NFT Marketplace

An NFT marketplace is a website and set of smart contracts for trading NFTs. Sellers list items at a fixed price or for auction, and buyers purchase them with crypto, usually ETH or SOL. The marketplace contract handles the exchange of the NFT and the payment in a single transaction so that neither party has to trust the other.

OpenSea was the dominant marketplace during the 2021 boom. Blur, launched in late 2022, took much of the professional trading volume on Ethereum by offering lower fees and token rewards. Magic Eden leads on Solana and has expanded to other chains. Marketplaces typically charge a fee of 0 to 2.5 percent of the sale price.

Marketplaces differ in whether they enforce creator royalties, how they display rarity, and which chains they support. Because listings are signed messages, a stale or malicious listing approval can allow an NFT to be taken for far less than intended, so users should cancel old listings and revoke unused approvals.