Why Whales are Watching

In our previous article, NFTs - Why Whales are Watching and Why We're Whale Watching, we explained what NFTs were and why, to some, they are considered a significant asset or aspect of the crypto and blockchain markets.

NFTs stand for non-fungible tokens and are an attractive investment opportunity because of their extremely lucrative ROIs. Because of their relevant newness, they are volatile. Because they are based on the blockchain, they are safe.

NFTs might be considered as mere digital assets that you can buy and sell on what are known as marketplaces; harkening back again to our previous article, think of them just as a derivatives, because the non-fungible token doesn't have a value on its own, but its underlying asset does--so owning and trading them is also speculatory in nature, just as options derivatives are.

Trading NFTs

When it comes to trading NFTs, the only current possibility that a majority of traders have is buying and selling them.  Unlike other cryptocurrencies, traditional financial markets with derivatives around NFTs do not yet exist.

Marketplaces may be thought of as a cryptocurrency exchange, however quite different.  Alternatively, those who have an artistic knack can even create their own NFTs and sell them on the market.  Both are different ways of "trading" NFTs, with each having their own benefits and limitations.  

Seen above, for instance, Unusual Whales designed and created its own NFTs and minted 6969 of them.  "Minting" might be thought of as "buying" in this instance, as when mint.unusualwhales.com* was live, users would go there, connect their crypto wallets, and mint an NFT from a random variation of assets.  

* This link is no longer available as the minting process has been completed, and all 6969 Unusual Whale NFTs are now owned by other traders.

If you are interested in trading Unusual Whales NFTs, you can trade them now on Opensea.io at this link!

Choosing the Marketplace

As stated, marketplaces are the platforms where you can easily put up your work for sale or buy others' works, and when you purchase a unique work, the process is known as minting.

To elaborate, minting is a term that denotes the creation of a token on a blockchain (can be Ethereum or Solana at this point in time) that points to a particular something--as of now, most often pieces of art.  To mint the token, all that is required is a payment in the form of gas in units of Gwei, which is equivalent to 1/1,000,000,000 ETH.  (E.g. Gwei to ETH are to Satoshis to BTC.)

(Remember!  When minting NFTs, a token is created that points to the work rather than adding that to the token itself!)

Connecting a Wallet

MetaMask is highly recommended for most users to get started with storing crypto and moving crypto to other wallets and marketplaces.  

To get started with connecting a crypto wallet to an NFT marketplace, you may go to https://opensea.io/ and skip the next paragraph.

However, if you do not want to get set up on Opensea.io just yet, you can just install MetaMask now to begin storing and transferring crypto.  To get started with MetaMask, click here to go to its site and install it for your web browser.

For instructions on how to get MetaMask to work with your Opensea.io account, do as follows:

• Select “Get MetaMask”, and download the appropriate extension for your browser or device.

• Save your secret phrase somewhere safe (not online, but not locally where it can be lost).
• Do not lose this!
• Click “Next”, select the phrase in the correct order, and then select “Confirm”.
• Once you see “Congratulations”, select “All Done”.

Purchase or Own ETH

If you have never purchased or owned crypto before, the brief instructions below will guide you through the easiest way to purchase ETH directly from your newly installed MetaMask wallet.

Wyre is recommended for this process, but there are many other ways to purchase crypto and as long as you can transfer them securely to your MetaMask, you can begin minting, trading, and owning NFTs.

• Click on the MetaMask fox icon on the top right corner of your browser (seen above).

• There will be fees. Expect to pay anywhere from 10-20% more than you are intending on purchasing.

Buying Unusual Whale NFTs

As previously stated, the minting process for the Unusual Whales NFTs is completed, but that does not mean you can no longer purchase them!  

If you are interested in buying the Unusual Whales NFT, you can trade them now on Opensea at this link!

And if you already own Unusual Whales NFTs--or any NFTs for the matter!--and are interested in learning how to sell or auction them, then please continue reading.

Storing the NFT

Once you have successfully followed the above steps and purchased an NFT you wanted, you now can visit your profile at opensea.io or your requisite marketplace where you purchased the NFT.  

The NFT will exist on the chain in the marketplace until you decide to either sell it off in auction, outright, or trade it to someone otherwise.  

Selling Your Own NFTs for Minting

If you have decided to sell your own, personal artwork on OpenSea, then you will have to connect your wallet, described above, and proceed to upload the items to your account.

You can choose your favorite marketplaces depending on a host of factors including the ease of minting your work, the commission that the marketplace charges for listing your work, and the gas fees being charged for minting.

Once you have listed your art pieces to sell, the minting process begins, and it is then up to you to advertise your art across whatever platform in order to sell them--just as if you were selling your pieces in the real world.  Additionally, for promotion, Twitter is probably the best place as several million users often use their favorite NFTs as their profile pictures.

Unlike the real world, however, you have the reliability of the blockchain to ensure that whoever purchases your art owns it.  Even if they were to ever sell it, anyone who ever buys it can be rest assured it was your own, unique creation!

Auctioning & Selling NFTs

If you are either selling a unique piece of art you have uploaded or are selling an NFT you already hold, such as the Unusual Whales NFTs, you can also list these up for auction to sell them to the highest bidder.

In most cases, you will also get previous trading info about the NFT you are looking at, so you can research what you might consider a reasonable price for listing the piece and what buyout price you might also consider.

While not all marketplaces will offer the trading history of the items being researched, the most popular ones can be reviewed at nonfungible.com.

To sell or auction on Opensea.io, select the NFT you are interested in selling, then choose to list the item for auction or to sell it outright.  There will be steps, that are completely free to do, including your MetaMask wallet opening to communicate back with the Etherium blockchain.  These steps are all necessary in order to ensure that when the NFT is listed for resale on the marketplace that the blockchain agrees to the listing and that is documented appropriately--all of this ensures that the piece remains unique to the holder.

Trading Across Marketplaces

Opensea.io operates as the largest NFT marketplace and for good reason; with trading volumes surging to $1,000,000,000 ($1B) during the previous month, per our previous report on the topic, it is hard to not understand the volume and resources pouring into NFTs.  That is why, for now, it is best to choose the marketplace that is right for you.

While cross-marketplace trading is possible, it is not as helpful because if a potential buyer is looking at the NFT that you hold, then they will access the marketplace on which it is being hosted--so, you, as the buyer or creator, must choose which marketplace you'd like to host your NFT on.

Additional Resources

If you are looking to find your way around the markets and trading histories of specific NFTs, here are additional resources to sink your teeth into:

• NonFungible.com - gives a detailed overview of NFT trading/market history along with having detailed charts on top projects.
• DappRadar - gives detailed information about trending NFTs, the sales volumes, and their prices; also helps understand which type of NFTs are gaining more popularity (updates in real-time).
• Opensea - largest marketplace for NFTs, has a huge collection of some of the best collectibles within the market.
• Rarible, SuperRare, & Foundation - Additional marketplaces not mentioned in this article.