The internet is exploding with NFT and crypto-related questions.
The NFT craze is so hot, the term “nft” is currently being searched 1.5 million times a month in Google.
In February 2022, well over two billion dollars in NFTs sales occurred across the globe. To be exact, according to cryptoslam.io the reported sales volume for NFTs in February of 2022 is $2,609,959,897.84 USD dollars.
Which is an insane come-up from September 2017, where NFTs totaled $5,154.35 USD in NFT sales for the year.
But why the sudden boom and curiosity in NFTs and crypto? Are NFTs only here for the moment or are NFTs here to stay?
I'm guessing since you're reading this blog you might have other questions regarding NFTs and crypto.
Maybe questions like...What is an nft? What does nft stand for? Can I make an nft? How to create an nft? Where to buy NFT art? How to sell nft art? How to mint an NFT? Best NFT marketplace?
If you’re a creator, artist, or anyone curious about NFTs, please use this blog as a simple NFT guide to help you become more knowledgeable about NFTs and help you move forward in your NFT journey.
If you're ready to launch your NFT and have the proportionate supply and demand head straight to our step-by-step resource on How to sell NFT art: a guide to selling art on OpenSea to create, mint, and sell your NFT now.
Specifically, this blog post will cover:
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Where to buy NFTs (What is the best NFT marketplace to buy NFTs?
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How to create an NFT (includes a link to a step-by-step guide on how to create NFTs on OpenSea)
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Top websites to view live NFT data + find new and upcoming NFT collections
NFTs Explained: A Brief NFT Explanation
How NFTs Are Changing The World
NFTs have been around since 2014, but they broke through into the mainstream and public eye in 2021.
When NFTs and different cryptocurrencies hit mainstream media and became frequently talked about topics on TV shows, news channels, and mentioned by our favorite social media influencers, etc., NFTs sales hit a high of $25 billion in the year 2021 alone.
However, over the last few months, NFTs have greatly disrupted the world of art, crypto, marketing, branding, and many other industries.
Crypto and NFTs are shifting old out-of-date beliefs, stigmas, views, and values around money that have been around for years, generations, and possibly decades.
More importantly, artists and creators (ordinary people) have learned how to build their own profitable creator economy--meaning they've learned how to create a consistent stream of income by themselves on their own terms and conditions.
NFT artists and creators are using their tokens and/or artwork to:
- decentralize their income
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make recurring and passive income
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get out of debt
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go from walking to being able to buy a brand new car and drive anywhere they want (true story)
- become a full-time artist or creator
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go from homeless to being able to purchase their first home (yes this is a true story)
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fund new startups, passions, and businesses
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create a personal brand or start to make a name for themselves (unless they want to stay anonymous, which is an option btw 🤫)
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educate other minorities around the world
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provide specific resources and funding to other charities and minorities who have limited access
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create schools in the metaverse
- + so much more!
Related: What is the creator economy? How to get started
13 Common Crypto and NFT Terms To Know
When getting started in the NFT industry, it can sometimes be overwhelming and seem like an entirely new language.
To make learning about crypto more streamlined and easier to consume, here's some common NFT terminology used in the NFT space to help you out.
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Metaverse: A network of 3D virtual worlds focused on social connection.
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Blockchain: a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another cryptocurrency is maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. In other words, it's a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system
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Secondary market: For example, the number of sales from a secondary NFT marketplace like OpenSea.
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WAGMI: "We are going to make it"
- NGMI: 'Not gonna make it'
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DYOR: 'Do your own research'
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Burning an NFT: An NFT is burned to eliminate a token forever. NFT owners or creators can burn for an endless amount of reasons. Burn a token to get something in return like the next generation of artwork, add a series of game dynamics, or give out gifts like books or IRL experiences, etc.
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Floor price: The current price an NFT is listed for
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NFT collection: Digital assets or pieces of artwork that make up one project all around the same theme.
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Rugged ("I got rugged."): Someone tricks you into paying them money, causing you to lose your money and never get the digital assets you paid for. i
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NFT roadmap: A map displaying what an NFT collector or buyer can expect when purchasing an NFT, basically this shows what direction the NFT collection is going in. it is not a requirement to include a roadmap when creating NFTs.
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Public mint: Can only be purchased with another cryptocurrency on decentralized exchanges. To buy Public Mint, you’ll need to first purchase Ethereum (ETH) and then use ETH to buy Public Mint.
