By now you probably came across news about somebody spending a fortune on a celebrity-made digital art such as video, cool gif, simple photo, or even a tweet! And that it has to do something with cryptocurrencies. Most likely you saw the word “NFT” somewhere alongside the title of that news. But what are NFTs really and why would somebody pay millions to have something that can easily be found online, for free?

Ok, let’s go step by step.

NFT stands for NON “FUNGIBLE” TOKEN. To understand what that means you have to know a little about cryptocurrencies. Let’s put Bitcoin as an example of a “fungible” token. You can own a whole BTC but You can as well send parts of it (satoshis), for example, 0.2 or 0.345 BTC. So it can be divided into smaller pieces.

Unlike this “non-fungible tokens” can’t be separated and they can only exist as a whole. We can look at them as a digital property that can be used for many different things, even certain types of currencies. But the current NFT hype is all about digital art and collectibles.

Why is a non-fungible feature essential for artists?

One word – Authenticity.

No one can make the same NFT and no-one can undo one’s ownership of an NFT. So every NFT is unique and has a certificate of ownership which also protects its value for future transactions. “By booming of the digital sector in general it was time for art to experience a hype and it is real and permanent”, says billionaire investor Mark Cuban.

Blockchain technology is behind the possibility of creating such a perfect method of proving the authenticity of NFTs. Most NFTs are built on the Ethereum blockchain and were built using two Ethereum token standards – ERC-721 and ERC-1155.

Where can you buy/sell/ NFTs?

There are several established marketplaces for buying and selling NFTs on which artists and resellers already made millions and millions of dollars. As the popularity of non-fungible tokens is increasing, so too is the number of marketplaces. And you can join some of them right away!

1. Opensea.io

2. Rarible.com

3. NBA Top Shot

4. CryptoPunks

5. Nifty Gateway

In the last 30-days according to the DappRadar Marketplace rankings the top 12 NFT Marketplaces have generated over $480 million in transaction volume. Yes, you heard that right. Good thing is that most of these markets have guides and shortcuts to help you create Your own NFT!

Most expensive NFTs sold so far?

Mike Winkelmann, more known as Beeple, made the biggest NFT sales in history. He announced his sale on Nifty Getaway on Twitter and listed 21 items. Of course, each one of them was backed up by documents proving the authenticity. His digital art collection was sold for 3.5 million dollars! His NFT piece, “CROSSROAD” features a naked former president Donald Trump lying prostrate in the grass, and is recently sold for $6.6 million, making history as the most expensive digital art sale ever made. Then he broke his own record by selling the artwork called “Everydays – the first 5000 days” for $69 million on Christie’s auction.

Justin Roiland, the creator of the popular animated series “Rick and Morty” sold 16 pieces of his art for a whopping 2.3 million dollars. More and more celebrities are jumping on an NFT train and we will be writing about them in future posts. Now what You all are probably asking yourselves while reading this is can you make and sell NFT and how?

If you are an artist that wants to make some additional money, a couple of millions, for instance, you should definitely make an NFT. Knowing a fact that Nyan Cat, the animated cat with a Pop-Tart body and a rainbow trail was sold as an NFT for about $580,000 will encourage you. Also if You are into sports there is a complete digitalization of trading cards. Meet NBA Top Shots best described as sports cards for the digital era. Instead of buying physical card packs, you can buy NFTs of videos of memorable on-court moments. It is actually super cool and that is the reason why they made over 100k sales and racked up over $250million in sales. It is just the beginning.

If you are into gaming then you should try out Axie Infinity revolutionizing the gaming industry. You can earn NFTs while playing the game and easily transfer them to ether or sell for more. The developers have created an economy they call “play to earn”. And this is the most exciting aspect of the game itself.

How to create an NFT?

There are several types of NFTs and several ways you can create them. Check How to create an NFT. A good example is creating a token on the Opensea.io marketplace.

There are few steps you should follow:

1. Create a digital wallet. CoinBase, Trust, and MetaMask are recommended and it’s wallet extension for google chrome.
   
   
2. Go on Opensea and hover over the profile icon which you can find in the upper right corner. After that select “My Profile” and click on sign in, then you will have to follow simple instructions to set up your account.
   
   
3. After step 2 is completed you should be able to see your page. In the top right corner, you will see a Create title, hover over it and select My collections.
   
   
4. You will see Create new collection option under which you should select Create. You will be able to enter details about that collection.
   
   
5. You finished entering the details now click on Add new item and upload image, video, audio, etc.  After that give your Art/NFT a name.
   
   
6. Now we are only 1 step away from creating our first NFT. Just press create.
   
   
7. Keep in mind before listing anything on OpenSea you will have to pay a gas fee (which varies depending on Ethereum).

Considering a fact that Opensea is one of the most popular NFT markets at the moment we recommend creating and selling on this platform.

Ok, you are now introduced to the basics of NFTs and like them or not they are trending, booming and there is a very small chance for that to be stopped. The new era of art is coming, make sure you follow up.