What to look for when choosing an NFT wallet
Metamask is considered to be the most popular Ethereum-based wallet on the market. It allows you to store ETH, ERC-20 tokens created on the Ethereum network, and ERC-721 tokens. It comes as both a browser extension for popular browsers and a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can easily synchronize the browser and mobile apps, just by scanning a QR code with your phone.
Its code is entirely open-source, which allows the community to audit it for security issues and provide feedback for continuous improvement of the platform. Its simple user interface is a godsend for people getting started with crypto and NFTs as it won’t overwhelm you with useless data from the get-go.
We can even say that this is the most user-friendly Ethereum wallet as it can be seamlessly used to connect to some of the best NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea and Rarible. Once connected to these platforms, minting and handling collections becomes a breeze.
And while the added security to connect to a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor is a great feature, we would like to see Metamask include Google 2-factor authentication in the future. Considering you will be mainly using Metamask as a browser extension, 2-FA is essential to prevent phishing attacks.
For a more detailed guide on how to use some of Metamask’s advanced features, please check out the full review here.
Pros:
Trust Wallet is backed by Binance and is one of the most popular crypto mobile wallets on the market. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS and provides a streamlined user experience, ideal for beginners in this niche. Collections are neatly organized and it even provides animated visualization of .gif NFTs and videos.
One of the main advantages of Trust Wallet is its cross-chain compatibility. This wallet allows you to store NFTs across different blockchains including popular solutions with low gas fees such as the Binance Smart Chain or Solana.
So in addition to storing your Ether, Bitcoin, and thousands of other popular cryptocurrencies, you can handle your NFT collection as well. Pretty practical, if you ask me. It also includes a dApp browser and you can use it to explore 53 different blockchains.
With that in mind, there’s one caveat; it only comes in a mobile version. This is not ideal if you are an artist or developer and you need to mint your own NFTs on your computer. Consequently, it’s a great collector’s wallet, but not the best when it comes to artists.
Pros:
Math Wallet is another popular blockchain wallet option for storing NFTs and seems like the perfect all-arounder on the surface. The main appeal of Math Wallet is the multi-platform support, paired with cross-chain capability.
In fact, this wallet is available on almost every platform imaginable. There’s an extension for various popular browsers, a mobile app, and even a web wallet that can be accessed through any internet-enabled device. We can’t really recommend the latter, as it stores your private keys on the cloud, which increases the vulnerability of your wallet.
What’s great about Math Wallet is that, in addition to all of these platforms, it supports multiple blockchains. So if you are a creator that wishes to spread your NFT art across different blockchains and marketplaces, you’ll want to take a closer look at Math Wallet. It might become your one-stop shop for minting, selling, and managing your assets.
Note that, similar to Metamask, you can link it to a Ledger hardware wallet. This adds a 2-FA security layer to your assets and increases their safety considerably.
That said, not everything is great about this wallet. It’s pretty barebones when it comes to features and its UI is quite unintuitive.
Pros:
If you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, you must have heard about popular blockchain games such as Axie Infinity. The issue with this game and others like it is that their monetary ecosystem (NFTs and reward tokens) is strongly confined to a single game. Once the game goes offline, the assets become worthless.
Enjin solves this problem by providing an APK and open-source ecosystem where developers can integrate NFTs in their games using ENJ tokens. This means that each NFT can be minted with ENJ and melted back into ENJ. This allows users to keep the real-world value of their NFTs even if the game servers go offline in the future.
Furthermore, the Enjin team has also released a new blockchain protocol called ERC-1155. With it, developers can create fungible and non-fungible tokens under the same smart contract. This is extremely handy in gaming, as the developers can mint the in-game currency as a fungible token. At the same time, items and characters can be recorded as NFTs.
Of course, to store these ERC-1155 tokens, you will need to use the Enjin wallet, which is a mobile app for Android and iOS. This wallet is incredibly versatile, as, in addition to ETH and ENJ, it allows you to store popular coins such as Bitcoin and Polkadot.
Finally, the app includes an integrated token swap powered by no less than three partners including Bancor, Changelly and Kyber Network. Worth noting that it provides advanced security features such as fingerprint scanner biometrics.
Note: A new version of this wallet is in the works. This will be the bridge between Enjin and Efinity, a gaming blockchain project on the Polkadot ecosystem.
Pros:
Distributed by the famous Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, this wallet has been slowly gaining ground as one of the best NFT wallets on the market. Coinbase is mainly known for its cryptocurrency exchange which was the first crypto-related business to be listed publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Coinbase name is a great selling point for beginner NFT collectors. The wallet enjoys continuous development from a well-established company and users can rely on support from a licensed and regulated company in the US.
That said, you shouldn’t confuse the Coinbase Wallet with the Coinbase App. The App is an extension of the Coinbase.com exchange and can be used to trade cryptocurrencies. The wallet, on the other hand, is an entirely standalone application for storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And just like all the wallets on our list, this app gives you full control of your private keys, and therefore, your tokens.
Coinbase users can link their Coinbase Wallet with their trading account and easily transfer funds from and to the wallet with no extra fees. It has an integrated dApp browser, so you can use it to launch decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap directly from the wallet.
Worth noting is that this is an ERC-20 wallet only, so it won’t support Bitcoin or any blockchain other than Ethereum for that matter.
