NFTs are quickly becoming a hot commodity for investors and artists alike. Even celebrities want in on the action, and who can blame them, NFTs offer something hard to come by on the internet – authenticity. This post will be about gas-free NFT marketplaces, and I’ll include marketplaces where the gas fees are cheapest.
If you’re not sure what gas fee is in NFTs read our guide to NFTs marketplaces.
NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are proof of ownership of a digital asset. Each NFT is unique, and it is impossible to make a copy of it or alter the information on the token; those aspects make NFTs desirable to creators and cryptocurrency investors.
So now you are interested in buying and selling NFTs, what is your first step? What are the costs involved? Where do you go to sell your NFT?
READ ALSO: Guide to NFT Marketplaces
Can you mint your NFT for free?
When you sell an NFT, you must mint it. By minting, we simply mean turning a digital file into a digital asset and putting it on the Ethereum blockchain to circulate publicly. Where a digital file may be copied, changed, or deleted, a digital asset can not be. The blockchain is a digital ledger where all cryptocurrency transactions take place. Minting will assign the unique code to your artwork.
To have your digital asset in circulation, you have to sign up with an NFT marketplace. Before you do that, you would need a cryptocurrency wallet. This is where your cryptocurrency will be stored. Once you have your cryptocurrency wallet, you can link it to your desired NFT marketplace, add your NFT to the marketplace, and list it for sale. However, most marketplaces charge a gas fee.
What is gas fee in NFT, and are there gas-free NFT marketplaces?
By now, the last thing you want to pay for is gas. Fortunately, we are not talking about the gas you need for your car. In NFT terms, a gas fee is what the energy costs to process your NFT transaction on the Ethereum blockchain. Most marketplaces require a gas fee for listing, selling, or burning your NFT. Sometimes owners have to pay a gas fee to create an NFT, and often these prices are higher than the value of the NFT.
FURTHER READING: What is burning an NFT and how do you do it?
Gas fees are not constant. They depend on the time of day, as more energy is needed to compute a transaction when the network is busy; hence, your gas fee will be higher. It also depends on the number of NFTs you are transacting at one time.
Naturally, the more NFTs involved in a transaction, the higher the gas fee. It is recommended that owners, buyers, and creators use the blockchain in the early hours of the morning for the lowest gas fees.
The Ethereum blockchain is the most popular blockchain, which sadly means that the energy use per transaction is a lot higher. No matter what marketplace you choose, the Ethereum blockchain will be the pricier option.
Most marketplaces will charge a gas fee to mint your NFT and another gas fee when you sell it. However, depending on the marketplace you sign up with, you can cut the cost of minting your NFT and only pay for selling it. Some marketplaces allow users to transact on other blockchains and not just Ethereum. Also, some marketplaces are better designed for specific NFT types. Here are seven NFT marketplaces for you to consider.
Where can I mint NFTs for free or cheap?
1. OpenSea
OpenSea is the most popular NFT Marketplace and for good reason. OpenSea is simple to use, especially for those new to the NFT buzz. It is also great for artists, musicians, photographers, and gamers to sell their content as it hosts every type of NFT and it allows owners to charge 10% in royalty fees. OpenSea uses the Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn blockchains and accepts over 150 cryptocurrencies.
The best part of OpenSea is that it is now a gas-free marketplace on the Polygon blockchain. However, gas fees are still charged when minting an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain; however, OpenSea does not receive any fees. This makes OpenSea the best NFT marketplace without a gas fee.
2. Mintable
Mintable aims to provide easy access to beginners and those who do not quite understand the NFT concept. If the only thing you know about minting involves a herb, Mintable is a great marketplace to mint your NFT without a gas fee. Users can use the platform to create and sell their NFT. Like OpenSea, Mintable uses multiple blockchain networks, namely Immutable X, Zilliqa, and of course, Ethereum.