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Web 3.0: Web 3.0 is the third generation of internet services for websites and applications that will focus on using a machine-based understanding of data to provide a data-driven and Semantic Web. The ultimate goal of Web 3.0 is to create more intelligent, connected, and open websites.
Remember, you can come back to refer to this list of NFT terms at any time.
⚠️❗❗Important Disclaimer + NFT Safety Tips❗❗⚠️
While there are dozens of examples of how NFTs are positive and beneficial to artists and creators, it still doesn't negate the fact that there can be a dark side when dealing with crypto, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), web2.0, and web3.0.
To be extremely transparent and help make you aware of both the positive and negative sides to NFTs and crypto, please read the paragraph below:
The NFT space is still a little risky, especially if you’re new to the crypto, NFT (nonfungible token), or Web3.0 space.
In this industry it is a must to DYOR (do your own research) before buying into any nft project or before creating an NFT project.
When looking at nft regulations, nft stocks, how to create nfts, where to buy nfts, which NFT collections to buy, when to trade nfts, or how to sell NFTs it's imperative to DYOR and take the time to understand how NFTs work.
Doing research can save you from being scammed out of money, violating nft regulations, and most overall issues when dealing with crypto, and the blockchain.
Regardless of what you read or what someone says please DYOR before putting any money, time, or energy into any NFT collection, NFT community, or Discord that is claiming to sell nfts or have any dealings with crypto.
One of the most common places to get scammed or 'rugged' is in the DMs of a Discord community.
The norm is someone in Discord (that looks official) will send a direct message to another user telling them to send money to this ETH address to receive their NFT. Once any money is sent to the 'fake' ETH address, it's gone and cannot be refunded--meaning you will have lost your money and you will not receive the NFT(s).
Other scammers are bold enough to ask newbies in crypto for the secret phrase to their crypto wallets, which then gives them direct access to anything inside of that wallet to do with as they choose.
DO NOT EVER GIVE ANYONE THE SECRET PHRASE TO YOUR CRYPTO WALLET.
NFT Meaning: What Does NFT Stand For?
Related: What are NFTs?
The short three-letter acronym 'NFT' stands for:
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Non
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Fungible
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Token
But, what does non-fungible token (NFT) mean? What does 'fungible' mean?
Fungibility is the quality of an asset to be readily interchanged with other goods or assets of the same type.
For example, the US dollar or any other currency is fungible.
You can interchange a hundred dollar bill with another hundred dollar bill or interchange a bitcoin with another bitcoin. This is because all bitcoins are identical, each having the same value.
Gold is also considered a fungible asset: one ounce of gold is equal to another ounce of gold of the same type. So, we can say fungibility is the interchangeability of something.
A non-fungible asset, on the other hand, is something unique: you can’t replace it with something else. There is only one like it in existence.
NFT Definition: What Is An NFT?
What can be turned into an NFT?
A non-fungible token is a unique cryptographic asset developed on a blockchain (like Ethereum) with a unique identification code.
There are no identical NFTs on the blockchain, each is uniquely identifiable and has a permanent history of every transaction since creation.
As you can see in the screenshot below, each individual token has its own identifiable digital address.
While blockchain technology may be a complicated concept, understanding NFTs is easier than you might think.
Simply put, if you own an NFT, it is completely yours. You own it. You have full ownership and the privilege of owning the digital asset until you decide to sell, burn, gift, or trade it.
A non-fungible token (NFT) is a digital asset that represents an object like a historic moment, piece of art, a unique song (Ape In Productions), video of a sports clip, a screenshot of a Tweet, etc.
To give a better idea of what NFT artwork can be, view the list of examples that can be turned into an NFT below.
What can be turned into a non-fungible token NFT? Here are some examples of items that can be turned into NFTs:
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Music
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Art
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Doodles
- Paintings
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Tweets
- Video clip (ex. Michael Jordans famous jump shot)
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Memes
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Web domains
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Images or photographs
- Animations
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And pretty much anything your mind can create and can create supply and demand for
Take a look at the variety of in-life examples below of popular and trending NFTs that have made large sums of money with their NFT collections, artwork, and/or have a loyal community around their NFT project(s).
7 NFT Examples of Popular NFT Artwork and NFT Collections
The screenshot above shows a few examples of different art tokens Gary Vee drew for his NFT collection, VeeFriends.
