broker-dealer. The material provided is for educational purposes only. TCL Publishing is not responsible for any gains or losses that result from your cryptocurrency investments. Investing in cryptocurrency involves a high degree of risk and should be considered only by persons who can afford to sustain a loss of their entire investment. Investors should consult their financial adviser before investing in cryptocurrency.
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