Pros:
Choosing an NFT marketplace
First, remember that an NFT (non-fungible token) simply represents ownership of an asset. Before choosing an NFT marketplace, you'll first want to decide the kind of digital asset you're interested in buying, selling, or creating. Just about anything digital -- the written word, videos, video games, art, collectors items, etc. -- can be tokenized on a blockchain (such as Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), the most common blockchain network NFTs are built on), so narrowing down your interest is a good place to start.
Another consideration is the type of tokens supported on a marketplace. Some support a wide variety of tokens. Others are closed marketplaces and utilize a specific proprietary token. When opening an NFT marketplace account, be sure to fund your blockchain wallet with the right crypto or token required to participate in the site's activity. You'll be prompted to link your wallet to the NFT marketplace once you've opened up an account. Also check to see what kind of security the marketplace has in force, and if it has had any issues in the past.
OpenSea - Visit Site
OpenSea is the leader in NFT sales. OpenSea has all sorts of digital assets available on its platform, and it's free to sign up and browse the extensive offerings. It also supports artists and creators and has an easy-to-use process if you want to create your own NFT (known as "minting").
The marketplace supports more than 150 different payment tokens, so the platform's name is appropriate. For an introduction to the NFT world, OpenSea is a great place to start.
Specifications
NFT type: Art, music, photography, collectibles, sports, virtual worlds, and more
Blockchain: Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn
Reasons to buy
+Buy and sell all types of NFT+Accepts over 150 cryptocurrencies+Now also uses Polygon blockchain
Reasons to avoid
-Uses Ethereum, which has high gas and carbon fees
Axie Marketplace
Axie Marketplace is the online shop for the video game Axie Infinity. Axies are mythical creatures that can be bought and trained and then pitted against other players' Axies to earn rewards. On Axie Marketplace, players can buy new Axies, as well as entire lands and other items, as NFTs for use within the game.
Axie Infinity tokens (called Axie Shards) are built on the Ethereum blockchain. As such, they can be bought and sold on a variety of other NFT marketplaces, as well as on some cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN).
Larva Labs/CryptoPunks
Larva Labs is best known for the viral CryptoPunks NFT project. They were originally given away for free back in 2017, but some CryptoPunks have sold for millions of dollars since then. Larva Labs has other digital art projects going such as Autoglyphs, as well as other Ethereum blockchain-based app development projects.
Larva Labs' CryptoPunks NFTs are sold out, but they can be bid on and bought from various third-party marketplaces. Nevertheless, Larva Labs' various projects are worth keeping tabs on -- including the Meebits, which can be bid on directly from the company's built-in marketplace.
NBA Top Shot Marketplace
NBA Top Shot is the National Basketball Association and Women's National Basketball Association's foray into the NFT world. On its marketplace, collectible moments (video clips and play highlights) and art can be purchased from the world's premier basketball leagues.
The NBA built it as a closed marketplace (you can only buy and sell on Top Shot) using the Flow blockchain built by Dapper Labs. It's easy to sign up and buy directly on the Top Shot marketplace website. Collectible moments can be purchased for as little as a few dollars.
Rarible Visit Site
Rarible is another large marketplace for all sorts of NFTs, similar to OpenSea. All kinds of art, videos, collectibles, and music can be bought, sold, or created on the platform. However, unlike OpenSea, you'll need to use the marketplace's own token Rarible (CRYPTO:RARI) to buy and sell on the marketplace. Rarible is built on the Ethereum blockchain (although artwork can be managed on OpenSea as well using Rarible tokens).
The company has partnered with some notable companies. Yum! Brands' (NYSE:YUM) Taco Bell has listed art on Rarible, and cloud software giant Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) recently partnered with Rarible to help secure NFT artists' and creators' work.
Specifications
NFT type: Art, photography, games
Blockchain: Ethereum, Flow, Tezos
Reasons to buy
+Choose from three blockchains+Community-owned+Can offer low carbon and gas fees
Reasons to avoid
-Can be dominated by big brands
Binance NFT - Visit Site
One of the largest and future-proof NFT marketplaces
One of the largest marketplaces around, and is supported by its own blockchain; Binance is one of the largest crypto exchanges. For these reasons Binance NFT is seen as one of the most future-proof NFT marketplaces. It's size and scale mean this marketplace can offer exclusive partnerships and events others may envy. If you have Binance tokens (BNB) accessing the marketplace is even easier, and you can you can use ETH, BNB, and BUSD to bid.
Reasons to buy
+Low fees, just 1%+Large and secure marketplace+Cash-out using Fiat
Reasons to avoid
-Not artist-friendly
SuperRare - Visit Site
Brings gallery attitude to the NFT space. It's an art-first marketplace that places credibility and artistic intent above meme-friendly-to-the-moon art. You won't find SuperRare filled with celebrity NFTs. It reportedly only accepts 1% of all artists who apply, which sounds snobbish but it also means you get a catalogue of highly curated and interesting artworks.
This approach makes SuperRare feel like a high-end gallery, and is further enhanced by only enabling its artists to mint one of their originals - no Editions here. This greats scarcity and as the name suggests, rarity. SuperRare is for serious art and artists, and is backed by a must-read editorial blog.
Similar to Rarible, SuperRare is also building a marketplace for digital creators. The site includes art, videos, and 3D images, but collectors can purchase artwork using Ethereum.
