NFT Bootcamp Extra: Art Exchange Comparison

 

There are hundreds of options for selecting a marketplace for your NFT.  This research report looks at a group of well-known marketplaces, and is more of a spot-check comparison rather than a definitive study, as marketplaces form daily and the industry evolves at equal speed;   what is true today may not be true tomorrow.  Still, this report highlights what we feel are the most critical ongoing themes for NFT creators and gives a quick overview of the art marketplace, the most valuable at the time of this study. This was last updated on 2/28/2022.

First, we divided these market leaders into three categories: A. Open to all creators,  B. Closed, or curated platforms, and C. Other types.

Next, we evaluated them along 14 different data points, using 20 plus sources.

Finally, we vetted our findings with  25 NFT-experienced members in our focus group.

Here are the top criteria we looked at:

* Size.  Size may determthe ine viability of the marketplace, especially when considering volumes transacted, but also could mean your project gets “lost” in its sector, while a more specialized marketplace may be a better fit and also provide your initial community for marketing your launch. Keep in mind that since the NFT is typically stored on the marketplace server, not the blockchain, smaller marketplaces that later disappear put both the creator and buyers time and investment at risk.

* Cost. Gas fees are related to the blockchain and currency used both to mint and transact, so ETH gas fees to mint are often prohibitive for minting 10,000 at a time. Eth-based marketplaces, such as Opensea, use lazy minting  – only minting when the sale is made – combined with “buyer pays the fee”. However,  some creators have opted to mint on one of many faster,lower cost networks such as Solana, or build new projects on even newer networks such as Avalanche  and Definity.  While being on a different network may isolate creators from Eth-based buyers, multiple cross-chain projects are in the works and TBA.

* The background and target market of a platform. This is important to determine “if it’s a fit” for  both building your community, so go to Twitter and see what kinds of conversations are there, and also to assess if this marketplace is likely to survive an increasingly fractionalized ecosystem of marketplaces.

* Credit and debit card acceptance. This can be important if you want to sell to more conventional buyers; one factor that prevents some people from buying an NFT is that they don’t have a wallet, or the right one.

*Size and stability. Our NFT experts who weighed in on this topic include those who have minted on platforms from  WAX to ArtBlock. A few contend Opensea is the defacto Amazon, due to its team that is constantly iterating to stay ahead of risk management issues, such as the reliability of hosting the digital art itself on an off-chain server, created by a company that may or may not exist in a year, or five years. Part of the decision regarding hosting your newly minted NFT is trust.

But….others prefer faster, cheaper protocols.

Still others contend that the message and community for the project is ultimately more important than the marketplace anyway, and that at the end of the day, any dispute can be resolved by research into blockchain transactional history and that  splitting hairs over this is beside the point.

Keep in mind that by the time we publish this, the marketplace will have changed. NFTEvening also keeps up a review of marketplaces here.  So if you are shopping for a marketplace take a look at their list as well. 

Member reviews of both tools and marketplaces

Before you review the report below,  please note that as mentioned, we subject is  to a stress test by more experienced members, asking them to share their likes and issues in a Zoom Call.

A quick summary of their discussion: Polygon, while providing a lighter cost, while still connected the Ethereum blockchain, is way too slow.

Users expressed a preference for using any one of the templated platforms such as NiftyMint that allow the generation of thousands of copies with small variables, and one click uploads to OpenSea.  If your project is going to generate thousands of iterations at all. Another option is creating smaller collections, say 100, manually created by the artist.

The groups include one expert building a marketplace on Solana, and another  who considers that Opensea as the safest choice as it is already the Amazon in the space, constantly iterating, meeting challenges and building trust.

The 30 minute video is well-worth it for gaining a perspective on all the issues experienced creators are facing.

A. Open marketplaces (anyone can upload an NFT project)

All the open marketplaces allow NFT creation. Of those fully articulated at the time of writing (03/10/2022) only Mintable accepts debit and credit cards today; Coinbase also does but has a huge waitlist for its new market, and  XRP, now in Beta, also will accept debit and credit card. Here is more on each one:

1. Axie Marketplace 

• Type: Open
• Background: Axie Infinity is a great virtual world filled with so-called Axies. They are fierce creatures who adore building and battling for treasures. You can create and trade your Axies as many times as you wish. It is a kind of an online video game based on NFTs. The Axie Infinity Marketplace does not offer anything other than characters and items of the Axie Infinity ecosystem. Founded by the Vietnam-based startup Sky Mavis, Axie Infinity is one of the most popular Ethereum-based NFT projects with more than 350,000 daily active users.
• Network / blockchain: ETH blockchain
• Target market: online video game  lovers.
• Support: Online
• Token support: ERC-20
• Supported currencies: ETH
• Wallets support:   MetaMask and Ronin and more
• What coin pays the transaction fees? Axies  $AXS
• Fees: 4.25 percent fee on trades, Buyers pay gas fees. 
• Track record of stability:  Axies are sold for anywhere from $200 to 300 ETH today.  More than 90,000 ETH has been traded on the Axie Infinity in-house marketplace! In May 2021, Sky Mavis raised $7.5 million for the platform with support from investors like Mark Cuban. Data shows that Axie Infinity was the highest-earning protocol than Bitcoin and Ethereum in July 2021.
• Any interesting features?  While playing Axie Infinity, each individual can earn tokens traded on Binance. Players are also allowed to trade all assets available in the game as NFTs. The number of daily active players exceeds 2.8 million users. The most expensive Axie has recently been sold for over $820,000.
• Size: Last 30 days volume $111.38M.
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? N0

PROS

• Hands on state of play to earn with Aixe system.
• Axie Infinity is available on desktop and mobile devices.
• Battle, collect, raise, and build with an expansive universe.
• Arguably one of the most successful NFT-based video game till date.
• Potential to make a legitimate amount of crypto.

CONS

• Game-based
• Quite expensive for new players.
• Have to buy 3 Axies to play game.
• Ethereum and Axie Infinity are only accepted payment method.
• Commission on sales.

2. Decentraland

        • Type:  Open

• Background: The first fully decentralized world where users can create, experience, and monetize content and applications. Decentraland is controlled via the DAO, which owns the most important smart contracts and assets of Decentraland. The Metaverse Group, an NFT-based metaverse real estate company, invested a whopping USD 2.43 million to purchase a plot of digital land from Decentraland. It is a figure that now stands as the largest metaverse land acquisition to date. During 2021’s trading rush, its value grew by a whopping 6000%, a phenomenon that many investors are claiming is just getting started.
• Target market:  People who look for a  digital world created with the sole purpose of digitally connecting individuals from all over the world, that is blurring the line between virtual and physical by integrating NFTs.
• Support: Online
• Network / blockchain: Ethereum 
• Token support:  ERC-721 token
• Supported currencies: MANA, ETH.
• Wallets support:   Metamask
• What coin pays the transaction fees? MANA
• Fees: 2.5% transaction fee for sales of LAND, Estates, Names, and wearables, part of which is transferred to the DAO. To publish a wearable, the fee is a flat rate of $500 value (paid in MANA) per item in your collection.  Yes, that is correct, it is expensive, see their explanation here. 
• Track record of stability: So far it is stable and backed by big investment
• Any interesting features? It enforces a free market and transparent economy.  It motivates people  to become investors who, in the eyes of the Dencentraland, are also the owners of its digital districts.
  It is also attracting large institutional investors. At the beginning of this year, Grayscale Investment LLC launched Decentraland Trust, a move that acted as a catalyst for other large-scale corporations to take notice of this new child of blockchain.
• Size: all time volume $129.63M.
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Constantly evolving gameplay.
• Free market structure.

CONS

• Digital wallet needed to reap all benefits.
• High competition.