NFT Example 1:
A quick example of what an NFT looks like. Have you seen the “Charlie Bit My Finger” video on YouTube?
That video was recently sold as an NFT for an astonishing £500,000. Whoever owns the rights to that video turned it into an NFT and then sold it on an NFT marketplace.
NFT Example 2:
Gwyneth Paltrow recently bought a Bored Ape NFT and joined the NFT boom. Check out her @BoredApeYC reveal below:
NFT Example 3:
The first tweet created by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was sold as NFT for $2.9 million.
Here is NFT and tweet looked like:
NFT Example 4:
Mike Winkelmann, one of the most valuable living artists, sold his Beeple NFT for around $69 million last year.
NFT Example 5: Girlies NFT
One father and daughter duo created an NFT collection called girlies that's making a splash in the NFT industry. The now sold-out NFT collection has generated over 2.6 million dollars with their NFT collection.
Did I mention the artist and illustrator is 14-years-old?
The teenage artist @Valeria illustrated 10,000 1-of-1 art pieces that celebrate beautiful, strong women.
Take a look at her illustrations for sale on OpenSea below:
NFT Example 6:
Mega Mutant Ape #6942 was bought for over $17 million in $USD (7,320 ETH) by NFT collector 0x5jb88.
NFT Example 7: Music NFT Ape-In Productions
This NFT is one of my personal favorites. It's different from most nonfungible tokens because it's is a song created by Ape-In Productions that they turned into an NFT.
Timbaland, a grammy-winning music artist launched an entertainment brand called Ape-In Production based around Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs.
Ape-In Productions created a limited amount of NFTs for purchase that include a variety of songs specifically dedicated to the NFT album.
The Apes that are featured in the music and NFT album also have the chance to be featured in movie productions and music videos featuring bored apes in the collection.
By now, you probably have so many NFT ideas rushing into your mind. But let’s first take a brief look at how NFTs really work.
How Do NFTs Work? What Are Your Goals With NFTs?
In the NFT world, COMMUNITY IS EVERYTHING. The ability to create supply and demand on a continual basis is a must.
An increasingly all-time high of diverse people are entering the crypto space and are creating, collecting, buying, and selling NFTs.
Some of these people are immensely talented artists and avid NFT collectors, while others are joining to make a quick buck or find a cool community of people like them.
But the serious question is, what do you want to do with NFTs?
What are your intentions with non-fungible tokens? Why do you want to get involved with NFTs?
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Are you artistically talented looking to become a new NFT creator or artist?
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Do you want to create an art collection?
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Are you in the NFT space for the short term or do you have a long-term play?
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Are you looking to buy your first NFT or looking for new trending NFT projects?
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Do you want to make money with NFTs by selling, trading, holding, etc.?
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Are you simply curious about NFTs and playing around?
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Do you want to build a loyal community?
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Could NFTs be your new full-time job?
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Is there a bigger mission at play?
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For instance, do you want to bring more women into crypto and web3.0, create a more inclusive and diverse space, raise money for a charity, group, or person?
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Are you ready to make a name for yourself or build a personal brand?
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Did a friend tell you about NFTs, so now you're here trying to figure out what the hell they are...😅
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Do you want to educate others about the NFT space?
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Are you a teen or person under the age of 18 looking to create an NFT collection?
What happens with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) will rely solely on how you want to use, experience them.
For example, if you want to become an NFT artist and create an art collection there are certain rules, regulations, and processes to follow (that I will elaborate more on later in this blog).
Or if you want to buy or sell NFTs, there are many different NFT marketplaces where you can browse NFT collections and buy NFT artwork.
Celebrities, gamers, NFT art collectors, and investors are often willing to pay a lot of money to buy NFTs because these assets are scarce and there's only one of each NFT in existence.
If you want to create your own NFTs, there is surely a potential to make a lot of money.
Quick fact: Nyla Hayes, a 13-year-old girl made nearly $6 million with her NFT collection, Long Neckie Ladies.
To better understand how NFTs really work, let’s find how you can create, sell, or buy them.
Best NFT Marketplace To Buy NFTs? Where To Buy NFTs?
9 NFT Marketplaces To Sell NFTs
Not sure how to find nfts for sale or how to buy an NFT? Or maybe you don't know which NFT marketplace to use or familiar with NFT marketplaces at all.
If you're an NFT newbie, an NFT marketplace is where people mint, sell, buy, or trade NFTs.
