Top 5 Solana NFT Marketplaces in 2022

Are you tired of Ethereum’s slow network and huge gas fees? It’s time you dumped it for the Solana train before it’s too late! But first, you need a solid Solana marketplace to trade your NFTS. And that’s what this article is all about. Nonetheless, before we start, let’s describe Solana briefly.

What is Solana?

Solana is a fast and open decentralized blockchain for developing scalable and responsive applications. The blockchain trades in SOL and has a market cap of over 28 billion dollars. Ultimately, it’s energy-efficient and handles up to 50,000 concurrent transactions in a second with a cost as low as $0.00025 per transaction. This is faster and cheaper than the Ethereum blockchain, which handles 30 transactions per second with a transaction cost of $5.57 (0.0022ETH) at the time of writing.

Why Should You Invest in Solana NFTs?

NFTs, as you may already know, are digital cryptogenic assets, ranging from arts and music to video games and more that you can sell online. To give you a recap, a digital artist, Beeple, sold his NFT for $69 million in 2021. Yeah. That’s how much an NFT can be worth.

And talking of Solana, we’ve seen NFT projects like the Solana Monkey Business sell for as high as 25,000 SOL with a total transaction volume of 869.7 thousand at a floor price of 170 SOL. The Degenerate Ape Academy is another notable one, which has sold for up to 6969 SOL and peaking to over 270 thousand transactions at a floor price of 99 SOL. Also, Aurory, a play-to-earn NFT game with a floor price of 26.3 SOL, has peaked sales up to 111,000 SOL and has a trading volume of 555 thousand. Overall, Solana NFT has a solid prospect.

Why Do You Need an NFT Marketplace?

NFT marketplaces are online e-commerce stores where sellers, artists, and creators list their NFTs for sale at a specific cryptocurrency price for collectors (buyers) to patronize. There are many Solana marketplaces out there. Some are excellently reliable, while some have subpar credibility.

Of course, the potential returns on an NFT depend on the platform you sell it and what crypto it sells in. Undoubtedly, Solana is one of the best cryptogenic currencies for NFTs considering its recent growth surge.

But here’s the thing: making great NFTs in exchange for some cool SOL is good. But finding the best Solana marketplaces for them is even better. You don’t want to invest all the effort and time in your NFTs — -only to put them for sale on marketplaces with low credibility.

Note: You need a Solana wallet to start listing NFTs on marketplaces.

What is a Crypto Wallet?

A crypto wallet is a hardware or online software (an app) that lets you buy, sell, receive, and store cryptocurrencies such as Solana, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more. Examples of Solana NFT wallets include Phantom, Solflare, Clover, Math Wallet, Ledger, Slope, and more.

To trade on a Solana NFT marketplace, you need to link it to your online wallet so it can charge you directly from there. After connecting your wallet to a Solana NFT marketplace, you can view your listed NFTs, mints, and collections in that wallet. You can also link a wallet to more than one marketplace if you like.

Now let’s dive into the best Solana NFT marketplaces you should look into right now!

1. Solanart

Website: https://solanart.io/

Solanart is still the most popular Solana marketplace online, receiving thousands of monthly visitors. It has recorded sales in thousands of digital arts. So it has solid credibility. However, it lists top projects like the Solana Monkey Business, Aurory, Degenerate Ape Academy, and more.

Solanart charges a 3 percent marketplace fee on the selling price of every NFT. That means you need to have enough balance in your wallet to get started. It also features various collections and includes their avatars, current volumes, titles, and descriptions.

There’s also a stats directory with beautiful line visualization to view the sales history and market value of each NFT. This, coupled with a section on the homepage that shows upcoming NFT projects on Solanart, can help you decide on the project worth submitting on the platform. And for a reduced gas fee, you might want to stake some Bold Bargers Squad.

Also, connecting your Solana crypto wallet to the platform is a breeze. And when you do so, you can start seeing NFTs available for you to list and start selling. However, minting your NFT and listing it on Solanart requires that you fill a few fields on Google Forms.

Supported wallets include Clover, Phantom, Solflare, Ledger, Math Wallet, Sollet, and Slope.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/solanartnft

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/solanart

2. Digitaleyes

Website: https://digitaleyes.market/

Digitaleyes is an open marketplace for selling your Solana NFTs. On the platform, you’ll find top collections including, but not limited to, the Solarians, Famous Fox Federation, and Crypto Idols.

Since it’s an open platform, you can start uploading your mint immediately. Your collection still goes through a process of pre-approval, though. But that’s not hectic. Notably, you can use its mint calendar to view scheduled NFT collections and anticipate their release.