3. OpenSea 

• Type: Open
• Background: First marketplace, launched in 2017, and largest one. Categories, games, collectibles, wide range of rapidly expanding items. $200 million dollars immediate on release, with 11 million assets  published, and a volume of $5 billion in 2021. Monthly volume in June 2022 had dropped to $785 million. OpenSea is a popular option among NFT enthusiasts and one of the best NFT art and games marketplaces at the moment. 
• Network/blockchain: Ethereum, Polygon, Tezos (coming soon)
• Target market: Anyone
• Support:  Online, no live training
• Token support: ERC-1155, ERC-721
• Supported Currencies: ETH is default, WETH, DAI, USDC, MEME accepts 200 currencies
• Wallets support: Metamask, WalletConnect, Coinbase, Ethereum, and more, but not Binance.us
• What coin pays the transaction fees? ETH
• Fees: An OpenSea buyer pays a gas fee which can be quite high.  It usually depends on network demand, time of day, and many other factors, and sometimes can even exceed the price of the traded NFT. A buyer can expect to pay$70 to $100 but it could be higher.  There is also a wallet connect fee paid one time when an NFT is first posted of $50 to $100, but only paid once per wallet.  Fees Lazy minting fee to the seller is charged at  2.5% marketplace for the first sale of the NFT on the platform. Other sales on Opensea do not charge the original seller.
• Track record of stability: one of the most stable platforms. NFT Marketplace with Highest Trade Volume.
• Any interesting features? Opensea has both fixed and time-baed auctions – the latter is very popular with active traders. The diversity of offers surpasses many other trading platforms. Thousands of different NFTs are presented here. Thus, you can trade and auction music videos, paintings, web domains, real estate, memes, etc. Moreover, the platform has multiple auction features. It is fully integrated into the crypto infrastructure. OpenSea has been especially famous because of its flexibility and fees.   Moreover, with some tech know-how Polygon can be used to Mint, then upload to Opensea and virtually no gas fees on minting, although this option only has fixed-price sales.  Finally, some other platforms such as Rarible are even set up so that when NFTs are minted on their sites, the NFTs can be automatically listed on OpenSea’s marketplace. Solsea is now also available from the “explore” drop down. The reverse, however, is not true. 
• Size: all-time one high one month volume +$1 billion. 
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Their commissions are competitive.
• There are large varieties available for NFT collectibles.
• They are leading the industry & secure.

CONS

• A major cons is their acceptance of payments in cryptocurrency & gas fees to mint
• One needs to have a crypto wallet to trade on the platform.

 

4. Solsea

• Type: open
• Background: The Opensea of the Solana blockchain, Solsea takes of Solana’s faster transaction time and offers all categories of NFTs. Slightly smaller volume than Solonart, but launched in August 2021, after Solonart did, and is fully open to all categories.
• Target market: Any category.
• Network/ Blockchain(s): Solana.
• Support:  Online, No online training
• Token support: Sol
• Supported currencies: Sol
• Wallets support: Phantom
• What coin pays the transaction fees? Sol
• Fees: There is a 2% marketplace fee that occurs on every successful NFT sale. Transactions fees paid by the buyer are very low. 
• Track record of stability: The platform has had a couple of highly publicized disruptions, while relatively new.  
• Any interesting features?  Solana’s TPS rivals that of Visa and Mastercard, making it an industry leader in terms of speed and global scalability. They also have 9 “click to use” use licenses to attach to an NFt to give additional usage rights that can make NFTS more valuable. Calendar feature helps buyers track NFT drops. 
• Size: 
  • Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No.

PROS

• Largest open marketplace on Solana
• Transaction fees are lower than OpenSea
• Calendar of NFT drops
• 9 use licenses to attach to an NFT

CONS

• Fixed pricing, without timed auctions
• Has had some service disruptions, in its first six months.

5. Mintable

• Type: open
• Background: 2018, based in Singapore, “considered a runner up” by Blockchain Council. Backed by Billionaire Mark Cuban as an alternative to Opensea. Art, music, videos, e-books, and more.
• Target market: “Metaverse is a bias” (Blockchain council)
• Network/ Blockchain(s): Ethereum, Zilliqa
• Support:  Online, No online training
• Token support: ERC-721
• Supported currencies: ETH
• Wallets support Metamask, Ethereum.
• What coin pays the transaction fees? Ethereum (ETH)
• Fees: Allows lazy minting (no upfront fee, charged when coins are minted), plus 2.5% on normal items, 5% on gasless items, 10% on a printable series.  A printable series is a way to create any amount of NFTs that are for sale – but are not minted until purchased. Meaning you can make a series of 500 NFTs and if only 2 are purchased – only 2 exist.
  Read more here, and on their app here.
• Track record of stability: The platform stands out as an excellent entry platform into the NFT space.
• Any interesting features?  Allows use of debit and credit cards. 50 free listings in the first go. They offer gas-free minting to help artists get their products to market more easily.
• Size: Mintable currently has 300,000 + users, with about six to 10 million unique visitors to the site in a month, according to company data. In July 2021, Mintable closed a US$13 million series-A funding round with Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming and NFT company Animoca Brands and blockchain payments company Ripple Labs among the investors.
  • Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? Yes

PROS

• It’s free & extremely easy to use.
• Fast in creating, buying & selling NFTs.
• Listing is free.
• User friendly and anyone can use without much expertise.