If you want to create non-fungible tokens, be sure to choose the best NFT marketplace for your NFT artwork or NFT collection.
All NFT marketplaces are different so make sure to review their regulations and policies before uploading your digital assets to the blockchain.
NFT Marketplaces to Browse, Create, Buy, and Sell NFTs:
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OpenSea
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Rarible
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Nifty Gateway
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SuperRare
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Bakery Swap
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Axie
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Larva Labs
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Binance NFT
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Mintable
Once you have found the right NFT marketplace to either buy, sell, trade, or create NFTs, make not of your favorite ones. And if you already have a cryptocurrency wallet set up to buy NFTs, the next step is to choose which NFT marketplace you are going to use.
Also, if you’re a beginner, make sure to check out OpenSea and how things work on the platform, including creator fees.
If you haven't set up your crypto wallet, don't stress the process only takes a few minutes. If you find you need more help, you can find further instructions in the link above.
How to buy NFTs from most NFT marketplaces:
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Create a crypto wallet such as CoinBase or MetaMask
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Top up your wallet with some cryptocurrency like ETH
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Connect your wallet to any NFT marketplace
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Use your wallet and funds to start buying NFTs
How To Sell NFT Art + Where To Sell NFT Art
People exploring NFTs often come up with this question: 'How to sell an NFT?'
Let’s say you have bought some NFTs on OpenSea or any NFT marketplace and now you want to sell them. Or, maybe you have created new artwork or another NFT collection.
Regardless, if you have minted or purchased an NFT from an NFT marketplace. In both cases, you must have set up a wallet and connected it to a marketplace.
It's also a requirement to pay a gas fee to list your nonfungible token on an NFT marketplace. You can also pay this gas fee using the same crypto wallet you set up earlier.
The next important step is to set your assets up for auction. Once you set the price and click the sell button, your assets will be visible to all buyers on the marketplace.
People interested in your items would be able to purchase them from you through the NFT marketplace or platform.
NFT creators have to launch marketing campaigns to attract potential buyers. You have to put your NFTs in front of the right people to get the best price.
You surely need to invest some time to market and sell your NFTs for a good price.
How To Create An Nft
This is probably the most interesting part of this blog: how to create an NFT and how to mint an NFT.
The process to create an NFT may vary from platform to platform and we can’t talk about every platform in this blog. So, let’s go over what it takes to mint your first NFT on OpenSea.
OpenSea is an easy-to-use platform for NFT artists, creators, collectors, and traders.
Besides, it offers a lazy mint option that allows you to mint your artwork and list it for sale without any gas fees.
👉👉 How To Sell NFT Art: A Guide To Sell NFTs On OpenSea (the world's most popular and largest NFT marketplace) 👈👈
Here is a quick explanation of the NFT minting process:
- Decide what you want to create
As I mentioned earlier, an NFT can be anything: a poem, a song, a video, a tweet, anything you can possibly imagine.
It would be a good idea to create something around your passion. If you’re a designer, for example, you can mint your digital drawings, sketches, images, etc.
For example, you could create a collection similar to the NFT collection, Eyes of Fashion Official.
Here are some valuable tips that will help you create NFT artwork:
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Learn from other successful NFT creators.
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Use materials and tools you already have to start creating something.
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Consider investing in new technologies after gaining enough knowledge.
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Think of your audience who are likely to fall in love with your work.
- Create something you are passionate about.
Whatever you decide to create, turn it into a file format acceptable on OpenSea.
- Mint your asset on OpenSea
Feel free to check out other NFT marketplaces, OpenSea may not be the best option for your NFT project or digital assets.
How To Mint an NFT on OpenSea
🚀 Related: How to sell NFT artwork on OpenSea (the world's most used NFT marketplace)
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Go to the OpenSea site and click “create”
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Upload your asset
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Provide the required information
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Customize your NFT and hit the “create” button
That was simple. Isn’t it? Read this blog to learn more about minting or selling NFTs on OpenSea.
- Build a loyal community
This step is as important as creating your NFTs.
You need to build relationships and let the world know what you have created.
Pro tip: Join platforms like Clubhouse and Discord where you will be able to find plenty of crypto and NFT lovers and experts.
We run a dedicated room on Clubhouse where we only talk about NFTs and how artists and content creators can make money creating, buying, or selling NFTs and crypto-assets.
Here is another interesting question you might want to ask:
Who Can Create An NFT?
