The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has slowed down a lot in the past couple of years, falling by 90% in 2022. Despite the downward decline, NFTs remain a multi-billion-dollar market. So what are the best NFT markets in 2024?
What is the NFT market?
An NFT marketplace is an online platform where users can buy and sell NFTs, a type of digital asset with multiple use cases. NFTs can represent a digital artwork, allowing users to sell a unique token that can indicate ownership of the art.
They also have a major application in the gaming skin market, allowing users to buy and sell in-game assets such as clothing, weapons, and other items. Most NFT sales have been art-related, although music, collectibles, and real estate have also been traded as NFTs.
NFT marketplaces also facilitate the actual creation of NFTs in a process known as minting NFTs.
How do NFT markets work?
NFT marketplaces typically operate by charging fees for any NFTs sold, and some allow the original artist to collect royalties on future sales of their work. Users can mint NFTs on blockchain networks, most commonly the Ethereum network. To join a market, you need to register an account and link a digital wallet such as MetaMask.
From there, you can upload artwork and mint an NFT by following the instructions on your platform of choice or simply browse for the NFTs you'd like to purchase. You can also research the market by doing this in preparation for selling any NFTs you own, and listing the NFT for sale.
To purchase an NFT, you will need cryptocurrency in your wallet, and the most popular cryptocurrency you can use to purchase NFTs is ETH.
Best NFT Platforms: Top 7 Markets in 2024
Let's take a look at the best and most popular NFT markets in 2024.
Open sea
OpenSea is the world's first NFT marketplace, launched in 2017. It remains one of the largest NFT marketplaces, maintaining its first market advantage and offering the largest selection of assets to trade. However, Magic Eden and Blur have overtaken OpenSea in popularity this year.
OpenSea has had over a million active users since its launch, and 140,000 accounts are still trading NFTs each month on the platform. It offers a wide range of features for users to choose from.
The platform is non-custodial, meaning users do not have to give up control of their assets to OpenSea when listing them for sale.
expenses: 0% – 2.5%
Seigniorage fees: 0% – 2.5%
Liquidity: high
Returns: Optional fees from 0% to 10%
rare
Rarible is a major NFT marketplace founded in 2020. The platform offers competitively low fees for trading NFTs, and focuses on trading rare digital assets. Another major advantage of the platform is the high royalties available to creators.
While setting royalties too high can discourage users from purchasing NFTs in an attempt to flip the order, artists with in-demand assets can find high royalties to be very profitable and can choose the amount they want to set for royalties.
expenses: 7.5% – 0.5% depending on the value of the asset. 0% is available when the original token is stored.
Seigniorage fees: 0%
Liquidity: intermediary
Returns: up to 50%
Magical Eden
Magic Eden is an NFT marketplace that offers NFTs minted on the Solana blockchain instead of Ethereum. Solana is an Ethereum competitor that aims to become a faster and more scalable way to create decentralized applications.
However, Magic Eden has expanded to include trading Ethereum NFTs and Bitcoin Ordinals, or Bitcoin NFTs.
Trading fees: 2%
Seigniorage fees: About 0.02 to 0.04 sol
Liquidity: high
Returns: Choose between 0%, 50%, or 100%
Blur
Blur is an NFT platform that caters to professional NFT traders looking to profit from their trades. It recently overtook Magic Eden and OpenSea to become the world's largest NFT marketplace by trading volume.
While previous NFT marketplaces had a casual approach to the market, Blur sought to make trading cheaper for end users and does not charge any transaction fees. The platform was launched with very low royalties, which contributed to OpenSea completely eliminating mandatory royalties.
Blur is a decentralized application that runs on the Ethereum network and users can vote on the governance of the platform using the native BLUR token. It offers secured loans and allows users to search Blur's OpenSea listings. The transparent bidding feature also allows users to view their NFT bidding history, giving more insight into the market value of their NFTs.
Trading fees: 0%
Seigniorage fees: Based on current Ethereum gas fees
Liquidity: high
Returns: 0.5% fixed rate
Seems rare
LooksRare is a decentralized app that allows NFT trading and is governed by its own community. 100% of NFT market fees are initially earned by users who own the original LOOKS token, an attractive incentive scheme that puts the community first. This scheme has been discontinued, and the platform now offers rewards through a more complex series of DeFi-inspired incentive programs.
Trading fees: 2%
Seigniorage fees: Based on current Ethereum gas fees
Liquidity: a little
Returns: 0% option, with higher options available
Binance NFT Market
The world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, Binance, also offers an NFT market. In true Binance style, the market offers a wide selection with low fees. The Binance NFT Marketplace offers Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain NFTs.
Users should be advised that Binance has been the subject of numerous lawsuits and legal actions over the past year, which may put the exchange in a weak position when it comes to regulatory enforcement.
Trading fees: 1% (for seller only)
Seigniorage fees: Ethereum (ETH): 0.50 ETH; BNB Smart Chain (BSC): 1.00 BNB
Liquidity: intermediary
Returns: 1%
Neat portal
Nifty Gateway is an early entrant into the NFT tag sector, having been founded in 2018 and becoming known for its exclusive artist listings for NFTs. Although there are not as high volumes as they were in 2021, it is still a reliable market for NFTs.
Trading fees: 2.5% (non-custodial) – 5% (custodial)
Seigniorage fees: Ethereum (ETH): 0.50 ETH; BNB Smart Chain (BSC): 1.00 BNB
Liquidity: intermediary
Returns: 1%
What is the best NFT market in 2024?
The NFT market with the largest market share in 2024 is Blur, and by a very large margin. At the time of writing, Blur's 7-day trading volume is 78 million dollars. Magic Eden comes in second with $59 million, followed by OpenSea with $33 million.
Blur's decentralized approach and decision to not charge any transaction fees made it downright strange when it came to choosing a single winner from our NFT marketplace list.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best NFT market for beginners?
OpenSea, Blur, and Magic Eden are often praised for their ease of use for beginners to start trading NFTs.
What is the best place to buy NFTs?
There is no definitive answer on the best place to buy NFTs, as this will depend on your priorities when it comes to fees, royalties, and liquidity among other factors. Blur is currently the most popular NFT trading platform.
What is the best place to sell NFTs?
Blur has the highest trading volume, and offers high liquidity, however, if you are the original creator of the NFT, Blur offers lower returns than some other platforms.
Disclosure: This article does not constitute investment advice. The content and materials contained on this page are for educational purposes only.