CONS

• Transaction charges are high in comparison to other NFT platforms like Rarible.
• Less crypto wallet integrations

6. MagicEden

• Type: Open 
• Background: Founded 2021.  Solana is popular in real-world adoption. Magic Eden is the number one Solana NFT Marketplace where you are able to create, sell and buy NFT’s. 
• Network/blockchain: Solan
• Target market: Home to the next generation of digital creators. The users are collectors, favoring lower-cost NFTs and higher velocity trading.
• Support: Online
• Token support: Solana
• Supported currencies: SOL
• Wallets support Solana compatible wallets, including Sollet, Solflare, Solong and Phantom in addition to Ledger. 
• What coin pays the transaction fees? SOL
• Fees: They have a listing fee of 0%, rather they take 2% on every transaction at the time of sale, not minting.
• Track record of stability: Not much info apart from MagicEden being the number one Solana NFT Marketplace. Some reports of instability. 
• Any interesting features? Abundance of low-cost NFT items and low gas fees. 
• Size: 350K unique visitors a day. Those users are also very active traders. Namely, the NFT marketplace registered around 2 million transactions in the past 30 days.(2021)
• Do they allow NFT creation? Yes, with Magic Eden Launchpad
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Good website design, easy to use.
• The Launchpad feature they offer is very attractive and easy to use for designers or people who want to launch an NFT collection with no prior experience.
• The launchpad feature gives creators all of the power the Magic Eden name holds to help launch and market their collection.

CONS

• Unfortunately ME has lots of projects that are just rip-offs of popular projects like BAYC.
• Since it is an open platform for anyone to create on, there is also a lot of garbage and plagiaristic content without a lot of moderation/curation.

7. Rarible

• Type: Open
• Background: Launched in 2020, Rarible is a community-owned platform that facilitates NFT minting and sales. It focuses on collectibles and art. Rarible features a simple minting process that lets people create NFTs without coding knowledge. Sellers can even create more than one NFT for a single image. If it’s a really hot commodity, they will be able to sell the image more than once and maximize their earnings.
• Network/blockchain: Ethereum 
• Target market: Creators and collectors of rare digital commodities who want blockchain security.
• Support: Option of live online training.
• Token support: ERC-1155, ERC-721 
• Supported currencies: ETH, native RARI token, WETH, DAI, ATRI
• Wallet Support: MetaMask, Fortmatic, WalletConnect, Coinbase Wallet, MyEtherWallet, Torus
• What coin pays the transaction fees?  ETH
• Fees: Gas fees or Lazy Minting (Buyer pays, but still in ETH at the time of purchase).
  If standard, Seller: 2,5% ; Buyer: 2,5% The marketplace has free registration. For the placement of every new NFT or a new collection, a customer is charged the Ethereum network fee ranging from $30 to $100.
• Track record of stability: Compared to more stable numbers from OpenSea, transactions on the Rarible platform are a bit turbulent and perhaps less ideal for true NFT enthusiasts. With declining sales and declining users, it seems that Rarible may  take less advantage of the upcoming NFT boom, especially since competition is so fierce and new markets are emerging.
• Any interesting features?  Creators can program royalties to the Rarible platform, ensuring that they get a cut if their work gets sold off by the buyer at a future date.One of its key advantages is that Rarible allows its customers to receive remuneration every time their works are resold. Lazy minting allows no cost creation, buyers pays. Also, you can automatically add your NFT minted on Rarible to the Opensea marketplace. Update: Rarible now integrates with to upload Solana-based NFTs.
• Size: Rarible has one of the highest trading volumes among all NFT marketplaces at the moment.  All time volume $162.98M.
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Being an artist, one can choose up to 50% of future royalties.
• It’s non-custodial marketplace.
• Extremely easy for creating and selling NFTs.
• To shape governance of the platform, native tokens are used.

CONS

• Higher commission in the competitive landscape.
• Mobile app is not available yet.

