How To Buy Your First NFT

Hardly a decade old, Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain Technology are only just beginning to find their use in the real world. One of the most popular ways to utilize them is non-fungible tokens (NFTs). NFTs quickly commanded a great amount of attention, especially among artists, art collectors, and speculators. If you've decided you want a bite of the newest player of blockchain, NFTs but don't know how to buy NFT tokens, here's how to get started.

How to buy NFT?

An NFT is a token that is created and managed on a blockchain (mostly on Ethereum ) that declares ownership of an asset. Most NFTs require payment in Ethereum or the other crypto blockchain where they're created.

Here's a step-by-step guide to buying an NFT.

1. Buy Ethereum on a crypto exchange platform (such as CoinDcx).

2. Transfer your crypto to a crypto wallet.  A Crypto wallet is like a digital checking account that stores and transfers your cryptocurrencies. Some of the exchanges like CoinDcx have built-in wallet features that are offered to the users when they open an account, but other options include dedicated wallets like MetaMask. 

3. Built a connection of your wallet to an NFT marketplace. Once connected, you can simply start browsing and exploring the marketplace's NFT collection and the NFT of your choice.

How and where to invest in NFT?

There are many NFT marketplaces. Currently, the biggest NFT marketplace is OpenSea, which basically uses Ethereum but also supports approximately 150 other payment tokens. Other NFT marketplaces that have a huge variety of artworks and collectibles include Binance NFT, Rarible, and Foundation.  

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Some marketplaces deal in more particular assets. For example, The Musician Marketplace entirely focuses on music compositions, and NBA Top Shot is a licensed marketplace to buy digital video highlights from the NBA.

Whether it's artwork, collectibles, video game assets, or domain names of the website, there's a marketplace that has what you want.

How do crypto wallets play a role in buying NFTs?

Crypto wallets are not just utilized for purchasing an NFT. Once you've made your choice, you'll also need a space to store your NFT. The easiest options include Coinbase Wallet and MetaMask, and other crypto exchanges offer built-in wallet features included with an account to trade cryptocurrencies.

However, there are other wallet options for securing your cryptos and NFTs offline, i.e., outside of an account directly connected to the exchange, which is normally called cold storage. For example, companies like Trezor and Ledger offer real hardware wallets that can store crypto and other blockchain technology-based assets. With a unique security key, the wallets can provide an added layer of security for storing NFTs.

Top NFT tokens You Should Invest In

Unlike cryptocurrencies, NFTs don't attain value from their utility (as an investment asset, like what numbers of investors have come to view Bitcoin or for their usefulness in facilitating payments). Rather, NFTs attain value from the media they represent (such as; artworks, music pieces, videos, writings, etc.). So investing in NFTs is not just an investment in a single asset. Instead, it is an investment in a collectible item, and its value over time will be determined by various non-tangible factors, including the quality of the piece, how unique that piece is, and the reputation of the artist who created it.

It's also possible to invest in tokens used to purchase and analyze digital asset networks. Here are the top NFT tokens that you can consider investing in. 

• Axie Infinity: Axie Infinity is an online game where players collect, battle, and trade fantasy creatures called Axies. Axie Infinity has been created on the Ethereum blockchain, and tokens can be earned by spending some time on the game and can be used to make purchases on the game's marketplace.

• Theta: Theta is a blockchain network created for video streaming. Rather than utilizing remote servers set up in a data center to stream video, Theta is a peer-to-peer network that supports content viewing. Theta tokens are used to judge the network's protocol. Theta. tv is the primary streaming service, but it has a list of reputed partners like; World Poker Tour, which hosts video programming powered by Theta.  

• Tezos: Tezos is an open-source blockchain platform that has been designed to power smart contracts, which are programs stored on a blockchain and automatically execute agreements and tasks when certain criteria are met. These contracts can be individually useful in powering decentralized finance applications, but they also power NFTs and marketplaces. The tokens are used to run these applications. You can also hold these tokens and stake them to earn interest.

Related: How to Invest in Cryptocurrencies - A Beginners Guide

Today, NFTs are basically used in digital art and media, but they could be utilized to an extent far beyond guaranteeing ownership of collectible items. Many companies are working on blockchain and NFT technology to make them more utilizable in business operations.

As a newbie in the technology sector, tread very carefully before investing in NFTs. Crypto asset values possess extreme price volatility, and a lot of contenders are trying to grab user and investor attention. If you decide to purchase NFTs and tokens, remember to buy them as part of a diversified portfolio, i.e., NFTs should not be your only investment.