How to Create an NFT Marketplace

People are increasingly trying to learn how to create an NFT marketplace that rivals the likes of Opensea, Rarible, Blur.io and others.

The terms non-fungible token (NFT) and blockchain have gained notoriety in recent years as the next wave of digital asset ownership and trading. Just as financial institutions exist for the transfer, lending, and trading of fiat currencies, new marketplaces are emerging as the go-to places to buy, sell, and trade NFTs.

Below, we'll examine the specifics of how NFT marketplaces work, the essential characteristics required from each one, and tips on how to create an NFT marketplace of your own. 

Ready? Let's dive in!

How to Create NFT Marketplaces: Basic Things You Should Know

Before you jump into creating your own NFT marketplace, it is vital to understand the basics of how they work and what features are needed for them to be successful. 

What is the Blockchain?

The blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT) that enables secure and transparent transactions. It comprises individual blocks, each containing data about the transaction being processed. This data includes details like the sender and receiver and a digital signature from both parties to verify authenticity. 

Like a ledger, transactions are added onto the end of the chain in chronological order, and each block is cryptographically linked to its predecessor. This makes it virtually impossible for anyone to tamper with or alter the data stored on a blockchain.

What is an NFT Marketplace?

An NFT marketplace is an online platform that allows users to buy, sell, and trade NFTs. It acts as a bridge between NFT creators and NFT collectors. NFT marketplaces are a great way to showcase and sell your NFTs, and they also provide collectors with a one-stop shop for all their NFT needs.

Many NFT marketplaces like OpenSea provide minting functionality for their users, as well as lazy minting. Not sure what it means? Read more in our article!

How do NFT Marketplaces Work?

NFT marketplaces are similar to traditional online stores, allowing users to buy and sell goods. The difference is that, instead of buying physical items, NFT marketplaces enable purchasing and selling digital assets. These digital assets include artwork, music, videos, games, and more. 

When an item is purchased on a marketplace, it is stored on the blockchain as an NFT (non-fungible token). This ensures that each asset has its unique ID number, allowing for secure ownership tracking. 

Additionally, when someone buys or sells an NFT on the platform, their transaction will be recorded on the blockchain, providing a permanent record of ownership.

While these transactions are technically possible without a marketplace, they are often difficult and complex to execute. NFT marketplaces make the process much easier by providing less tech-savvy users with an easy-to-use platform that handles all the transaction details.

Top 3 Solutions That Will Help You Build NFT Marketplaces

Like anything else, the ways to make an NFT website are limited only by your creativity and innovation. But there are some popular solutions you should consider when building an NFT marketplace.

White Label NFT Platform

White label NFT platforms are pre-built, ready-to-go solutions that allow you to set up a marketplace quickly. They come with all the features and functionalities necessary for your users to buy, sell, and trade NFTs within your platform. All you need to do is customize it with your own branding and start selling.

Build NFT Marketplaces From Scratch

If you have the technological know-how or want granular control of every detail, you can build an NFT marketplace from scratch. This is more complicated and time-consuming, but it gives you the freedom to create exactly what you want without relying on third-party solutions.

NFT Marketplace Script

A solution known as an NFT marketplace script is somewhere between the two. This is pre-made code that can be customized to fit your needs. 

It's a good option for those who don't have the technical expertise to start from scratch but still want more control than what is offered by some white label NFT marketplace platforms.

How to Create NFT Marketplaces Like Opensea, Rarible, Blur and Other Top Platforms

Creating an NFT marketplace like Opensea or Rarible is not a simple task. These platforms have spent years perfecting their offerings and building their user bases, and it will take a lot of time and effort to replicate their success. 

However, if you're up for the challenge, here are the steps you’ll need to take to learn how to start your own NFT project.

How to Create an NFT Marketplace Like Opensea

The biggest selling point of Opensea is that it is a non-custodial marketplace. That means that users never have to deposit their NFTs into the platform, and the marketplace user experience gives a clear understanding of what action user approves at every step of the sale process or give up control of them. This is a big draw for collectors, who often don’t want to risk having their investments locked away in someone else’s wallet or contract. 

Besides, Opensea indexes all NFT collection events like mints and transfers on the supported blockchains. To build the indexing solution, you need deep understanding in how NFT standards and smart contract events work and also need expertise in scalable software infrastructure.

To replicate Opensea, you will need to build your own smart contracts or use Opensea’s Seaport Protocol and establish off-chain infrastructure. This may sound daunting, but there are numerous tutorials available online that can help get you started, though the task requires expertise in software development. 

Additionally, if you don’t feel comfortable coding yourself, then it might be worth hiring a developer with blockchain experience to help out.

How to Create an NFT Marketplace Like Rarible

At one point, Rarible held the unique selling point of being able to design, generate, and mint your own NFTs. This feature has since been copied by a number of other platforms, but it is still a popular target if you decide to create your own NFT marketplace. 

In order to replicate this feature, you will need to design your own platform-specific tokenomics and minting process. That will require a good understanding of blockchain technology and smart contracts, and opens up a good amount of liability if done incorrectly. 