8. XRP Platform 

• Type:  Open
• Background:  Ripple was first implemented in 2004 by Ryan Fugger and later fully launched as a decentralized protocol in 2012, with the main goal of ensuring “secure, instant and almost free global money operations of any size without any chargebacks”.
  RippleX – the development division of Ripple Labs – has launched the highly anticipated NFT-Devnet platform. With its help, developers should be able to create NFTs on the Ripple blockchain XRP Ledger (XRPL).
• Network/blockchain: The Ripple protocol (RTXP) 
• Target market:  Creators and brands.
• Support: Online
• Token support:  XLS-20 standard
• Supported currencies: All currencies other than XRP can be represented in the XRP Ledger as issued currencies. The intended model for issued currency usage is with gateways, trusted financial institutions that custody outside-world assets and allow them to be used in the XRP Ledger for cross-currency payments and trading in the decentralized exchange. 
• Wallets support:  XRPL wallet via GateHub, Metamask, Crypto wallet and more 
• What coin pays the transaction fees? XRP
• Fees: The current minimum transaction cost required by the network for a standard transaction is 0.00001 XRP (10 drops). It sometimes increases due to a higher than usual load.
• Track record of stability: It is still in Beta.
• Any interesting features? Ripple has also launched the XRPL Grants program. The company plans to use this program to support its community of independent developers. The funds from the program will be used to fund such projects. In the first phase of this initiative, the company has distributed more than $2 million among 20 grantees. Active Twitter community also support emerging NFT projects.  Update: XRP had a rough launch of its NFT marketplace, but has a very active Twitter group helpful for new launches, so check there for updates. 
• Size: XRP’s All-Time Volume: $4.39B / One Year Volume $634M
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? Yes

PROS

• Inexpensive to use their network
• Powerful and fast network

CONS

• NFTs are not the core of their expertise, they are still new with the NFT market.

9. Coinbase NFT

• Type:  Open, but you have to join the Coinbase NFT waitlist to get early access to the marketplace. There’s over 3 million users on the waitlist. Only open to U.S residents for now. 
• Background: On October 12th, 2021, Coinbase announced Coinbase NFT, a peer-to-peer marketplace that will let users mint, purchase, display, and find new NFTs. According to Coinbase, just as the platform “helped millions of people access Bitcoin for the first time in an easy and trusted way – we want to do the same for NFTs.” Coinbase says that it plans to launch the new marketplace by the end of 2021.
• Network/blockchain: Ethereum 
• Target market: Creator-first approach and dedication to user-friendliness. 
• Support: Online
• Token support: ETH
• Supported currencies: ETH, USD and more
• Wallets support MetaMask, Ethereum and more. 
• What coin pays the transaction fees? ETH,  USD
• Fees: Information not yet available 
• Track record of stability: one of the most stable platforms.  It is also NFT marketplace with the highest trade volume.
• Any interesting features? “We will make it effortless for artists to maintain creative control through decentralized contracts and metadata transparency…We’ll provide the best user experience, but we’ll never lock creators in.” Coinbase also wants to put creators first and have a system where creating NFTs just takes a few clicks.
• Size: Not yet live
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? Yes

10. MakersPlace

 

• Type: Open
• Background: Launched in 2018, MakersPlace facilitates the sale of authentic, original digital artwork, ensuring rarity and ownership for both creators and collectors. MakersPlace emphasizes accessibility and has attracted a large mainstream audience as the first NFT marketplace to accept both cryptocurrency (ETH) and non-cryptocurrency (USD) payments, which it facilitates through crypto wallet and credit card transactions.
  MakersPlace helped catapultFTs onto the global stage, with the historic sale of Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days for $69.3 million in partnership with Christie’s auction house in March 2021 – the record price for any digital artwork. 
• Network / blockchain: Ethereum
• Target market: Anybody who wants to get involved with NFTs, but doesn’t yet know how to, it’s a user-friendly platform. 
• Support: Online
• Token support: ECR-20
• Supported currencies: ETH, USD. 
• Wallets support: Any Ethereum WEB3 wallet (MetaMask, Trust Wallet, etc)
• What coin pays the transaction fees? ETH, USD
• Fees: 15% fee on primary sales and 2.5% on secondary sales  
• Track record of stability:  Sony Music is among the companies backing NFT marketplace MakersPlace in its $30m Series A funding round.
• Any interesting features?  Musicians can either discover or be matched with digital artists on the platform to collaborate on audiovisual experiences. The resulting NFTs can be minted and offered securely and authentically to their growing community of collectors. 
• How do you make money on this platform? Creating and selling NFTs.
• ​​Do they allow NFT creation? Yes
• Size: Total sale volume $31.43 Million+
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? Yes, you can also pay with paypal, which is also a unique feature.
  https://makersplace.com/