SuperRare recently announced its own token of the same name based on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens will be used to find and curate new talent for the marketplace. Like Rarible, SuperRare NFTs can also be bought and sold on OpenSea.
Specifications
NFT type: Digital art
Blockchain: Ethereum
Reasons to buy
+Curated and rare artwork+Has a fine gallery mood+Fantastic editorial blog
Reasons to avoid
-Accepts low number of applicants
Foundation
Foundation.app was designed as a simple, no-frills way to bid on digital art. Sales are made using Ethereum. Since the marketplace's launch in early 2021, it has sold more than $100 million of NFTs.
Artists are invited to the platform by the Foundation community, and buyers simply need a crypto wallet funded with Ethereum to start making purchases. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to start creating your own NFTs, Foundation probably isn't the best place to begin, but the marketplace has plenty of artwork that can be perused in a simple format.
Nifty Gateway Visit Site
Nifty Gateway has facilitated the sale of some of the most popular digital artists such as Beeple and singer/musician Grimes. It's an art curation platform powered by the crypto exchange Gemini (controlled by the Winklevoss twins). The NFTs, known as Nifties, are built on Ethereum.
Besides being a curated platform, Nifty Gateway also hosts any NFTs purchased -- meaning the NFTs aren't stored in your own wallet but are actually stored for you by Nifty Gateway and Gemini. While that may not work for NFT collectors who want more flexibility with their art investments, Nifty purchases and sales also can be made in fiat currency (e.g., U.S. dollars) without making a cryptocurrency purchase first.
Specifications
NFT type: Digital art, verified and curated drops
Blockchain: Ethereum, backed by Gemini
Reasons to buy
+You can buy with Fiat currency+Makes use of limited Open Editions
Reasons to avoid
-Dominated by celebrity NFTs
Mintable
Mintable, backed by billionaire Mark Cuban, aims to be an open marketplace similar to OpenSea. To participate in buying and selling NFTs on Mintable, you'll need Ethereum. The platform also supports minting of NFTs for creators of all types (from photographers to musicians) who want to sell their work as a digital asset.
An aspiring NFT collector or creator will need to purchase Ethereum from a crypto exchange first, then connect their wallet to Mintable to facilitate bidding and buying on the marketplace.
Theta Drop
Theta is a blockchain platform built for the decentralized distribution of video and TV on the internet. The NFT marketplace Theta Drop made its debut in 2021 with the World Poker Tour's digital collectibles. The World Poker Tour was an early adopter of ThetaTV and uses the platform to stream content.
Theta utilizes its own blockchain technology. To participate in the Theta Drop NFT marketplace, you'll need to purchase Theta Token (CRYPTO:THETA). Various crypto exchanges such as Binance support Theta, and the tokens and NFTs purchased with them can be stored in a crypto wallet, as well as in Theta's own crypto wallet app.
Async Art - Visit Site
Async Art is an NFT marketplace known for 'programmable art'. Each work of art is made up of a Master and Layers; Masters are the entire NFT while Layers are separate elements that make up the art, and can be altered. Everything is 'Tokenized' meaning different artists can own different layers, and contribute to changing the artwork.
Programmable art is at the forefront of digital art, enabling multiple creators to alter an artwork over time, and it's a kind of NFT art that can't be shared on more traditional gallery platforms such as SuperRare. Async Art has recently launched Blueprints, enabling artists to create generative projects in the vein of Bored Apes.
Specifications
NFT type: Programmable art
Blockchain: Ethereum
Reasons to buy
+Forward-looking digital art+Supports multiple creators and owners+Blueprints offers a new opportunity
Reasons to avoid
-Some advanced NFT knowledge needed
Metamask – Best Crypto Wallet for Ethereum NFTs
Metamask is considered to be the most popular Ethereum-based wallet on the market. It allows you to store ETH, ERC-20 tokens created on the Ethereum network, and ERC-721 tokens. It comes as both a browser extension for popular browsers and a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can easily synchronize the browser and mobile apps, just by scanning a QR code with your phone.
Its code is entirely open-source, which allows the community to audit it for security issues and provide feedback for continuous improvement of the platform. Its simple user interface is a godsend for people getting started with crypto and NFTs as it won’t overwhelm you with useless data from the get-go.
We can even say that this is the most user-friendly Ethereum wallet as it can be seamlessly used to connect to some of the best NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea and Rarible. Once connected to these platforms, minting and handling collections becomes a breeze.
And while the added security to connect to a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor is a great feature, we would like to see Metamask include Google 2-factor authentication in the future. Considering you will be mainly using Metamask as a browser extension, 2-FA is essential to prevent phishing attacks.
For a more detailed guide on how to use some of Metamask’s advanced features, please check out the full review here.
Pros:
Trust Wallet is backed by Binance and is one of the most popular crypto mobile wallets on the market. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS and provides a streamlined user experience, ideal for beginners in this niche. Collections are neatly organized and it even provides animated visualization of .gif NFTs and videos.
One of the main advantages of Trust Wallet is its cross-chain compatibility. This wallet allows you to store NFTs across different blockchains including popular solutions with low gas fees such as the Binance Smart Chain or Solana.