It is highly recommended that you hire a blockchain developer to help you out with this step, as the risks are not usually worth taking on alone.

How to Create an NFT Marketplace Like LooksRare

While Looksrare doesn't have the ability to mint, it exploded onto the scene with what was eventually called a "vampire attack." It effectively backpacked on Opensea's success by offering a shockingly similar user experience, only with one major difference: it offered far lower fees.

 LooksRare also offered new sale mechanics such as collection offers which Opensea lacked at a time. LooksRare has built a more scalable smart contract protocol working much more decentralized than the Wyvern Protocol that Opensea used at the time. Combining new experience with their own token launch and fees revenue as a staking incentive for token holders, LooksRare became one of the most used NFT Marketplaces.

In order to replicate this feature, you will need to understand how the Ethereum network works and build a platform that can leverage its low transaction costs.

Additionally, you'll need to think of ways to incentivize users to join your platform instead of going elsewhere. This could include offering discounts or loyalty rewards for using your marketplace over others. 

How to Create an NFT Marketplace Like X2Y2

For a relative newcomer like X2Y2, the significant differentiator is their internal coin. While this isn't unique, it does offer an interesting twist on something like Opensea, which has avoided a token because of future IPO possibilities. 

They also implemented NFT lending, which is a process to improve the liquidity of NFTs. The idea is that you can use your NFT as collateral to borrow fiat or cryptocurrency more quickly than you could find a specific buyer for your NFT. 

These features will require a significant understanding of how cryptocurrency works and, likely, your own coin or token. You'll also need to create a platform that allows users to easily exchange their coins for NFTs. 

This could be done through a decentralized exchange, but it might be worth looking into other options, such as atomic swaps or layer-2 scaling solutions like Optimism. 

How to Create an NFT Marketplace Like Blur

Blur.io is one of the most recent but rapidly growing players among largest NFT marketplaces. It focuses on swift trading of NFTs and user experience for traders rather than collectors. Blur incentivises usage with 0% market fees and their token airdrop.

To replicate Blur, you need to create a solution with high-load proof infrastructure and to build the user experience with focus on trading, quite contrast to the UX of a more traditional Opensea NFT marketplace.

Building an NFT Platform on the Desired Blockchain

To create any of these marketplaces, you'll have to decide which blockchain you want to build your platform on.

Building an NFT Platform on Ethereum

The most common blockchain for NFT marketplaces is Ethereum. Ethereum NFT marketplace development has several advantages that make it the perfect choice, including smart contracts, and a large user base. 

Building an NFT platform on Ethereum requires technical knowledge and expertise in Solidity used to build on this blockchain, as well as general software development expertise to build backend and frontend solutions for NFT Marketplace.

Solana NFT Marketplace Development

Solana, on the other hand, is another popular choice for NFT marketplaces. The biggest difference is that Solana is a Proof of History (PoH)  blockchain, as opposed to the Proof of Work (PoW) of Ethereum and other blockchains. Generally, PoH offers faster and more efficient transactions but can be considered less secure than PoW.

You will need to have the expertise in Rust to create Solana NFT Marketplace, and build the user-facing marketplace application as well.

Building a Cardano NFT Platform

Cardano is based on a Proof of State (PoS) consensus algorithm and has been gaining traction (though it still needs to catch up to Ethereum and Solana). The idea of PoS is that instead of relying on miners to validate transactions, the network relies on stakeholders – those who hold tokens. 

That significantly drops the energy costs of the network and can potentially lead to much faster transactions.

Building this, however, requires a deep understanding of Haskell and other programming languages used for Cardano NFT marketplace development.

NFT Marketplace Development Cost

The overall cost of developing an NFT marketplace is impossible to predict as it depends on a huge number of factors. Things that can drastically impact your overall NFT marketplace cost include:

• The complexity of the platform
• The blockchain you choose to build on
• The number of features you want to include 
• Your team's experience and skillset 

It is also important to make sure that the mint cost is efficient and comfortable for your NFT marketplace users. Providing possibilities like lazy mint can increase the adoption of your marketplace to less crypto-savvy artists and creators.

Luckily, there are whitelabel NFT Marketplace solutions that can speed up the development and give you a possibility to try it for your business. Using whitelabel solutions is cheaper and faster, though you won’t have much control and customization possibilities in this case.

Generally, though, the cost to build an NFT marketplace might require a significant investment. It is important to thoroughly research the costs associated with each step before committing any money. 

Why Choose Aegas for Developing an NFT Marketplace?

One way to secure a reliable and cost-effective service for your NFT marketplace is to outsource the development process. Aegas is an experienced blockchain company that specializes in custom NFT marketplace development. 

Aegas has experience with multi-chain NFT Marketplace development, as well as a wide range of programming languages used to develop them. They also offer full-stack services, meaning they can handle every aspect of your project from design to deployment and further project support. 

Overall, if you're looking for a reliable partner who can help you create a successful NFT marketplace at an affordable price, Aegas is an excellent choice.