Avalanche (AVAX) has been a fantastic success as a cryptocurrency- its speed and fees are vastly better than Ethereum. But most of Avalanche’s growth is yet to come. Given that AVAX is an intelligent contract, proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, there are NFTs on Avalanche!
Today we’ll look at the very best Avalanche NFT marketplaces and evaluate them based on three criteria:
- Trading volume
- User experience (UX)
- Frequency of new collection drops
Disclaimer– The Avalanche network is much younger and still much smaller than Ethereum, Cardano, or even Solana. The takeaway is that NFT trading isn’t massive on the AVAX network. If you’re an NFT collection creator looking to make it big, AVAX marketplaces probably aren’t for you.
If Ethereum and OpenSea are lead roles in a Hollywood blockbuster, then AVAX NFT marketplaces are walk-on roles in a local car dealership commercial filming.
Most NFT exchanges that sell NFTs on AVAX you’ll come across are less than one year old.
But given Avalanche network’s superior performance as a smart contract cryptocurrency, I can easily see NFT trading volume on the AVAX network going 10x or more.
Eventually, people will tire of paying exorbitant Ethereum gas fees on OpenSea to buy an NFT they like. $60 in gas fees to buy a $10 NFT? Yeah, no thanks.
How do these NFT marketplaces work? Simple- you go to the site and connect your browser wallet or hardware wallet (did you know you can use your hardware wallet (I.e., Ledger Nano) on NFT marketplaces via MetaMask?)
But for now, these NFT marketplaces aren’t getting anywhere near the traffic that more extensive exchanges like OpenSea or Foundation are.
YetiSwap
YetiSwap differs from other exchanges on the list in that its primary function is being a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) for cryptocurrencies. For reference, other examples of DEXes include PancakeSwap and UniSwap. The positive about it being a DEX is that YetiSwap’s traffic and NFT trading volume are more significant than the other AVAX NFT marketplaces. YetiSwap’s NFT marketplace is one of the few that hosts NFTs on the Avalanche network.
UX: YetiSwap has a pretty standard song and dance for NFT marketplaces, including filters on the ‘marketplace’ page that allow you to curate the page by collection name, currency, category, and age.
Volume: Yeti claims that the total trade volume of NFTs and crypto assets within its DeFi ecosystem comes to $66 million, a considerable figure. As of this writing, YetiSwap has totaled around 3500 AVAX in total NFT trading volume, or $210,000.
New collections: The most incredible part here is that if you own YetiSwap’s native token $YTS, you’re periodically airdropped new NFTs! YetiSwap is otherwise open to NFT creators, so there’s no process for being selected to introduce pieces on the platform. Wide open creation means there are several new collections coming out frequently.
NFT Stars
NFT STARS is an Aussie NFT marketplace with various products and services for NFT creators and NFT buyers. NFTStars support the Ethereum and Avalanche blockchains. The good part about this is that there is a lot of Ethereum traffic the platform can bring in, which may get your AVAX NFTs noticed more.
New Collections: NFT Stars isn’t the best about getting new collections out, given that the executive handpicks each NFT creator on the platform. This can severely limit the platform’s growth unless the team has a path to scaling up. The plus side here is that you’ll be looking at NFTs made by vetted artists.
UX: NFT stars has an excellent little site. While it’s still a small site, it has certain unique features that other Avalanche NFT markets lack, including fractional NFT ownership, creator tools, and gas-free NFT minting. Its navigation menu is divided into drops, marketplace, and auctions. If you navigate to marketplace–> chains–> avalanche, you’ll be able to see the items available on the AVAX network. MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Coinbase Wallet are currently supported by NFTStars.
Trading volume: NFT stars have less than 10,000 visitors per month, compared to the millions on OpenSea. Trading Volume on NFT stars is low.
NFTrade
NFTrade is the largest NFT exchange of the three on this list, and it has cross-chain offerings, including Polygon, Binance, Ethereum, Avalanche, and Moonriver/Moonbeam (wtf?) marketplaces.
UX: NFTrade feels like OpenSea with a search bar and filters on the left side for price, blockchain, etc. Creating NFTs on the platform is super easy and looks like filling out a form and uploading a JPEG. Creating is easy on other exchanges, but it’s especially true on NFTrade! NFT item pages have the usual features: transaction history, traits, levels, and collection summary.
Trading volume: NFTrade gets over 50,000 visitors per month, so if you’re a creator, it’s a great place to mint, and if you’re a buyer, it’s got a large selection from which to choose. I couldn’t individually find the total trading volume figure on the site. My guess is Ethereum and BNB have sizable volumes, and the AVAX NFTs are a little less so.
New collections: NFTrade is another spot where loads of new collections are coming online every day! The positive with so many new collections is that you’re likely to find something you like- but the negative is that many of the collections are probably garbage.
The future of NFTs on AVAX
JPEGs and GIFs are great, but NFTs have a future with many more use cases. Cheap proof of authenticity and ownership of digital assets is what NFTs bring to the table, and as more and more of our lives move to the internet, there will be steep demand for a quality smart contract network. Across the centuries, collectibles have always held a place in markets. Like all the Marvel superheroes on VeVe, I see a slow but steady growth happening with NFTs.
All this is to say that a smart contract crypto network (like AVAX) and marketplaces like YetiSwap and NFT Stars are likely to grow. NFTs on the Avalanche network is a tiny force now but will be more prominent in the future.