So in addition to storing your Ether, Bitcoin, and thousands of other popular cryptocurrencies, you can handle your NFT collection as well. Pretty practical, if you ask me. It also includes a dApp browser and you can use it to explore 53 different blockchains.
With that in mind, there’s one caveat; it only comes in a mobile version. This is not ideal if you are an artist or developer and you need to mint your own NFTs on your computer. Consequently, it’s a great collector’s wallet, but not the best when it comes to artists.
Pros:
Math Wallet is another popular blockchain wallet option for storing NFTs and seems like the perfect all-arounder on the surface. The main appeal of Math Wallet is the multi-platform support, paired with cross-chain capability.
In fact, this wallet is available on almost every platform imaginable. There’s an extension for various popular browsers, a mobile app, and even a web wallet that can be accessed through any internet-enabled device. We can’t really recommend the latter, as it stores your private keys on the cloud, which increases the vulnerability of your wallet.
What’s great about Math Wallet is that, in addition to all of these platforms, it supports multiple blockchains. So if you are a creator that wishes to spread your NFT art across different blockchains and marketplaces, you’ll want to take a closer look at Math Wallet. It might become your one-stop shop for minting, selling, and managing your assets.
Note that, similar to Metamask, you can link it to a Ledger hardware wallet. This adds a 2-FA security layer to your assets and increases their safety considerably.
That said, not everything is great about this wallet. It’s pretty barebones when it comes to features and its UI is quite unintuitive.
Pros:
If you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, you must have heard about popular blockchain games such as Axie Infinity. The issue with this game and others like it is that their monetary ecosystem (NFTs and reward tokens) is strongly confined to a single game. Once the game goes offline, the assets become worthless.
Enjin solves this problem by providing an APK and open-source ecosystem where developers can integrate NFTs in their games using ENJ tokens. This means that each NFT can be minted with ENJ and melted back into ENJ. This allows users to keep the real-world value of their NFTs even if the game servers go offline in the future.
Furthermore, the Enjin team has also released a new blockchain protocol called ERC-1155. With it, developers can create fungible and non-fungible tokens under the same smart contract. This is extremely handy in gaming, as the developers can mint the in-game currency as a fungible token. At the same time, items and characters can be recorded as NFTs.
Of course, to store these ERC-1155 tokens, you will need to use the Enjin wallet, which is a mobile app for Android and iOS. This wallet is incredibly versatile, as, in addition to ETH and ENJ, it allows you to store popular coins such as Bitcoin and Polkadot.
Finally, the app includes an integrated token swap powered by no less than three partners including Bancor, Changelly and Kyber Network. Worth noting that it provides advanced security features such as fingerprint scanner biometrics.
Note: A new version of this wallet is in the works. This will be the bridge between Enjin and Efinity, a gaming blockchain project on the Polkadot ecosystem.
Pros:
Distributed by the famous Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, this wallet has been slowly gaining ground as one of the best NFT wallets on the market. Coinbase is mainly known for its cryptocurrency exchange which was the first crypto-related business to be listed publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Coinbase name is a great selling point for beginner NFT collectors. The wallet enjoys continuous development from a well-established company and users can rely on support from a licensed and regulated company in the US.
That said, you shouldn’t confuse the Coinbase Wallet with the Coinbase App. The App is an extension of the Coinbase.com exchange and can be used to trade cryptocurrencies. The wallet, on the other hand, is an entirely standalone application for storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And just like all the wallets on our list, this app gives you full control of your private keys, and therefore, your tokens.
Coinbase users can link their Coinbase Wallet with their trading account and easily transfer funds from and to the wallet with no extra fees. It has an integrated dApp browser, so you can use it to launch decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap directly from the wallet.
Worth noting is that this is an ERC-20 wallet only, so it won’t support Bitcoin or any blockchain other than Ethereum for that matter.
Pros:
- Compatibility with the NFT marketplaces you want to buy from. If it's not supported, you won't be able to buy the NFTs you want, so it's a non-starter.
- Strong security. NFTs can be worth thousands or even millions of dollars. You want something as secure as possible.
- Easy-to-understand user interface. A good user interface will make buying and selling NFTs a breeze.
- Cross-device use. Being able to access your NFTs on both a desktop and a mobile device can come in handy.
- Multichain support. While most NFTs are on the Ethereum blockchain, several other platforms also support NFTs. You'll want a wallet compatible with as many chains as possible to give you easy access to as many NFTs as possible.
Metamask is considered to be the most popular Ethereum-based wallet on the market. It allows you to store ETH, ERC-20 tokens created on the Ethereum network, and ERC-721 tokens. It comes as both a browser extension for popular browsers and a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can easily synchronize the browser and mobile apps, just by scanning a QR code with your phone.
Its code is entirely open-source, which allows the community to audit it for security issues and provide feedback for continuous improvement of the platform. Its simple user interface is a godsend for people getting started with crypto and NFTs as it won’t overwhelm you with useless data from the get-go.
We can even say that this is the most user-friendly Ethereum wallet as it can be seamlessly used to connect to some of the best NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea and Rarible. Once connected to these platforms, minting and handling collections becomes a breeze.
And while the added security to connect to a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor is a great feature, we would like to see Metamask include Google 2-factor authentication in the future. Considering you will be mainly using Metamask as a browser extension, 2-FA is essential to prevent phishing attacks.
