There are various Solana NFT marketplaces with different features. This difference might make it difficult to choose and force first-time non-fungible token (NFT) investors to go on the hunt for the best Solana NFT marketplace to use. If you fall into that level, then this write-up is really for you.
What is a Solana NFT Marketplace?
A Solana NFT marketplace is a platform where you can buy and sell NFTs on the Solana network. Anyone with a Solana wallet, such as Sollet or Phantom, can interact with these platforms to buy and sell tokens from their favorite collections. Some platforms also include functionality for users to create and mint Solana-backed NFTs.
Read also: STEPN To Block Users From Mainland China To Comply With Crypto Regulation
The introduction of NFTs has aided blockchain technology reach more mainstream users. the potential that NFTs present, giving people the chance to own valuable blockchain assets in the form of videos, pictures, virtual land, and even tweets is very appealing.
Due to the above, interest in NFTs has spiked so much that several thousands of trades take place worldwide each day. The total trade volume in the global NFT market crossed the $50 billion mark last 2 months, reaching an ATH of $54.58 billion.
NFT marketplaces, including those on the Solana network, provide a gateway for new investors to start building their collections, and for creators to sell valuable art. From this point on, we assume that you already have a Solana wallet setup and only want to know the best NFT marketplaces on Solana.
Top 12 Solana NFT Marketplaces
§ Magic Eden — The Best NFT Marketplace on Solana (Available on Android)
Magic Eden is currently the leading NFT marketplace on the Solana blockchain. Users of the platform can create, display, sell and buy Solana-based NFTs. For every NFT sale, Magic Eden levies a transaction fee of two percent.
Like most NFT marketplaces, Magic Eden permits creators of NFTs to determine how much they want as royalty fees for their tokenized items. Royalty fees or royalties in this context imply the percentage (not more than 10%) of the sale price of an NFT that is accorded to creators each time their NFT is sold. Programmed into Solana’s smart contract, Proof-of-Stake (PoS), royalties are automatically executed once a sale is completed.
Listing NFTs on Magic Eden is free. You are however required to fill out a listing application form. For now, the platform accepts only a small number of projects. There is therefore no sure chance that your NFT(s) will be accepted. The ratio of your project being accepted or rejected is 50-50.
More also, Magic Eden features an auction option. You can therefore choose to bid on an NFT item on the platform. Also, Magic Eden supports nearly all Solana wallets including phantom, Slope, Sollet, Solflare, Clover, Ledger, Solong, and MathWallet.
Some of the Marketplace’s most popular NFL projects/collections are DeGods, OkayBears, Degenerate Ape Academy, Shadowy Super Coders DAO, and Portals among others.
§ Solanart
Solanart is another NFT marketplace that is deployed on the Solana Network. Launched in June 2021, the popular Solana NFT marketplace allows its users to make, sell and purchase Solana-based NFTs. Solonart charges a 0.2% fee for advertisement and a transaction fee of 3% for every successful NFT sale. Creators on Solonart are also free to determine how much they want as royalties.
Unlikely Magic Eden, projects that can be listed on solonart are not limited. Some of the famous NFT collections on the decentralized platform include Degenerate Ape Academy, Aurora, Solpunks, and Galactic Gecko among many others.
§ Solsea
Solsea is yet another Solana NFT marketplace where users can mint and trade NFTs. One unique feature of the marketplace is its NFT-PROs. This involves allowing creators, via Solsea’s portal, to choose and embed licenses into their NFTs to ensure ownership of NFT items.
The well-known marketplace also features a “Rarity Index” that calculates and displays the rarity rank of specific NFTs listed on the platform. Rarity Rank is a number that represents an NFT’s position, how rare or less sought out it is, within the collection, it belongs to.
Solsea, which also awards creators royalties, charges a three percent transaction fee for every successful NFT sale. For now, the marketplace has not rolled out NFT auctions and bidding features on the platform but has promised to do so soon.
Solsea supports various wallets including Slope, Solflare, Phantom, and Sollet amongst others. All.ART Circle and Meta Waifus are some of the marketplace’s NFT collections
§ OpenSea
Although released in 2017, OpenSea only recently integrated Solana into its platform as part of blockchain options for NFT trades.
Three months after a famous security researcher and tech blogger Jane Manchun Wong gave a clue to the public about the idea, the marketplaces launched the integration, allowing users to trade NFTs that are created on Solana.
Like most Solana NFT marketplaces, OpenSea allows users to mint, sell and purchase NFTs. The platform supports the phantom wallet and levies a 2.5% transaction fee.
§ Metaplex
With over 10.6 million NFTs minted, Metaplex is a good platform for creating and trading Solana-backed NFTs.
One prominent feature of Metaplex is that creators get to launch their own branded storefront. This means that owners of NFTs looking to sell their items through the marketplace can attach whatever suitable information they want to their NFTs.
This includes information regarding the items, bids, their owners, and other related information that customers may look for as a way to verify the authenticity of the NFT.
Worth noting though is that your projects get listed based on the platform’s guidelines, rules, and standards which may not be to your liking.
For every successful NFT transaction conducted, the marketplace may decide not to charge any fee aside from the usual gas fee for using the Solana network. It is therefore possible to avoid paying transaction fees even when you successfully sell an NFT.
Among the successful Solana-based NFT projects that have been launched on Metaplex, we have Degenerate Ape Academy, Solana Monkey Business, Genopets, Nyan Heroes, and others.
§ DigitalEyes
DigitalEyes is an open Solana NFT marketplace where users can create, sell and buy NFTs. The marketplace, which also accepts major Solana-supported wallets, features a “Mint Calendar” where users can see upcoming NFTs drops and releases.