11. NFT showroom 

• Type: Open
• Background: Active since 2020, NFT Showroom is a digital art marketplace built on Hive, a fast and free blockchain that makes creating and collecting rare digital art simple and accessible.
• Network / blockchain: Hive blockchain
• Target market: Artists and collectors.
• Support: Online
• Token support: Hive
• Supported currencies:  $HIVE
• Wallets support:   Hive wallet
• What coin pays the transaction fees? SWAP.HIVE
• Fees: NFT creation costs 5 SWAP.HIVE + 1 SWAP.HIVE per edition. Upon completion of the initial sale NFT Showroom collects a 10% commission. Upon completion of secondary market sales NFT Showroom collects a 10% commission and pays all of it to the original artist.
• Track record of stability:  Hive itself is a stable and secure chain. However, not much information about NFT showroom. 
• Any interesting features?  NFT Showroom permits all artists to apply for registration to their digital arts and also enable them to issue rare tokens, which is “proof to art” to get trade-in the latest marketplace. Hive transactions are free. 
• How do you make money on this platform? On NFT Showroom, artists can create limited edition tokenized art that can be sold on the market. Collectors can buy, sell and trade limited edition art. NFT Showroom also offers artists the option to make the art available for commercial uses, which adds additional security for both the artist and collector.
• ​​Do they allow NFT creation? Yes
• Size: It’s hard to evaluate their size, as they use the HIVE token (not their own). 
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No
• https://nftshowroom.com/
  

B. Closed and curated platforms

Of these platforms,  only SuperRare allows creation without stipulation; Foundation also allows minting with one already sold and approval.  Only  NiftyGateway accepts debit and credit cards.

 

1. Nifty Gateway

• Type: Exclusive, Closed and curated, this is a marketplace only. Register and apply to list with your concept and an intro video, wait for approval: ​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57lxwODta2Y
• Background: 2018 by Duncan and Griffin Cock Foster. A curated marketplace with only high-quality art. As a result, a central authority oversees the minting and issuing of NFTs, with the stated mission to   “make the Nifties more accessible to everyone.” 
• Network/blockchain: Ethereum 
• Target market: Individuals building a range of premium, limited-edition NFTs.
• Support: Live online training
• Token support: ERC-721 
• Supported currencies: Credit card primarily, with prepaid ETH for some transactions.
• Wallet Support: Gemini Wallet, Fiat, Metamask and Ethereum
• What coin pays the transaction fees?  USD
• Fees: 15% marketplace fee. It consists of two parts: Seller: 5% Service Fee + 0,30 USD + 10% Artist Fee. One downside of Nifty Gateway is that fees are not necessarily fully transparent. Users have complained that ‘gas fees’ can quickly rack up.
• Track record of stability:  This is one of the biggest issues faced by Nifty Gateway. In March 2021, hackers were able to crack multiple accounts and both steal the NFTs in them and buy new ones with users’ funds. While the cash was recovered, the NFTs were sold on and were unable to be recovered. Nifty Gateway claims the affected users had not fully set up two-factor authorization and that new security measures have been implemented since the hack – but the reputational damage was done.
• Any interesting features? Nifty Gateway has cultivated a curated, “walled garden” service, with bars to cross for anyone wishing to sell on the platform.
• Size: Not much info. The headline is, that Nifty Gateway has had at least $367,447,501 in sales, with over $133,036,894 in a single month (March, 2021).
• Do they allow NFT creation?  If you already own an NFT, you can upload it to your Nifty Gateway Omnibus Wallet using MetaMask. Nifty Gateway currently only accepts NFT deposits using this method. If you’re looking to become a Nifty creator and sell your own artwork, you can apply via the website. You’ll need to submit an 8-part questionnaire and complete an interview.
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? Yes.

PROS

• Extremely exclusive artists on the platform
• Purchase NFTs with a credit card
• Easy to use platform for crypto beginners