For a more detailed guide on how to use some of Metamask’s advanced features, please check out the full review here.
Pros:
- Ease of use
- NFT marketplaces integration
- Open-source
- Integrated token swaps
- Integrated ETH purchases with credit and debit cards
- No 2-FA (except with a hardware wallet)
- Can be iffy when trying to display newly acquired NFTs.
- Best for Ethereum only.
Trust Wallet is backed by Binance and is one of the most popular crypto mobile wallets on the market. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS and provides a streamlined user experience, ideal for beginners in this niche. Collections are neatly organized and it even provides animated visualization of .gif NFTs and videos.
One of the main advantages of Trust Wallet is its cross-chain compatibility. This wallet allows you to store NFTs across different blockchains including popular solutions with low gas fees such as the Binance Smart Chain or Solana.
So in addition to storing your Ether, Bitcoin, and thousands of other popular cryptocurrencies, you can handle your NFT collection as well. Pretty practical, if you ask me. It also includes a dApp browser and you can use it to explore 53 different blockchains.
With that in mind, there’s one caveat; it only comes in a mobile version. This is not ideal if you are an artist or developer and you need to mint your own NFTs on your computer. Consequently, it’s a great collector’s wallet, but not the best when it comes to artists.
Pros:
- Great UI and graphical representation of your NFTs
- Supports 53 different blockchains
- Allows staking for passive income
- Only comes in Mobile app form
Math Wallet is another popular blockchain wallet option for storing NFTs and seems like the perfect all-arounder on the surface. The main appeal of Math Wallet is the multi-platform support, paired with cross-chain capability.
In fact, this wallet is available on almost every platform imaginable. There’s an extension for various popular browsers, a mobile app, and even a web wallet that can be accessed through any internet-enabled device. We can’t really recommend the latter, as it stores your private keys on the cloud, which increases the vulnerability of your wallet.
What’s great about Math Wallet is that, in addition to all of these platforms, it supports multiple blockchains. So if you are a creator that wishes to spread your NFT art across different blockchains and marketplaces, you’ll want to take a closer look at Math Wallet. It might become your one-stop shop for minting, selling, and managing your assets.
Note that, similar to Metamask, you can link it to a Ledger hardware wallet. This adds a 2-FA security layer to your assets and increases their safety considerably.
That said, not everything is great about this wallet. It’s pretty barebones when it comes to features and its UI is quite unintuitive.
Pros:
- Multi-platform (Chrome extension, smartphones, web wallet)
- Cross-chain, supports 70+ major blockchains
- Low on features
- Clunky interface
- Some recurring bugs and crashes
If you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, you must have heard about popular blockchain games such as Axie Infinity. The issue with this game and others like it is that their monetary ecosystem (NFTs and reward tokens) is strongly confined to a single game. Once the game goes offline, the assets become worthless.
Enjin solves this problem by providing an APK and open-source ecosystem where developers can integrate NFTs in their games using ENJ tokens. This means that each NFT can be minted with ENJ and melted back into ENJ. This allows users to keep the real-world value of their NFTs even if the game servers go offline in the future.
Furthermore, the Enjin team has also released a new blockchain protocol called ERC-1155. With it, developers can create fungible and non-fungible tokens under the same smart contract. This is extremely handy in gaming, as the developers can mint the in-game currency as a fungible token. At the same time, items and characters can be recorded as NFTs.
Of course, to store these ERC-1155 tokens, you will need to use the Enjin wallet, which is a mobile app for Android and iOS. This wallet is incredibly versatile, as, in addition to ETH and ENJ, it allows you to store popular coins such as Bitcoin and Polkadot.
Finally, the app includes an integrated token swap powered by no less than three partners including Bancor, Changelly and Kyber Network. Worth noting that it provides advanced security features such as fingerprint scanner biometrics.
Note: A new version of this wallet is in the works. This will be the bridge between Enjin and Efinity, a gaming blockchain project on the Polkadot ecosystem.
Pros:
- Stores Bitcoin, Polkadot, ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 tokens
- Fingerprint unlock feature
- Multiple functionalities (wallet, marketplace, dApp browser, exchange)
- Interface could use a little work
- Mobile-only
Distributed by the famous Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, this wallet has been slowly gaining ground as one of the best NFT wallets on the market. Coinbase is mainly known for its cryptocurrency exchange which was the first crypto-related business to be listed publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Coinbase name is a great selling point for beginner NFT collectors. The wallet enjoys continuous development from a well-established company and users can rely on support from a licensed and regulated company in the US.
That said, you shouldn’t confuse the Coinbase Wallet with the Coinbase App. The App is an extension of the Coinbase.com exchange and can be used to trade cryptocurrencies. The wallet, on the other hand, is an entirely standalone application for storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And just like all the wallets on our list, this app gives you full control of your private keys, and therefore, your tokens.
Coinbase users can link their Coinbase Wallet with their trading account and easily transfer funds from and to the wallet with no extra fees. It has an integrated dApp browser, so you can use it to launch decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap directly from the wallet.
Worth noting is that this is an ERC-20 wallet only, so it won’t support Bitcoin or any blockchain other than Ethereum for that matter.
