NFTs or Non Fungible Tokens as they are commonly called are taking the world by storm. As of writing this, the NFT market cap is around $5,623,836, which is susceptible to change as per the market. This high growth momentum the technology has found itself into is not just benefiting the NFT owners and creators but also the marketplaces they are being hosted on.
Marketplaces like OpenSea, Rarible, Superfarm, etc. have become the epicenter of funding and high revenue – A sign that every business model that NFT is touching is turning into gold. But what makes the NFT marketplace the epicenter is the fact that it hosts multiple NFTs – meaning the source of revenue that it opens is much greater than direct NFT creation and selling.
While the pieces around NFT development and the cost it incurs are weeding across the internet, we are going to dive a bit deeper. In this article, we are going to look into the cost of NFT marketplace development and what blockchain enthusiast entrepreneurs need to know when they enter the space and develop NFT platform.
Table of Content
What to Know Before You Set Off Your Plans to Build an NFT Marketplace?
How Does an NFT Marketplace Works?
The Must-have Features for NFT Marketplace Development
How Can Appinventiv Help You Build an NFT Marketplace?
What is an NFT Marketplace?
The important element of knowing how to create NFT marketplace is to know what it is. An NFT marketplace is an online marketplace where creators sell their non-fungible virtual products and the buyers procure them by using cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ether. The marketplace charges a transaction amount every time an NFT is purchased off their platform.
After the NFT is purchased, the buyer gets a token which is a unique identifier that contains proof of ownership and information about provenance, author, and authenticity.
In case you are looking for a primer on NFT, head on to our article – What is NFT And How Does It Works – A Detailed Guide.
Now as we know how to buy NFT tokens and what is NFT, let’s discuss the top NFT marketplaces:
The top NFT marketplaces
Now that we have established how expansive the NFT marketplace is becoming and where to buy NFT, there are some things that every NFT marketplace development company wants you to know before you get on the track of development.
What to Know Before You Set Off Your Plans to Build an NFT Marketplace?
Non-fungible token standards
Standards are the driving force of an NFT. They guarantee that the asset will act in a specific way and showcases how to interact with the asset’s basic functionalities.
At present, there are two standards that are commonly used for creating an NFT:
- ERC721: The standard uses mapping of unique identifiers to the addresses that represent the owner of the identifier. It offers a permissioned way of transferring the assets using the ‘transferFrom’ method.
- ERC1155: Under this standard, the IDs do not just represent one asset but a class of assets. Compared to the ERC721 standard, this is a lot more efficient. Here’s how. Suppose a user wishes to transfer 100 armors, the blockchain developers, in the backend, will have to modify the smart contract state for 100 unique tokens. ERC1155 enables developers to call only transferFrom with 100 quantities.
Non-fungible token metadata
In the NFT space, there is a concept called ownerOf. It offers a way to look up the owner of an NFT. For example, when you search for ownerOf(290491) on ABC NFT’s smart contract, you can see the owner of the token 290491 is XYZ – this information can then be verified on marketplaces like OpenSea.
But how do OpenSea like platforms understand what item 290491 is and what are its unique attributes? This is where the metadata comes into play. Metadata offers descriptive information for specific token ID such as pictures, descriptions, or any additional traits.
Besides the nomenclatures, there is one thing that every first-time entrepreneur struggles with – knowing the legal documentations for building the best NFT crypto platform.
Legal documentation for building the best NFT marketplace
- Company formation
- Terms of service
- Community standards
- Privacy policy
- IP consideration details.
How Does an NFT Marketplace Work?
NFTs, as you must know from our NFT guide article, run on smart contracts. Every token has a set of unique information recorded in a smart contract and a blockchain to provide security and immutability.
The working of NFT goes with these simple steps:
Step 1
Usually, all the NFT marketplaces work on a common flow. The user signs up on the platform and installs a digital wallet where they store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. They then create their collection by displaying the work and choose the payment token they’d like to accept for their digital item.
Step 2
The next step is either selecting a bid for the auction or keeping a fixed price. When an item is listed, a transaction is created which launches a smart contract for the user’s wallet.
