Making A Good Investment In NFT: Your Step By Step Guide

Table of Contents

Introduction

A lot more people are developing this craze of doing Investments in NFTs. We all have heard or read about NFTs in some or the other way. But, do you know even you can buy an NFT and then sell an NFT to make money out of it? Well, this is true in today’s time. After reading this article you will learn about what NFT actually means and how to buy and sell an NFT.

NFT or non-fungible tokens have been a hot topic for investors in this virtual space. Newbies are ushering into this new arena to gain some profit. Much art has been sold worth a million dollars, from videos to avatars. Recently, an artist named “Beeple” sold his art “Everyday: The First 5000 days” for $69,346,250. But what is NFT? Why is there a craze for these tokens in the minds of artists and entrepreneurs? Is it worth investing in nft or it’s a bubble? Let us dive more deeply into this.

What Does NFT Mean?

The term non-fungible means that a particular item cannot be replicated or replaced similar item. It has unique ownership. NFTs or Non Fungible tokens are digital assets like gifs, music, videos, tickets to an event, legal documents. In the year 2014, the first-ever NFT was minted in the world. 

According to Non-fungible.com, in the first quarter of 2021, NFT sales spiked up to $2 billion. The total number of active wallets began in the double digits and surpassed 100 on November 24, 2017. It peaked at 34,985 active wallets in a week in 2017 but shortly dropped and settled in the 2,000 to 4,000 level. Thus, it gradually increased over time. For the first time since 2017, the weekly active wallets surpassed 10,000 in February 2021. In 2021, a massive volume of NFT was recorded on October 28, 2021.

Image showing the volume of Investments in nft trade
Source : https://www.nft-stats.com/

Hiro Ando, an enthusiast artist, has recently announced a digital collection of Samurai Cats, and it’s gaining immense popularity from his fans. Samurai Cats is set to launch soon, and there are 4747 Samurai Cats NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain.

On the Superhero “Stan Lee’s” 99th birth anniversary, the Marvel team has decided to launch an NFT based on the Indian protagonist character “Chakra: The Invincible.” 

But, the question arises of why people will be willing to pay money or, in NFT terms, crypto for art that can be simply obtained online via search engines occurs. To better comprehend this, let us first look at how NFT works. 

How Does NFT Work?

NFTs exist on a blockchain, which is a kind of distributed ledger that works on blockchain technology. Blockchain technology is usually a ledger that also shows 100% transparency of the transactions in cryptocurrencies. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey sold his first-ever tweet as an NFT on March 22, 2021. This 15-year-old tweet merely stated, “just putting up my twttr,” and sold his tweet for $2.9 million. Nft coins can also be minted, brought, or sold on various digital platforms. Thus, the maker often has two options: acquiring the NFT from other artists or producing his work and selling it to make money. 

There is a concept called “Digital scarcity” in the virtual world. We often try to download JPG or PNG formatted images from search engines free of cost. There is no such charge implied on us. But that’s not the case in NFTs. Let’s have a scenario for this; just imagine you own a brand new Taylor Swift poster and decide to sell it as NFT. Now that this poster is a rare item, many will replicate it. But as it’s said, “The more the fakes, the higher will be the value of the original items.” There will still be a significant audience eager to own the original copy of that poster. People will also be interested in buying authentic concert tickets rather than fake ones. Again, just to remember, NFTs are unique and hold single ownership at a time. Thus, it becomes more viable to do investment in NFTs.

Examples Of NFT

Every year, there were NFT sales recorded on an average of 16,742,258 dollars.

Some examples of NFTs are as follows:

  • Images
  • Audio
  • Videos
  • Gifs
  • Avatars 
  • Skins

Difference Between NFT And Cryptocurrency?

Although cryptocurrencies and NFT are related, there is a distinct difference between them. For instance, in the Crypto world, Dogecoin will be the same as Ethereum, but that’s not the case in NFT. One tweet of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey will not equal One NBA Top shot clip. Although they both are NFT, they hold solitary characteristics.

Here is a simple distinguishing table explaining their distinct characteristics.

Cryptocurrency

NFT

One can swap one currency for another.NFT cannot be transferred for another NFT.
Digital currency does not hold a specific identity.They carry unique ownership.

Cryptocurrencies are fungible assets.

E.g., Dogecoin, Ethereum

NFT is a non-fungible token.

E.g., MP3 audio, Avatar, JPG…

Cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on the initial launch and when the ownership is transferred to another.NFTs operate on established intelligent contracts.
Here, the ownership stays with you itself.In NFTs, the copyrights stay with you even if the owner is someone else.
Usually, you have to pay a certain percentage of your transaction amount to the exchange. Gas and network fees are required to pay to the creator of the NFT at the time of sale.
Cryptocurrencies operate on ERC20 and create fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain.Whereas NFTs work on ERC721 standard and create non-fungible tokens.

Most Popular NFT Platforms

A large number of people are choosing investments in NFTs rather than other asset class options. Even you can do investments in NFts. Also, there are many NFT sites to choose from once you’ve set up and funded your wallet. The following are the largest NFT marketplaces at the moment:

OpenSea: This peer-to-peer marketplace claims to sell “rare digital objects and treasures.” To get started, simply create an account and browse the NFT collections. You may also sort pieces by how much they sold to find new artists. OpenSea had a total volume of $13.18 billion.

Rarible: Rarible is a liberal, open marketplace that lets artists and producers issue and sells NFTs, similar to OpenSea. The platform’s RARI tokens allow users to vote on features such as fees and community regulations.

Foundation: To upload their work here, artists must get “upvotes” or an invitation from other creators. The exclusivity of the group and the cost of membership.

How To Buy And Do Investment In NFT?