Pros:
- Can be linked to your Coinbase.com account
- Simple and effective interface
- Trustworthy name from a renowned company
- Holds only Ethereum-based NFTs
- Can’t use Coinbase’s trading features with the wallet
Choosing an NFT marketplace
First, remember that an NFT (non-fungible token) simply represents ownership of an asset. Before choosing an NFT marketplace, you'll first want to decide the kind of digital asset you're interested in buying, selling, or creating. Just about anything digital -- the written word, videos, video games, art, collectors items, etc. -- can be tokenized on a blockchain (such as Ethereum (CRYPTO:ETH), the most common blockchain network NFTs are built on), so narrowing down your interest is a good place to start.
Another consideration is the type of tokens supported on a marketplace. Some support a wide variety of tokens. Others are closed marketplaces and utilize a specific proprietary token. When opening an NFT marketplace account, be sure to fund your blockchain wallet with the right crypto or token required to participate in the site's activity. You'll be prompted to link your wallet to the NFT marketplace once you've opened up an account. Also check to see what kind of security the marketplace has in force, and if it has had any issues in the past.
OpenSea - Visit Site
OpenSea is the leader in NFT sales. OpenSea has all sorts of digital assets available on its platform, and it's free to sign up and browse the extensive offerings. It also supports artists and creators and has an easy-to-use process if you want to create your own NFT (known as "minting").
The marketplace supports more than 150 different payment tokens, so the platform's name is appropriate. For an introduction to the NFT world, OpenSea is a great place to start.
Specifications
NFT type: Art, music, photography, collectibles, sports, virtual worlds, and more
Blockchain: Ethereum, Polygon, Klatyn
Reasons to buy
+Buy and sell all types of NFT+Accepts over 150 cryptocurrencies+Now also uses Polygon blockchain
Reasons to avoid
-Uses Ethereum, which has high gas and carbon fees
Axie Marketplace
Axie Marketplace is the online shop for the video game Axie Infinity. Axies are mythical creatures that can be bought and trained and then pitted against other players' Axies to earn rewards. On Axie Marketplace, players can buy new Axies, as well as entire lands and other items, as NFTs for use within the game.
Axie Infinity tokens (called Axie Shards) are built on the Ethereum blockchain. As such, they can be bought and sold on a variety of other NFT marketplaces, as well as on some cryptocurrency exchanges such as Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN).
Larva Labs/CryptoPunks
Larva Labs is best known for the viral CryptoPunks NFT project. They were originally given away for free back in 2017, but some CryptoPunks have sold for millions of dollars since then. Larva Labs has other digital art projects going such as Autoglyphs, as well as other Ethereum blockchain-based app development projects.
Larva Labs' CryptoPunks NFTs are sold out, but they can be bid on and bought from various third-party marketplaces. Nevertheless, Larva Labs' various projects are worth keeping tabs on -- including the Meebits, which can be bid on directly from the company's built-in marketplace.
NBA Top Shot Marketplace
NBA Top Shot is the National Basketball Association and Women's National Basketball Association's foray into the NFT world. On its marketplace, collectible moments (video clips and play highlights) and art can be purchased from the world's premier basketball leagues.
The NBA built it as a closed marketplace (you can only buy and sell on Top Shot) using the Flow blockchain built by Dapper Labs. It's easy to sign up and buy directly on the Top Shot marketplace website. Collectible moments can be purchased for as little as a few dollars.
Rarible Visit Site
Rarible is another large marketplace for all sorts of NFTs, similar to OpenSea. All kinds of art, videos, collectibles, and music can be bought, sold, or created on the platform. However, unlike OpenSea, you'll need to use the marketplace's own token Rarible (CRYPTO:RARI) to buy and sell on the marketplace. Rarible is built on the Ethereum blockchain (although artwork can be managed on OpenSea as well using Rarible tokens).
The company has partnered with some notable companies. Yum! Brands' (NYSE:YUM) Taco Bell has listed art on Rarible, and cloud software giant Adobe (NASDAQ:ADBE) recently partnered with Rarible to help secure NFT artists' and creators' work.
Specifications
NFT type: Art, photography, games
Blockchain: Ethereum, Flow, Tezos
Reasons to buy
+Choose from three blockchains+Community-owned+Can offer low carbon and gas fees
Reasons to avoid
-Can be dominated by big brands
Binance NFT - Visit Site
One of the largest and future-proof NFT marketplaces
One of the largest marketplaces around, and is supported by its own blockchain; Binance is one of the largest crypto exchanges. For these reasons Binance NFT is seen as one of the most future-proof NFT marketplaces. It's size and scale mean this marketplace can offer exclusive partnerships and events others may envy. If you have Binance tokens (BNB) accessing the marketplace is even easier, and you can you can use ETH, BNB, and BUSD to bid.
Reasons to buy
+Low fees, just 1%+Large and secure marketplace+Cash-out using Fiat
Reasons to avoid
-Not artist-friendly
SuperRare - Visit Site
Brings gallery attitude to the NFT space. It's an art-first marketplace that places credibility and artistic intent above meme-friendly-to-the-moon art. You won't find SuperRare filled with celebrity NFTs. It reportedly only accepts 1% of all artists who apply, which sounds snobbish but it also means you get a catalogue of highly curated and interesting artworks.
This approach makes SuperRare feel like a high-end gallery, and is further enhanced by only enabling its artists to mint one of their originals - no Editions here. This greats scarcity and as the name suggests, rarity. SuperRare is for serious art and artists, and is backed by a must-read editorial blog.