CONS

• No Wallet with this NFT marketplace
• Only accept popular artists

2. Solonart

• Type:  Exclusive/ curated. Solanart is a curated platform that offers a limited selection of NFT art. Creators must apply for listing their collections on Solanart by filling out this form and waiting for approval. 
• Background: Founded by Anatoly Yakovenko and Greg Fitzgerald in 2018, Solana allows faster transactions and higher scalability compared to the Ethereum network. Instead of proof of work or proof of stake, Solana uses a new technology called proof of history consensus. This technology brings advantages with respect to blockchain speed and capacity. 
• Network / blockchain: Solona Network
• Target market: Anyone
• Support: Online
• Token support: Solana
• Supported currencies: Sol 
• Wallets support:   Sollet wallet, the Sollet Chrome extension, and Phantom, among others
• What coin pays the transaction fees? SOL
• Fees:  3% marketplace fee on the selling price of every transaction.  A creator’s fee, which is chosen by the creators and therefore varies depending on the collection, is also taken on the selling price and fully perceived by the creators.  Please note that there is a 0.02% ad fee to avoid excessive ads (0.02% of the ad price). 
• Track record of stability:  It is still in beta and has had some stability issues.
• Any interesting features? The $1.50 average minting cost makes the Solana an ideal choice for all kinds of NFTs. Already over 5.7M NFTs have been created on the Solana blockchain, and the market cap of Solana NFTs is $970M. 
• Size:  Solanart is the 11th-largest NFT marketplace in the whole blockchain ecosystem. The number of unique wallet addresses in the same time frame is over 68K. The average price of an NFT traded on the marketplace is $312.33. The traded volume in the past 30 days is $16.49M (2022)
• Do they allow NFT creation? No
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• The price history feature for NFT collections is a good tool to look at how well the overall collection has performed over its lifetime.
• I haven’t seen any other platforms offer this feature for collections as a whole.

CONS

• Smaller selection of NFTs compared to other marketplaces.
• There are quite a few NFT collections on Solanart that are not recognized across other Solana platforms, meaning you can’t sell them anywhere except Solanart.

3. SuperRare

• Type:  Exclusive/ application required 
• Background:  SuperRare positions itself as a unique virtual art gallery.  It is an NFT site that mainly focuses on being a marketplace for people to buy and sell unique and single-edition digital artworks. An artist authentically creates each artwork in the network, which is tokenized as a crypto-collectible digital item. It is one of the best NFT marketplaces for fans of photography. Artists develop a specialized certificate to confirm their authorship. The platform is fully appreciated by art collectors worldwide. Being a successful NFT platform, SuperRare continues developing. 
• Network / blockchain: Ethereum
• Target market: Fans of photography
• Support: Online
• Token support: ERC-721
• Supported currencies: ETH
• Wallets support:   MetaMask, Fortmatic
• What coin pays the transaction fees? ETH
• Fees: 3% minting fee + 15% marketplace fee.
• Track record of stability: The platform receives good marks for security, with only a few internal issues reported.
• Any interesting features? The main advantage is that it offers exclusive NFTs that cannot be found anywhere else. Each work is genuinely created.
• Size: all time volume ​​$232.33M
• Do they allow NFT creation? Yes
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Offers high royalties for artists.
• Easy to navigate through user interface.
• Offer buying system.

CONS

• High commission rates in a competitive landscape of Top NFT marketplaces.
• ETH is the only payment method.
• High charges on Ethereum network.

4. Foundation

• Type:  Exclusive / Requires invite from existing creator or community vote
• Background: Foundation is an invite-only NFT marketplace for creators and collectors. Launched in February 2021, Foundation is one of the largest NFT marketplaces on the web. The platform was host to notable NFT auctions such as Edward Snowden’s first NFT and the Nyan Cat animation.
• Network / blockchain: Ethereum
• Target market:  It’s a platform that aims to build a new creative economy where creators can use the Ethereum blockchain to value their work in entirely new ways and build stronger connections with their supporters.
• Support: Online
• Token support: ERC-20
• Supported currencies: ETH
• Wallets support:  Metamask
• What coin pays the transaction fees? ETH
• Fees: 15% service fee for all sales. If an already purchased NFT is resold, the author additionally gets a 10% royalty.
• Track record of stability: Foundation NFT marketplace has established itself as a reasonably reliable and curated NFT marketplace
• Any interesting features? The Foundation platform has an artist-centric focus and places importance on the quality of their NFTs. Foundation does not allow creators to sell NFTs on their platform unless they were invited by another creator. Moreover, the creator has to have sold at least 1 NFT on Foundation to have the ability to send an invite.
• Size: Foundation currently has 260,000+ registered members and over 100,000 NFTs for sale. All time volume $143.78M.
• Do they allow NFT creation? Creators can start minting NFTs on the platform when they receive an invitation from an established member with at least 1 sold NFT.
• Does the marketplace accept debit and credit cards? No

PROS

• Interface is user-friendly.
• Creators fuel a new system of values for online expression.
• A popular marketplace because it auctions NFTS.
• Like Open Sea and Rarible, If any piece on the platform is resold, a royalty of 10% credited to users’ wallet which originally minted the NFT.