Mintable welcomes various types of NFTs, like art, music, games, and much more. You may not be charged a gas fee to create an NFT, but you may be charged to trade your NFTs on a blockchain. In addition to not charging a gas fee to mint an NFT, Mintable offers University Courses on NFT transactions to better inform you. If you are an NFT newbie, Mintable is the marketplace for you!
3. Rarible
If your focus is art and photography, Rarible is the NFT marketplace for you. NFTs can be sold individually or as collections. Rarible makes use of its own token known as a RARI and is partnered with Adobe to make the artwork more secure. They make use of Ethereum, Flow, and Tezos blockchain. Rarible is also unique in that community members get to vote on platform upgrades.
Tezos offers much lower gas fees than Ethereum, which is always rather pricey. Tezos is also the better option for artists releasing NFT collections. However, Flow offers an option called “Lazy Minting” where creators are charged gas fees that are close to zero and offer a much lower carbon footprint than Ethereum. Also, with lazy minting, you can create an NFT for free and only pay for charges if your NFT is sold.
4. Nifty Gateway
Nifty always sounds good, and it sounds even better for a celebrity-hotspot marketplace. Nifty Gateway is known for selling NFTs to celebrities, which makes it a desired spot to list your NFT on. It is considered the best marketplace for rare and exclusive NFT drops. They are also known to have made some of the most expensive sales.
Nifty Gateway allows a limited period where artists can issue NFTs from a collection. This increases the value of the NFT. Nifty Gateway doesn’t charge a minting fee for transactions that take place on the platform and even offers up to a 75% discount on Ethereum gas fees.
5. Binance NFT
Binance is easily the largest crypto exchange in the world, and its new NFT marketplace is also among the most popular. Surely, Binance is making some headway and would be a suitable place to start your NFT journey. It has its own blockchain and is considered future-proof. It can offer partnerships and events that other marketplaces can’t. Unfortunately, Binance is not the best marketplace for artists.
You can make bids using BNB, BUSD, or ETH; they also offer the option to withdraw your money in fiat currency. Binance charges only a 1% gas fee per transaction, making it close to free. This small gas fee is no hurdle considering the fine reputation this marketplace has.
6. Async Art
Async Art is the best marketplace for programmable art, this means that artists can own different parts of the asset and make changes to the artwork. Programmable art is comprised of Masters and Layers; Masters qualifies as the whole NFT, and the Layers are the parts that make up the art and can be modified.
Async Art only uses the Ethereum blockchain for NFT creation and the artwork listed can’t be shared with any other conventional marketplaces due to the nature of the NFT.
As exclusive as it sounds, if you are new to the NFT game, this wouldn’t be the best marketplace to use. Some pre-existing knowledge of marketplaces, NFTs, and Ethereum are essential to understanding the concept of programmable artwork with NFTs.
7. SuperRare
If you are looking for a marketplace with high standards to showcase your artwork, SuperRare is your best bet! SuperRare is the digital equivalent of an art gallery; they are selective of what they permit on their platform.
In fact, they usually select about 1% of the applications. If you are in that 1%, it’s noteworthy. SuperRare is a great marketplace for serious artists.
Although listed on this list of gas-free NFT marketplaces, they do charge gas fees as Ethereum is the blockchain they use. However, due to the scarce nature and limited NFTs, they accept, your gas fee will be lower than on other marketplaces. In fact, the gas fee is separate from SuperRare as the artist pays this fee to Ethereum to mint, list, and sell their NFTs.
In conclusion…
You now have a broad perspective on the right NFT marketplace for your digital assets. Not all marketplaces are right for everyone. As you could see from the above, some marketplaces are open-ended, like OpenSea or Rarible, and trade all NFT types while others are more selective like SuperRare and Binance.
Some cater specifically to artists, while others offer better investment opportunities. Whatever the case may be, you should carefully consider what kind of NFTs you want to list before setting your heart on a marketplace.
We hope this list helped you to gain a better idea of your ideal NFT marketplace and the costs involved.