If you want to start your NFT collection, you need to consider some points. Basically, if you’ve ever purchased assets online, you’re already aware of the terms “packs” and “drops.” Packs and NFT art drops are frequent in the NFT market. It’s also an effective method of supplying rare and valued digital arts to a diverse group of purchasers. Therefore, investment in NFTs are a great option.

As a result, many platforms may require you to sign up ahead of time, set reminders, or complete specific actions to be able to stake on your favorite NFT. Making a purchase is simple once you’ve decided on a collection or item. It’s the same as if you were making any other e-commerce purchase online. Simply click the appropriate buttons (Buy, Checkout, Pay Now) and wait for your cryptocurrency or currency transaction to complete.

Before actually operating in NFT, you need to be assured that you have enough cryptocurrencies or Ethereum in your digital wallet. These are the following steps for buying NFT through the OpenSea platform.

  1. Visit the “OpenSea” website and link your Ethereum Based wallet.
  2. Browse through different items and place bids using the make offer button.
  3. You can also buy an NFT  instantly by clicking the buy now button if you feel the price is correct.

How To Sell An NFT Art?

Another option available is either minting the NFT or selling whatever you brought in the past. Here is how you can do it.

  1. Once you have created your Opensea account and your wallet, you can upload any digital art.
    Digital art can be images, thumbnails, posters, avatars, music videos, etc.
  2. Thus, after choosing your selected item, you can either set a price for that NFT or have another option of bidding it. The buyers will try to bid on that asset and set a price on it. 
An Image showing the process for how to sell an NFT
Source : Screenshot by IIFPIA Editor

What Is The Future Of Investment In NFT?

There are no guarantees that NFT artworks or platforms will stand the test of time, as with any new technology or sector. And we don’t want to make any unjustified assumptions that can lead you, our readers. This concept is precisely similar to the dot-com bubble of the early internet phase. We were all a bit scared to enter into this phase, but eventually, we adapted to the change as the world accepted this new phase in the coming years. 

NFTs are unsafe since their future is unknown, and we don’t yet have enough data to evaluate their performance. Investing in NFTs, in other words, is essentially a personal decision if you have some extra cash, especially if the artwork has sentimental value for you. However, the value of an NFT is solely determined by what someone else is prepared to pay for it. As a result, rather than fundamental, technical, or economic indicators, which traditionally impact stock prices and, at the very least, constitute the basis for investor demand, demand will drive the price.

Having the correct insights and understanding of NFT, on the other hand, is an excellent place to start. You’ll find all the critical updates, instructions, lessons, and resources here, whether you’re an artist, enthusiast, vendor, buyer, investor, or simply someone interested in this new trend. For the time being, NFT appears to be a revolutionary entity that will bring together the creative and popular worlds with financial technology and blockchain infrastructure.

How Do You Create Digital Artworks?

When you create an NFT artwork and make it available on any of its platforms, it becomes an NFT art. As a result, generating NFT crypto art is no different than creating traditional artwork or digital creations.

Thus, when you register on the relevant platforms and upload your content in the prescribed method and format, it automatically becomes NFT art. Essentially, your first file can be in any standard format. It may be a JPG or PNG image, an audio file, a GIF, or even an NFT rendering of a 3D printing object. So when you create an NFT, others can buy an NFT from you. 

Can You Earn Money From Investment In NFT Art?

The non-fungible tokens function doesn’t contrast a rookie and an accomplished artist. For creating this, you don’t need to be a pro at Coding or Graphic designing. Basic knowledge in those fields is more than enough to produce any NFT. Similarly, one can earn through NFTs by either listing their art on the popular NFT platforms or rendering services to other people in the metaverse world. In other words, one can make digital art for others on platforms like Fiverr and Upwork and then sell it on OpenSea or any other medium. 

Both the seller and buyer earn from this transaction sale. Usually, the royalty charge is 5-10%. No creator will try to charge 100% royalty because no buyer will buy our NFTs then. Assume you’ve made a digital artwork on OpenSea. A lover of your work purchases it for, say, 9 ETH. So you’ve earned 9 ETH (Ether). You have also incorporated into the NFT the provision that you will receive 10% of the revenues from any sale. Presumably, your reputation has expanded, and as a result, the worth of your job has increased. Assume your buyer sells it for 300ETH. You will get 30 ETH from this sale since you have previously specified a 10% royalty into the NFT. Again, after some time, the new buyer will try to resell your art piece, and now you will gain more royalty on this, and eventually, you’ll benefit.

Can Investment In NFT Impact The Overall System?

Investment in NFTs is getting popular day by day. People are rushing into this space to buy an NFt and earn more. But, do you know even NFTs have some impact on the systems? Well, there is a lot of risks involved in NFT transactions. NFT transactions are often of huge value. And while exchanging, there is a risk of fraud that might occur. There are many hackers who will snatch money through your transaction. Therefore, it is necessary that NFT platforms minimize the risk involved in KYC and AML procedures. Ethereum, one of the NFT blockchains works on the Proof of Work mechanism. You can buy an NFT using either Bitcoin, Ethereum, or any other cryptocurrency. This method uses a lot of energy for mining. Other blockchains use the Proof Of Stake mechanism, where less energy is used. NFT Blockchains like Flow, Polygon, and Solana already use this technology.

Conclusion:

If you are interested in cryptocurrencies and looking for a great investment, then non-fungible tokens are a great way to go. NFTs are like Alpacas or Cards in the digital world. They are unique, and you can own them and trade them. In order to get the most out of your investment, you need to understand how to buy an NFTs, store them, and sell these NFTs. If you are an artist, a graphic designer, or a coder, this might turn out to be an excellent opportunity for you all. Some NFTs can turn out to be fruitful, while some will provide less value for your NFT. Again, this needs more insight and patience to predict its future. Research is of utmost importance since it is a new route that’s turning out to be.