CONS

• Only ETH payments are accepted here.
• Quite high commissions comparatively.
• Anecdotal viewpoints say that exclusivity does not automatically add serious buyers

C. Other platforms

These platforms have unique features of their own that make them an alternative to the traditional NFT Marketplace. Tezos and NFTically allowing the creation  of multiple marketplaces or stories with their own brand.  Polgygon and Flow were created to solve speed and cost issues. Polygon forks off of ETH allowing Polygon NFT’s to solve gas issues for NFT’s marketplaces on the ETH blockchain. It is not its own marketplace.  Flow is its own Blockchain intended for gaming and best known for hosting TopShot.

1. Tezos

Tezos (XTZ) is a blockchain network linked to a digital token, which is called a tez or a tezzie, but with multiple NFT marketplaces. According to its official website, “Tezos is an open-source blockchain protocol for assets and applications backed by a global community of validators, researchers, and builders.”   Multiple major marketplaces built on Tezos allow users to create, sell, collect NFTs on Tezos blockchain — it’s carbon-neutral, gas fees are less than penny.  Used by one CryptoProCafe member who is a professor of digital media for his students to all launch their NFT projects in class Click below to find out about all the Tezos marketplaces:  https://tezos.art/

2 Nftically 

NFTically helps enterprises, brands, celebrities, influencers and creators to launch their own white-labeled NFT Store, hub or Marketplace without any technical knowledge. NFTically offers customizable, configurable, manageable & measurable NFT store, hub, marketplace which give full control, integrations options, and lots of friendly features like KYC, Fiat USD integration etc:
The platform currently supports major blockchains including: Ethereum, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain.
Wallets supported : Metamask, Wallet connect, Formatic, Coinbase wallet
https://www.nftically.com/

3. Polygon

Polygon (with the ticker MATIC) is a multi-chained system, a framework, and a protocol all in one. It connects Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks and was created to address the present Ethereum network’s scalability difficulties. It’s a fork solution, which means it’s built to fork off of Ethereum’s main blockchain. Polygon uses side chains to de-clog the primary platform in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

The main advantage of Polygon on NFT marketplaces are Polygon offers high data speed to the entire multichain system It offers highly secured protocols and provides high encryption of data for every transaction It allows a unique scaling solution that is quick and effective. Polygon says it can handle 65,000 transactions per second (TPS), with a two-second confirmation time. That compares to 15 TPS and 13 minutes to confirm on Ethereum

Polygon’s multi-chain network enables blockchain networks to communicate with one another outside of Ethereum’s core chain while maintaining Ethereum’s liquidity, security, and interoperability.

So, the bottom line on all this is that you can create an NFT on Polygon to avoid the gas on minting, then place it on OpenSea or other ETH-based marketplaces. 

4. Flow

Flow is a blockchain that is designed for extensive scaling without the use of sharding techniques, also providing fast and low-cost transactions that make sense for dapps such as NFT marketplaces and crypto-infused video games.
Flow hails from Dapper Labs, which decided to solve its blockchain congestion problem head-on by building one primed for games and other interactive experiences. Dapper is now using Flow for all of its own projects, including NBA Top Shot, but it’s open to other developers as well. Flow uses a proof of stake consensus mechanism that requires validators to stake a certain number of FLOW tokens to participate in the network.

Useful tool: https://dappradar.com/nft/marketplaces

Sources
https://insidebitcoins.com/buy-cryptocurrency/buy-nft/best-nft-marketplace
https://coinmooner.com/nft/best-10-nft-marketplaces
https://www.publish0x.com/thedarknite01/solana-nft-marketplaces-my-list-of-pros-and-
cons-xelkvql
https://blog.gilded.finance/best-nft-marketplace/
https://visionaryart.io/nft/marketplace-comparison/
https://www.finder.com/nifty-gateway-review
https://www.europeworldnews.com/raribles-daily-transactions-are-rapidly-decreasing/
https://www.finder.com/ro/
https://everythingblockcoin.com/nft/solanart-nft-marketplace/
https://beincrypto.com/learn/axie-infinity-axs-explained/
https://phemex.com/academy/what-is-foundation