Digitaleyes doesn’t charge you for listing. However, it collects a 2.5 percent service fee on every NFT sale. And at the time of writing, it offers a whopping discount of 60.4 percent of that service fee. Overall, the charging pattern on Digitaleyes is ideal for beginners.

Connecting a crypto wallet only requires a few clicks. However, supported wallets include Solong, Slope, Sollet, Clover, Math Wallet, Solflare, and Phantom. And with the introduction of the Digitaleyes Launchpad, it’s now easier to connect your Solana wallet to a newly minted NFT.

Additionally, the Launchpad lets you see the mint progress of various NFTs so you can connect to them in one click once verified.

And if you upload or list your NFT for sale, you can view it in your crypto wallet or on the listings on the open marketplace. Although Digitaleyes isn’t as popular, it’s a great place to start with NFTs. Plus, it features verified collections. So you can be sure you’re in for the real deal.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DigitalEyesNFT

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/aWrxsRyhFQ

3. Solsea

Website: https://solsea.io/

Solsea is also an open but strict marketplace, featuring collections like the Degenerate Ape Academy, Galactic Gecko, Skeleton Screw Skull, and more. Moreover, one of its unique features is it lets you add copyright licenses to your NFTs. Do you also want to hold your NFTs and make passive income without selling? You can use the stake option on the platform.

Also, in addition to SOL, Solsea accepts USDT and USDC as exchange options. You can create collections and add mints to them on this platform. There’s also a section for checking stats and viewing upcoming NFT collections.

However, you have to submit proof of authorship for collections and new mints and await approval before you can list them on the marketplace. While people can buy unverified NFTs minted on Solsea, it restricts sales for those minted elsewhere.

Minting and listing on this platform are a bit costly, though, as it charges for listing and delisting based on the cost of gas on Solana. You can connect wallets hosted on Sollet, Torus, Phantom, Slope, Coin98, Solflare, and Ledger. And the minting fee varies, depending on the upload size of your NFT. Quite a couple of investors hang around on Solsea. So it does have some popularity.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SolSeaNFT

Discord: https://discord.gg/DXYtfjyAPE

4. Metaplex

Website: https://www.metaplex.com/

Metaplex delves a little away from the norm by being an open-source code of an NFT ecosystem. It features tools for building marketplaces, selling collectibles and mints, and relating directly with your audience.

Ultimately, Metaplex eliminates the influence of third-party platforms by giving you a set of tools based on Solana to build your storefront and customize it as you like. However, you can imagine a storefront as your online store where people can visit, contact you, and patronize your NFTs.

Although building a marketplace is cheap on Metaplex, setting up might be technical, as it requires a bit of development background. Nevertheless, you might want to try it out if you don’t mind wrapping your mind around some configurations here and there.

Discord: https://discord.gg/metaplex

Twitter: https://twitter.com/metaplex

Github: https://github.com/metaplex-foundation/metaplex

5. Magic Eden

Website: https://magiceden.io/

Are you interested in Solana NFT games like the Galactic Fight League, MonkeyBall, Desolate Metaverse, and more, in addition to avant-garde art collections? Magic Eden is your best bet. It’s next in popularity to Solanart, with a couple of thousands of monthly traffic.

It offers support for various Solana wallets, including Phantom, Solflare, Slope, Ledger, Sollet, Clover, Solong, and Math Wallet. In addition to collecting NFTs instantly and listing them, you can see live and upcoming NFT auctions and bid for them on Magic Eden. Plus, you can view upcoming projects and popular collections on the platform’s homepage.

However, to get started, you’ll submit your collection to the Magic Eden team for approval, which takes between one and two days. There’s also a Stats section on the side to view trends in supply volume and price for each NFT collection listed on the marketplace.

The platform doesn’t charge you for listing. But it takes 2 percent on every NFT transaction. It also features a Launchpad to help creators mint their collections without technicalities.

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/b87UnCy6P2

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MagicEden_NFT

Wrapping Up: Be Original With Your NFTs

Like any product, no matter how catchy your NFTs are, they don’t add value until you put them out there for the right audience and collectors to see. As mentioned earlier, listing your NFTs on a marketplace allows collectors to bid and buy them. And while getting a good marketplace increases profit potential, your originality is essential for success. With that said, you need to pay attention to the frequently evolving nature of NFTs, as this also affects how these platforms update their operational terms.

Do you also want to expand your view into hot and upcoming Solana NFT projects other than the ones on a specific marketplace? You might want to hop into Moonly now to stay ahead of the chain.

This is story also published on Moonly’s Blog