Non-fungible tokens use blockchain technology and are typically bought and sold with cryptocurrency on NFT marketplaces. But how much does it cost to buy an NFT? This guide explains how much NFTs typically cost and what you can expect as a minimum investment.
So what’s the minimum cost to buy an NFT?
According to CoinMarketCap, the average cost of NFT transactions is around $288 based on a total of $35,027,885.86 exchanged across 121,548 transactions.
It can cost less than $1 plus the cost of gas to mint your transaction, while popular NFTs can cost $1,000 or more.
While many NFTs are listed for free or at very low prices, popular NFTs like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club sell for 6-7 Figures. There are still plenty of opportunities to buy low-cost NFTs as newly listed projects and collections typically start at much lower prices.
There are several factors that determine the price of an NFT. Here are the main ones:
- The cryptocurrency used: each NFT is bought and sold with one type of cryptocurrency, so the fiat price of an NFT goes up and down with the value of the cryptocurrency.
- The selling price: NFT creators and sellers can list their NFT on a marketplace like Opensea at any price. Well-known NFT creators can often list their NFTs at higher prices, while new NFT creators might list at a very low price initially to gain market interest.
- The quality and quantity of the collection: NFTs are often released in collections of thousands of similar unique creations. There are also NFTs that aren’t part of a large collection and are a single unique item like a song or artwork. Some artists prefer to focus on quality rather than quantity and choose to sell a small collection or individual NFTs at higher prices.
- The type of NFT: there are several main categories of NFT and some of them are used as a utility rather than strictly something to buy and sell. For example, NFT domains are used to simplify cryptocurrency payment addresses with human readable names. Some NFTs are used to grant access to a community, game, or virtual world. NFTs with a utility focus are typically less expensive than collectable NFTs because they are released in much larger collections.
- The market value: the value of an NFT can go up or down depending on the market’s perceived value of the NFT. If the market’s perceived value of the NFT goes down, sellers may have to lower their prices in order to get the attention of interested buyers. NFTs can also increase in price due to the rarity of the NFT increasing as collections are bought up.
- The cost to mint the NFT: The process of turning an asset into an NFT (minting) requires it to be encrypted on a blockchain, which has costs associated to it (gas) that can also contribute to how NFTs are priced.
NFT marketplaces also charge a transaction fee when you buy an NFT. The fee is usually included in the price of the NFT. OpenSea charges a 2.5% fee for every transaction.
While there are a lot of factors at play for determining the value of an NFT you can still acquire NFTs at low costs or even no cost at all. Let’s explore some low and no-cost NFT options.
Buying NFTs with a low minimum investment
There isn’t a set minimum price to buy NFTs. If you want to buy an NFT with a low minimum investment all you’ll need is some cryptocurrency and a crypto wallet. One of the most popular marketplaces to buy NFTs is OpenSea. The most common cryptocurrency used on Opensea is Ethereum.
Let’s say you bought $50 worth of Ethereum, which gets you a fractional amount of an Ether coin. You would have enough Ethereum to buy a low-cost NFT.
Once you create an account on an NFT marketplace and attach your crypto wallet you’re ready to start exploring the marketplace to buy an NFT. Some NFTs are listed for immediate purchase, while others require you to make an offer or bid on an NFT.
At the time of writing this post, there are 134,024 items listed on OpenSea for sale that cost 0.01-0.02 ETH. All of these NFTs offer a very low minimum investment. Once you have purchased an NFT you can list it back on the marketplace to sell at a higher price, or hold onto it for a while and wait for the value to increase.
Acquiring NFTs with no investment
There are several ways to acquire NFTs without any kind of monetary investment. Some common ways include following upcoming NFT projects on social media for giveaways, playing play-to-earn NFT games, NFT AirDrops, or minting your own NFT.
- NFT giveaways: When NFT creators are working on a project they often do token giveaways as a way to attract buyers and gain or retain market interest. When Cryptopunks launched in 2017 the NFTs were given out for free to anyone with a crypto wallet. Following NFT projects on social media is a great way to stay in the loop about potential NFT giveaways.
- Play-to-earn NFT games: NFT gaming is rapidly growing. Some games already have over a million players. Most NFT games offer a play-to-earn model. All you need to do is sign up for the game and play it to start earning NFTs. The NFTs you earn can be used in-game and will become more valuable over time and can be sold for cryptocurrency. Some popular play-to-earn NFT games include Axie Infinity, DeFi Kingdoms, and Alien Worlds.
- NFT AirDrops: If you’re willing to follow an NFT project and engage with them online you could be rewarded with NFTs being deposited directly into your wallet via an AirDrop. One of the most well-known AirDrops was OpenDAO’s $SOS token that was released to everyone who had interacted with OpenSea prior to December 2021.
- Minting your own NFT: Another great way to get into NFTs is to simply make your own. This option isn’t totally free but anyone can create an NFT. You just need a wallet with some crypto in it, a unique asset to sell as an NFT, and a marketplace to sell it on. Some fees will apply when creating an NFT such as the cost of recording a transaction on a blockchain (gas) and marketplace fees.
What low-cost NFT should you buy?
If you want to buy NFTs and you don’t want to invest large sums of money you can shop around for low-priced NFTs and do some research to see if the collections you like are gaining in popularity. You can also look at how quickly the collection is being purchased. Once an entire collection of NFTs is purchased the prices will typically go up because they will become more rare and increase in value.
Most NFT marketplaces like OpenSea offer data on the trading activity of an NFT. This allows you to get an understanding of how much interest the collection has as well as the average price and how many NFTs within the collection are being traded in a day. The image above highlights that the average price of an NFT in the collection is 0.13 ETH and over 450 are being bought and sold daily.
You can also find NFT projects that are soon to be released. A great place to look is CoinMarketCap’s upcoming NFT Sales page. Find ones you’re interested in and stay in the loop as the project develops. This allows you to take advantage of possible promotions, giveaways, AirDrops, and low initial prices.
The market is always changing. So be sure to do your research. Starting with a small investment is a great way to get involved and learn about the NFT market with minimal risk.