Are there any eligibility criteria for creating an NFT?
Basically, anyone can create NFTs, no matter the age, education, race, or anything else.
You can even choose to be completely anonymous. But, that doesn't mean you can't be doxxed so be careful if you really don't want people to know you are behind an NFT project.
If you need some inspiration, meet Benyamin Ahmed, a 12-year old boy who became a millionaire off NFTs.
Ahmed created a series of pixelated artworks featuring whales wearing baseball caps and smoking pipes. His NFTs are called “Weird Whales”.
If a 12-year old girl or boy can make millions of dollars creating cool NFTs, why can’t you?
Want to explore more awesome nonfungible collections and NFT projects? Let’s see where we can find them!
Top NFT Websites To View Live Data + Where To Find New And Upcoming NFTs
When looking to buy, sell, or create an NFT project or collection, it's important to consistently look at the latest NFT data, news, projects, nft sales, Twitter spaces, etc.
Staying up to date on recent NFT news and data can help you make the right decision when choosing to buy an NFT, releasing an art collection, or choosing when to sell your digital assets or NFTs.
Here are some of the most reliable websites where people view live NFT data and news around crypto and NFTs:
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Giraffe Tower (You can mint or buy one of our NFTs here)
While you are free to explore millions of NFTs on the web, don’t forget to check out some of the most popular nft projects on the market right now like:
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VeeFriends NFT collection
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CryptoPunks
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Bored Ape Yacht Club
- Cool Cats NFT
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Invisible Friends NFT
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WomenRise NFT
- Giraffe Tower
World of Women (WoW) generated more than $40 million dollars in the first two weeks of 2022 according to one Rolling Stone article.
🚀 Related: 11 Women-led NFTs shaping the web3 industry
There is so much we can learn from these already successful NFT collections.
Final Thoughts + Additional Resources
To sum up, NFTs are really cool, non-fungible, digital assets that are built on blockchain. Hopefully, this NFT guide helped simplify nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
As you learned, you can go to any NFT marketplace right now and start creating, buying, selling, or trading NFTs.
Remember it is a MUST to DYOR (do your own research) on any NFT collection or community before you buy NFT artwork or before you buy into an NFT collection or community.
There are many copycat collections and Discords that are scamming people who are new to the NFT and crypto space.
If you're looking to buy an NFT, pay attention to the community behind that NFT project. Make sure to look at the NFT collections' most recent buys, sells, and all-time data.
It can also be smart to leverage social media channels and other relevant platforms where you can talk with other NFT people to learn about NFT projects before making a decision. Doing a little research can prevent a ton of problems and save you a ton of money in the future.
Now, if you're an NFT artist or creator, NFTs are very personal to you and your offer. Having proper supply and demand and the right groomed audience is key to success.
It's critical to create proper supply and demand AND invest time in building a community.
So, if you’re ready to dive into the world of crypto and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), there's no better time than now.
One of the keys to success is to be patient, read up on how to hold NFTs, the best time to sell NFTs, and how to ride the "waves" when the price of your NFT(s) fluctuates.
There is always more to learn.
Additional NFT, Web3, and Crypto Resources
Thousands of new NFT projects are launching every day. It can get overwhelming for beginners and even NFT OG's to keep up with current NFT projects plus choose which NFT collections, tokens, or pieces of artwork to buy.
It takes a lot of time and research to keep up with current NFT trends and top NFT collections.
So, to make things easier visit these NFT websites to current and stay up to date:
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https://icy.tools/ (View trending NFT collections by sales + see what's selling. Prices are updated in real-time)
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https://rarity.tools/ (Dedicated to ranking generative art and collectible NFTs by rarity. Currently included NFT projects on the site are CryptoPunks, Hashmasks, Waifusion, Chubbies, and Bored Ape Yacht Club)
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https://etherscan.io/ (The Ethereum blockchain explorer)
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https://www.nansen.ai/ (Get an edge over everyone else by tracking the behavior and on-chain activity of prominent wallet addresses)
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https://cryptoslam.io/ (NFT Collection Rankings by Sales Volume)
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GaryClub Discord Invitation (Join our community where we teach more on NFTs, plus you have the support of our 5k+ Discord server focused on helping creators make money)
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Check out Twitter Blue to set up your NFT as your Twitter pfp (profile photo). This will also change your pfp to a hexagon shape making your profile photo instantly recognizable that it's an NFT.
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