How to trade NFTs

Buying, selling, and trading NFTs can be an enjoyable and lucrative hobby. While it’s true that interest in digital tokens can fall pretty significantly during bear markets, like the one we’ve endured throughout most of 2023 so far, it wasn’t that long ago that popular and rare NFTs were selling for tens of thousands of dollars on a regular basis.

You might be wondering how you can get involved before the market picks up again and interest in NFTs begins to soar. In this AAG Academy guide, we’ll teach you how to start trading NFTs from scratch, and look at the best exchanges for buying and selling digital assets. We’ll also cover how you can open a trading account, and answer some common questions.

A guide to trading NFTs

If you’ve gotten this far into this guide, it’s likely you are already familiar with what exactly an NFT is. However, if you would like to learn more about non-fungible tokens, including what can be turned into an NFT and how they work, the AAG Academy has an in-depth guide that will teach you all you need to know. For now, let’s look at how you can trade them.

1. Get a crypto wallet

The first step in every NFT trader’s journey is to obtain a cryptocurrency wallet, where their NFTs can be held and managed. Many of the most popular wallets on the market now support NFTs as well as cryptocurrencies, including MetaOne, the most advanced decentralized wallet in existence. Be sure that the wallet you use supports the kinds of NFTs you want to hold.

This is an important factor to bear in mind. NFTs are minted on different blockchains — for instance, some are minted on Ethereum and some are minted on Solana, among others — so your wallet will need to be compatible with the blockchain you plan to use. It’s also important to choose between centralized (custodial) and decentralized (non-custodial) wallets.

Centralized wallets, which are provided as standard when you sign up with a centralized exchange, can be handy if you’re a newcomer to NFT trading. However, a decentralized, non-custodial wallet like MetaOne gives you far greater flexibility, including the ability to access decentralized applications (DApps) — as well as full control over all your assets.

2. Acquire some cryptocurrency

Once you have a cryptocurrency wallet, the next step is to acquire some cryptocurrency. You’ll need this to purchase the NFTs you want to trade. Some marketplaces do accept debit cards in certain countries, however, others will require cryptocurrency. Again, the type of cryptocurrency depends on the marketplace you use, though most will accept Ethereum (ETH).

It’s important to note that NFT prices vary significantly, depending on things like rarity, design, and the collection they come from. With that in mind, we recommend researching the NFTs you’re interested in first to find out how much you may need to spend to acquire them. You can avoid having to pay additional fees if you acquire enough cryptocurrency from the start.

Alternatively, you might choose to earn NFTs instead. Believe it or not, there is now a growing category of play-to-earn games, some of which are incredibly popular, in which you can collect digital assets simply by playing. Once you’ve earned them, you can trade them, though this can be a somewhat lengthy process that may not be ideal if you’re hoping to start trading right away.

The AAG Academy offers dedicated guides on play-to-earn games and the wider GameFi industry for those who are interested in learning more.

3. Choose an NFT marketplace

Now that you have everything you’ll need to buy your first NFTs, it’s time to decide where you’re going to acquire them from. You may want to think about what kind of NFTs or collections you’re interested in first since most are exclusive to one marketplace. For instance, the cool, pixel art Nakamigos collection is only available from OpenSea.

In addition to offering NFTs for purchase, marketplaces provide a platform for selling. In most cases, there are a couple of ways to do this — either by offering them at a fixed price or listing them for auction. Some also allow you to bundle multiple NFTs and sell them for a single price. Simply find the ‘sell’ button on the marketplace of your choosing and then follow the steps.

After your NFT has been listed, the marketplace will usually take care of the rest of the process for you. This includes collecting the fees — which may be paid by the buyer or the seller, depending on the marketplace and the sale method that has been chosen — and transferring the sold NFTs from the seller’s wallet to the buyer’s wallet. Sellers then receive their funds.

Bear in mind that every NFT marketplace has its own sales process, and some offer other features, like the ability to receive offers on listings, and the ability to send offers for NFTs that aren’t actively being sold. As a result, after choosing a marketplace, it’s a good idea to read through its official documentation to find out all you need to know about buying and selling.

4. Don’t forget your trading strategy

Another critical step in this process, which you may choose to tackle before creating a cryptocurrency wallet or before buying your first NFT, is to develop a solid trading strategy. This is essentially a plan, with clear goals and objectives, that will help guide your trading decisions. Do you plan to trade only rare NFTs, or those that aren’t already targeted by many sellers?

A strategy is vital because it can help you avoid investing too much, and it can prevent you from making poor decisions. A good strategy can also go a long way to helping you minimize your losses, though as is always the case with trading, it is impossible to eliminate losses altogether.

A trading strategy for NFTs is likely to look a little different to those you might develop for cryptocurrencies, stocks, or other assets. However, the AAG Academy has a guide on this that could be really useful if you’re putting together a strategy for the first time.

What are the best marketplaces for NFTs?

As we touched on above, the best marketplace for NFTs is usually the one that offers the assets you’re interested in. OpenSea tends to be the most popular, and is considered by many to be the best, thanks in large part to its size. It has the largest number of users, the largest collection of NFTs, and usually holds the biggest selection of exclusive collections.

However, there are other excellent options. Here are some others you might want to consider:

• Binance NFT
• Coinbase
• Gemini
• Mintable
• Rarible
• SuperRare

Note that certain NFTs and collections are only available directly from the creator. For instance, there is a dedicated platform for NBA Top Shot NFTs, as well as another for those from Chiliz, which offers a wide range of sports NFTs, including the popular Socios collection.

References :

• Nft trading
• How to start nft trading
• How to sell nfts