Similar to Rarible, SuperRare is also building a marketplace for digital creators. The site includes art, videos, and 3D images, but collectors can purchase artwork using Ethereum.
SuperRare recently announced its own token of the same name based on the Ethereum blockchain. The tokens will be used to find and curate new talent for the marketplace. Like Rarible, SuperRare NFTs can also be bought and sold on OpenSea.
Specifications
NFT type: Digital art
Blockchain: Ethereum
Reasons to buy
+Curated and rare artwork+Has a fine gallery mood+Fantastic editorial blog
Reasons to avoid
-Accepts low number of applicants
Foundation
Foundation.app was designed as a simple, no-frills way to bid on digital art. Sales are made using Ethereum. Since the marketplace's launch in early 2021, it has sold more than $100 million of NFTs.
Artists are invited to the platform by the Foundation community, and buyers simply need a crypto wallet funded with Ethereum to start making purchases. If you're looking for a quick and easy way to start creating your own NFTs, Foundation probably isn't the best place to begin, but the marketplace has plenty of artwork that can be perused in a simple format.
Nifty Gateway Visit Site
Nifty Gateway has facilitated the sale of some of the most popular digital artists such as Beeple and singer/musician Grimes. It's an art curation platform powered by the crypto exchange Gemini (controlled by the Winklevoss twins). The NFTs, known as Nifties, are built on Ethereum.
Besides being a curated platform, Nifty Gateway also hosts any NFTs purchased -- meaning the NFTs aren't stored in your own wallet but are actually stored for you by Nifty Gateway and Gemini. While that may not work for NFT collectors who want more flexibility with their art investments, Nifty purchases and sales also can be made in fiat currency (e.g., U.S. dollars) without making a cryptocurrency purchase first.
Specifications
NFT type: Digital art, verified and curated drops
Blockchain: Ethereum, backed by Gemini
Reasons to buy
+You can buy with Fiat currency+Makes use of limited Open Editions
Reasons to avoid
-Dominated by celebrity NFTs
Mintable
Mintable, backed by billionaire Mark Cuban, aims to be an open marketplace similar to OpenSea. To participate in buying and selling NFTs on Mintable, you'll need Ethereum. The platform also supports minting of NFTs for creators of all types (from photographers to musicians) who want to sell their work as a digital asset.
An aspiring NFT collector or creator will need to purchase Ethereum from a crypto exchange first, then connect their wallet to Mintable to facilitate bidding and buying on the marketplace.
Theta Drop
Theta is a blockchain platform built for the decentralized distribution of video and TV on the internet. The NFT marketplace Theta Drop made its debut in 2021 with the World Poker Tour's digital collectibles. The World Poker Tour was an early adopter of ThetaTV and uses the platform to stream content.
Theta utilizes its own blockchain technology. To participate in the Theta Drop NFT marketplace, you'll need to purchase Theta Token (CRYPTO:THETA). Various crypto exchanges such as Binance support Theta, and the tokens and NFTs purchased with them can be stored in a crypto wallet, as well as in Theta's own crypto wallet app.
Async Art - Visit Site
Async Art is an NFT marketplace known for 'programmable art'. Each work of art is made up of a Master and Layers; Masters are the entire NFT while Layers are separate elements that make up the art, and can be altered. Everything is 'Tokenized' meaning different artists can own different layers, and contribute to changing the artwork.
Programmable art is at the forefront of digital art, enabling multiple creators to alter an artwork over time, and it's a kind of NFT art that can't be shared on more traditional gallery platforms such as SuperRare. Async Art has recently launched Blueprints, enabling artists to create generative projects in the vein of Bored Apes.
Specifications
NFT type: Programmable art
Blockchain: Ethereum
Reasons to buy
+Forward-looking digital art+Supports multiple creators and owners+Blueprints offers a new opportunity
Reasons to avoid
-Some advanced NFT knowledge needed
Metamask – Best Crypto Wallet for Ethereum NFTs
Metamask is considered to be the most popular Ethereum-based wallet on the market. It allows you to store ETH, ERC-20 tokens created on the Ethereum network, and ERC-721 tokens. It comes as both a browser extension for popular browsers and a mobile app for iOS and Android. You can easily synchronize the browser and mobile apps, just by scanning a QR code with your phone.
Its code is entirely open-source, which allows the community to audit it for security issues and provide feedback for continuous improvement of the platform. Its simple user interface is a godsend for people getting started with crypto and NFTs as it won’t overwhelm you with useless data from the get-go.
We can even say that this is the most user-friendly Ethereum wallet as it can be seamlessly used to connect to some of the best NFT marketplaces, including OpenSea and Rarible. Once connected to these platforms, minting and handling collections becomes a breeze.
And while the added security to connect to a hardware wallet like Ledger or Trezor is a great feature, we would like to see Metamask include Google 2-factor authentication in the future. Considering you will be mainly using Metamask as a browser extension, 2-FA is essential to prevent phishing attacks.
For a more detailed guide on how to use some of Metamask’s advanced features, please check out the full review here.
Pros:
- Ease of use
- NFT marketplaces integration
- Open-source
- Integrated token swaps
- Integrated ETH purchases with credit and debit cards
- No 2-FA (except with a hardware wallet)
- Can be iffy when trying to display newly acquired NFTs.