Step 3
Once you approve the platform’s collection moderation request the NFTs appear on the list of sales where you can then accept bids.
In return for the work that the platform does for transferring funds and NFTs, the marketplace charges some fees on the selling amount.
Now that you have the prerequisite knowledge of the NFT marketplace space and its working, let us come to the engineering side of one of the trending blockchain development solutions. The entire cost of it is dependent on the NFT marketplace features set it contains – information which we will be looking into in the next section.
How Much Does It Cost To Create an NFT?
We’ve arrived at an intriguing question that everyone wants to know the solution to: how much does it cost to build an NFT marketplace? Or what is the cost of NFT development?
Well, everything is dependent on the amount of work required. For example, the cost will be reduced if you choose to use a ready-made solution that is ready to use.
Starting an NFT marketplace with a popular clone script will save you money and make it more accessible to startups and entrepreneurs. An exact price can’t be told without knowing the requirements and specifications, however the fundamental elements of the NFT marketplace clone script usually costs around $100K -500K. Again, this is not the fixed amount, but just an estimation.
The price may increase depending on the customizations you need to meet your business needs. If you want to build your own NFT marketplace from the ground up, then the cost for that will be higher than the ready-made solution.
The platform functionality follows the same pattern. You’ll have to spend more money on marketplace development if your requirements lead to a complicated platform (one with dynamic features that haven’t been done previously). Not only the platform but also the tools and technologies used, they too determine the cost. As it is said, the more the merrier, but everything comes with a price and the price with extra additions will surely be more.
Now we will discuss the must have features for NFT Marketplace that cannot be ignored.
The Must-have Features for NFT Marketplace Development
- Storefront – The section of the marketplace provides users with information around the article: details, owner, bids, price history, etc.
- Search functionality – The platform must support category tagging and management functionality which would make it easy for the users to look for collectibles that they are willing to buy.
- Create listing – This feature of the marketplace is centered around the sellers. The platform should allow users the feasibility to create listings where they can add in their NFT details.
- Auction and Buy – An efficient NFT buying system is a must-have part of the NFT marketplace development services. You should give users the option to add bid amount, expiration date, and a watchlist showing details of the bid’s status.
- Wallet – Your users will have to make use of wallets for sending, receiving, and storing NFTs and cryptocurrencies. You can either create your own wallet in-app or integrate existing wallets inside the application to make the experience frictionless.
While these are the must-have features of an NFT marketplace, there are a number of other features as well such as the ability to create NFTs, multi-payment gateway integration, etc. Entrepreneurs have the option to merge NFT platforms, NFT crypto platforms, and NFT trading platforms – all in one space.
Considering the wide spectrum of the NFT feature range, it can be extremely difficult to allocate a price range when you build an NFT marketplace like discussed. What we advise is that you contact our team of Blockchain developers and let them brainstorm and then share the price range with you.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q. Can I create my own NFT?
Ans: Yes, you can create your own NFT with 5 simple steps.
- Choose the form of your NFT
- Set up your digital wallet
- Choose your NFT marketplace
- Tokenize your art
- List on the marketplace
Q. Can we tokenize anything to NFT?
Ans: Yes, practically everything can be tokenized to NFT. Anything that a user is prepared to offer and that has a distinct feature. That will almost certainly increase its value.
Q. Which is the most popular NFT Marketplace platform?
Ans: Here are some of the most well-known NFT platforms leading the race.
- Rarible
- Open sea
- SuperRare
- Foundation
How Can Appinventiv Help You Build an NFT Marketplace?
Now that you know the working and the features of the NFT market, the next step is to connect with a blockchain development company in USA that can help you convert your idea into a highly profitable marketplace with their custom NFT marketplace development specialization.
Having developed NFT marketplaces, we understand the space inside out. We can offer you the options of both: building a custom NFT marketplace or developing one which is based on OpenSea SDK. In addition to the marketplace, we can also help you with the creation of NFTs that are specific to your brand – as a way to expand your revenue model.
Irrespective of what your business idea is, we are here to help you turn it into a revenue-friendly reality when we develop the NFT platform.