DigitalEyes does not charge fees for listing or delisting but charges a service fee of 2.5% on all NFT sales. Sellers on the marketplaces are also entitled to royalties.
§ Alpha.art
Users of Alpha.art can only list and trade NFTs for now, as the Solana NFT marketplace currently does not support minting.
Although listing NFTs on Alpha.art is totally free, the platform levies a flat two percent seller fee that is deducted once an NFT item is sold. One distinct thing about Alpha,art is its “offer system” in which users can offer to buy an NFT that is not listed on the platform.
If the owner of the NFT accepts the offer, the NFT will automatically be yours once the normal trading methods are concluded.
Phantom, slope, Solflare, Ledger, and Sollet are among the Solana wallets that Alpha.art supports.
§ Exchange.Art
Exchange.Art is a Solana NFT marketplace that focuses solely on assisting users to trade 1/1 digital arts, a single, unique edition of NFT art items.
The marketplace displays NFTs such as handpicked art collection sets, drawings, profile pictures, paintings, illustrations, algorithmic arts, photography profile pictures, AI arts amongst others.
Exchange.art does not charge any listing fee but has 2,5% fee for every successful transaction.
The Marketplace also has an “EXCHANGE Notification NFT” that is awarded to users after every transaction they make or when they receive offers regarding their projects.
The more transactions you make, the more EXCHANGE Notification NFT you get. For now, there is no real value in having the NFT in one’s possession. Exchange.Art however plans to announce the reward that comes with it soon.
§ Artz.ai
Artz.ai is another decentralized NFT Marketplace on Solana where users can discover, create, sell and purchase art NFTs.
In order to list an NFT for sale on Artz.ai, the owner has to grant the platform permission to execute the sale on the NFT for the provided sale price.
Listing and minting are free on Artz.ai but users have to pay the usual blockchain charges (Solana gas fees). The marketplace collects a transaction fee of 0.00001 SOL or 0.000005 SOL, depending on the nature of the transaction.
Read Also:
For now, the only Solana-supported wallet that works with Artz.ai is Phantom.
§ Solport
The Solport Solana NFT marketplace allows users to not only buy and sell NFTs but also allows them to participate in or better still create an NFT(s) auction.
More also, you are required to fill out an application form if you want to list your NFT for sale on the platform.
No listing or refund fees are charged on Solport. Sellers on the platform, however, need to pay a two percent fee when they successfully sell their NFT items.
Two of the several upper Solana NFT projects listed on Solport are Mutant Monkey Business and Realm Kings. For now, the marketplace support only two wallets, namely, phantom and Solflare.
§ SupaDrop
SupaDrop is a Solana NFT marketplace that focuses majorly on helping independent creators mint authentic NFTs on Solana, specifically digital arts. After which, they get to launch and trade them via the marketplace.
Notwithstanding, SupaDrop also offers other varieties of NFTs such as videos, audio, images, and so on. The marketplace’s minting fee ranges between 0.01 SOL and 0.03 SOL with zero fee charges for platform use.
As a developing marketplace, SupaDrop plans to add more features to the platform. This includes curation tokens ranking system, an airdrop calendar, and so on. Users can choose to bid on NFT items as an auction option is available on the marketplace. Creators are entitled to royalties as well.
§ RabbitHole
RabbitHole is another NFT Marketplace where you can buy and/or sell verified Solana-based NFT collectibles. Listing NFTs is totally free in the marketplace. It however charges a one percent fee for every NFT sale. Royalties are set up by NFT creators and paid immediately after a sale happens.
At Writer’s time, RabbitHole supports only Phantom Wallet.
How to Choose the Best Solana NFT Marketplaces
- Listed collections
Listed NFT collections are a major factor that determines how good and authentic a Solana NFT marketplace is. A good Solana marketplace must have a few well-known NFT items displayed on the platform. This is very possible since a particular NFT cannot be listed on more than one marketplace.
This doesn’t mean that the marketplace cannot display unpopular NFT items. In fact, several Solana-based NFTs of which some have great potential are being minted on a daily basis.
Although, having a famous NFT project amidst listed collections is proof that such a marketplace is recognized and has gained some ground in the crypto firm.
- Royalties/Fees
Another factor to consider when choosing the best Solana NFT marketplaces is royalties and fees. A good marketplace would not only offer its NFT creators entitlement to royalties but would also charge a reasonable amount of fees for transactions.
Read Also: An A-Z Guide to the “Ethereum Killer” Called Avalanche
- Community support
NFTs are generally built around strong communities. Hence, the popularity of a Solana NFT marketplace is affected either positively or negatively by the level of community engagement. Ideally, you want a friendly Discord or Telegram community where you can find answers to any challenges you encounter while using the platform. A strong community also makes it relatively easier to find collection owners and seal deals faster.
The more complaints and less engagement a marketplace receives, the less potential it has to rank best. However, the more customers engage a platform, the more ground it gained and the more authority it commands, which would serve as a good sign that the marketplace is a good one.
- Platform security
No one wants to lose their valuable NFT items to hackers. A Solana NFT marketplace that suffers security breaches too often would no doubt lose a lot of customers.
To rank a marketplace as one of the best, the platform needs to be resistant to security attacks although not completely, (as completely is nearly impossible) but to a large extent.
Users no doubt want their assets to be very safe, which is why the security of a marketplace is one of the major factors that determine how good the platform is.
In conclusion, for now, if you wish to mint or trade NFTs, you can explore any of the above marketplaces. As time goes on, the newly evolved marketplaces will be added.
[…] Read Also: Top 12 Solana NFT Marketplaces […]