- Best for Ethereum only.
Trust Wallet is backed by Binance and is one of the most popular crypto mobile wallets on the market. The app is compatible with both Android and iOS and provides a streamlined user experience, ideal for beginners in this niche. Collections are neatly organized and it even provides animated visualization of .gif NFTs and videos.
One of the main advantages of Trust Wallet is its cross-chain compatibility. This wallet allows you to store NFTs across different blockchains including popular solutions with low gas fees such as the Binance Smart Chain or Solana.
So in addition to storing your Ether, Bitcoin, and thousands of other popular cryptocurrencies, you can handle your NFT collection as well. Pretty practical, if you ask me. It also includes a dApp browser and you can use it to explore 53 different blockchains.
With that in mind, there’s one caveat; it only comes in a mobile version. This is not ideal if you are an artist or developer and you need to mint your own NFTs on your computer. Consequently, it’s a great collector’s wallet, but not the best when it comes to artists.
Pros:
- Great UI and graphical representation of your NFTs
- Supports 53 different blockchains
- Allows staking for passive income
- Only comes in Mobile app form
Math Wallet is another popular blockchain wallet option for storing NFTs and seems like the perfect all-arounder on the surface. The main appeal of Math Wallet is the multi-platform support, paired with cross-chain capability.
In fact, this wallet is available on almost every platform imaginable. There’s an extension for various popular browsers, a mobile app, and even a web wallet that can be accessed through any internet-enabled device. We can’t really recommend the latter, as it stores your private keys on the cloud, which increases the vulnerability of your wallet.
What’s great about Math Wallet is that, in addition to all of these platforms, it supports multiple blockchains. So if you are a creator that wishes to spread your NFT art across different blockchains and marketplaces, you’ll want to take a closer look at Math Wallet. It might become your one-stop shop for minting, selling, and managing your assets.
Note that, similar to Metamask, you can link it to a Ledger hardware wallet. This adds a 2-FA security layer to your assets and increases their safety considerably.
That said, not everything is great about this wallet. It’s pretty barebones when it comes to features and its UI is quite unintuitive.
Pros:
- Multi-platform (Chrome extension, smartphones, web wallet)
- Cross-chain, supports 70+ major blockchains
- Low on features
- Clunky interface
- Some recurring bugs and crashes
If you haven’t been living under a rock in the past year, you must have heard about popular blockchain games such as Axie Infinity. The issue with this game and others like it is that their monetary ecosystem (NFTs and reward tokens) is strongly confined to a single game. Once the game goes offline, the assets become worthless.
Enjin solves this problem by providing an APK and open-source ecosystem where developers can integrate NFTs in their games using ENJ tokens. This means that each NFT can be minted with ENJ and melted back into ENJ. This allows users to keep the real-world value of their NFTs even if the game servers go offline in the future.
Furthermore, the Enjin team has also released a new blockchain protocol called ERC-1155. With it, developers can create fungible and non-fungible tokens under the same smart contract. This is extremely handy in gaming, as the developers can mint the in-game currency as a fungible token. At the same time, items and characters can be recorded as NFTs.
Of course, to store these ERC-1155 tokens, you will need to use the Enjin wallet, which is a mobile app for Android and iOS. This wallet is incredibly versatile, as, in addition to ETH and ENJ, it allows you to store popular coins such as Bitcoin and Polkadot.
Finally, the app includes an integrated token swap powered by no less than three partners including Bancor, Changelly and Kyber Network. Worth noting that it provides advanced security features such as fingerprint scanner biometrics.
Note: A new version of this wallet is in the works. This will be the bridge between Enjin and Efinity, a gaming blockchain project on the Polkadot ecosystem.
Pros:
- Stores Bitcoin, Polkadot, ERC-20, ERC-721, and ERC-1155 tokens
- Fingerprint unlock feature
- Multiple functionalities (wallet, marketplace, dApp browser, exchange)
- Interface could use a little work
- Mobile-only
Distributed by the famous Coinbase cryptocurrency exchange, this wallet has been slowly gaining ground as one of the best NFT wallets on the market. Coinbase is mainly known for its cryptocurrency exchange which was the first crypto-related business to be listed publicly on the NASDAQ stock exchange.
The Coinbase name is a great selling point for beginner NFT collectors. The wallet enjoys continuous development from a well-established company and users can rely on support from a licensed and regulated company in the US.
That said, you shouldn’t confuse the Coinbase Wallet with the Coinbase App. The App is an extension of the Coinbase.com exchange and can be used to trade cryptocurrencies. The wallet, on the other hand, is an entirely standalone application for storing cryptocurrencies and NFTs. And just like all the wallets on our list, this app gives you full control of your private keys, and therefore, your tokens.
Coinbase users can link their Coinbase Wallet with their trading account and easily transfer funds from and to the wallet with no extra fees. It has an integrated dApp browser, so you can use it to launch decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap directly from the wallet.
Worth noting is that this is an ERC-20 wallet only, so it won’t support Bitcoin or any blockchain other than Ethereum for that matter.
Pros:
- Can be linked to your Coinbase.com account
- Simple and effective interface
- Trustworthy name from a renowned company
- Holds only Ethereum-based NFTs
- Can’t use Coinbase’s trading features with the wallet
