What is SolSea? The Solana NFT Marketplace

The Solana network is a blockchain platform that is continuously evolving and taking advantage of the ever expanding world of Web3 and NFT space. Amongst the numerous NFT marketplaces out there, Solana’s very own marketplace, Solsea, stands out from the crowd.

Being the first open NFT marketplace on the Solana network, SolSea offers various options for digital creators as well as collectors to buy and/or sell non-fungible tokens.

With over 80,000 active users on the platform to date, SolSea is quickly becoming an attractive alternative to the widely popular OpenSea. Take a closer look at what SolSea has to offer, and how you can get started yourself.

What is Solana? Read our guide for an intro on Solana (SOL).

What is SolSea?

As prefaced above, SolSea is an NFT marketplace of Solana’s very own network. Created around Q3 of 2021, SolSea offers various features in its NFT marketplace such as embedded licenses for each NFT, a rarity index, and various wallet funding options.

The great thing about SolSea is that they charge a nice value of transaction fee. As of this publication if you want to mint your collection, the cost will be 0.00135 SOL for each minted NFT. If we calculate it with the current market prices it will cost around $0.043 for each minted item.

Fun fact: The process of creating NFTs on the marketplace platform is called minting.

What is an NFT Marketplace?

An NFT marketplace is simply a platform where users can buy, sell, and create non-fungible tokens – whether that be single NFTs or collections of them. These collections can take any form of digital creations, with the only limitation being the imagination and idea of the creators.

What are NFTs?

NFTs are non-fungible tokens. That means they are unique and cannot be replaced by another token with the same value. This makes them very valuable, especially since they are completely digital. It’s also what enables them to be used as collectibles or even as art pieces!

NFT marketplaces are a very important part of the NFT space because they provide a place for people to buy and sell their digital assets. Marketplaces such as SolSea, Rarible, OpenSea, etc offer independent artists and creators to mint and monetize their creations.

Further reading: Knowing more about NFTs.

How to Buy and Sell NFTs in SolSea

Getting started with SolSea is quick and easy. Here’s what you’ll need:

A compatible crypto wallet: such as Phantom, Ledger, etc.
Cryptocurrencies to transact: SolSea currently supports Solana (SOL), and Fiat currencies (USD).

SolSea supports transactions in fiat currencies (USD) using FTX pay or Moonpay to fund your wallet.

Setting up your wallet

To trade NFTs inside SolSea, you’ll need the Phantom wallet, a non-custodial crypto wallet, also often referred to as a Web3 wallet.

Phantom was built in the Solana network and can be used to store cryptocurrencies and NFTs. The wallet also enables staking and connectivity to hardware wallets such as Ledger’s Nano S and Nano X.

The wallet can be used on both desktop and mobile apps. To get started, download the extension for your web browser from the official Phantom website if you’re using a desktop computer or laptop.

If you’re using a mobile app, search Phantom on the Apple Appstore or Google Play Store and download the app for your iOS or Android device.

Further Reading: How to Set Up Your Phantom Wallet?

How to buy NFTs in SolSea?

Once you’ve setup Phantom Wallet, you can start browsing and buying NFTs to add to your collection!

Before buying NFTs it’s worth looking into and researching about the project itself, what are the creators up to, what their intentions are for the NFT collection, and so on. Not all NFTs are created equally – some NFT are linked to a good cause such as fundraising and raising awareness for a certain issue, while others are created just for the sake of making profits.

That being said, check out our guide below on how to buy NFTs in SolSea!

Step-by-step on how to buy NFTs in SolSea:

Browse collections and get to know the project
Read the project’s whitepaper, roadmap, and social media profiles. If they have a discord community, join in and check out the activity. Also look at the project’s activity on SolSea.
To get your NFTs, you’ll need to buy some Solana (SOL).
You can buy NFTs on SolSea in two ways: by Buy NFT or by Place a Bid.

If you see a Buy NFT button on an item’s page, then it means that the seller has set a fixed price for their NFT.

When you click on this button, the seller will receive your payment and you’ll get your NFT. When it’s shown, make a bid, which means that its owner can set an auction duration.

If you wish to submit a bid, then you must specify your bid amount and make a payment before the end of the auction. If another user places a higher bid before the auction ends, then their bid will replace yours until someone else out bids them (or until the auction ends).
Congratulations on your first NFT purchase!
You’ll be notified by both your wallet and the platform that you completed a transaction.

How to create NFTs in SolSea?

Ok, let’s say you’ve had enough collecting and want to create your very own NFT? Easy as!

Step 1. Decide what you’re going to create

When you create and sell NFTs, you’re not selling a copy of your work. You are selling the exclusive right to own it. One of the values of NFTs is rarity and exclusivity.

SolSea has a unique system that allows creators to licence their work instead of selling it outright. If you’re creating digital art, but don’t want people to print out copies for themselves, this is definitely an option worth considering.

Take a closer look at how to drive value to the NFTs.

Step 2. Build you Community

Your community is arguably one of your most valuable assets when getting started with NFTs. It’s a group of people who share a common interest or activity, who are often linked by geography or interests. In the world of SolSea, it’s very important to have a strong community of fans.

You can start building your community by setting up an official page on social media platforms such as Facebook or Twitter where people can join your group or follow you on Instagram. The more active you are on these platforms, the more followers you’ll get and the more visibility you’ll get for your project.

Step 3. Create your NFTs

Now comes the step of actually issuing and listing your first NFT. Remember that you must use a crypto wallet to pay for minting fees by connecting it to the platform.

You will cost 0.00135 SOL per each NFT, so make sure you have put the amount of money needed in your crypto wallet.

First, go to the website (or app) and log in. Once you’re logged in, you’ll be able to access your crypto wallet.

Second, Next, go to the creator dashboard. It will look like this, and click “Create NFT”.

Third, you will go to the NFT Minting page and fill in the information needed to mint your NFT. Use a file that is not more than 10MB in size.

Fourth, finally once you’ve uploaded your creation, the subsequent page will inform you that your NFT is minted – congrats!

Takeaways

In summary, you can use SolSea to start your journey of buying and selling NFTs. As mentioned above, there are plenty of NFT Marketplaces out there where you can buy and sell different kinds of NFTs.

Easy Crypto will help you simplify your journey. We offer 160+ cryptocurrencies including Solana.

Buy SOl: add SOL to your crypto portfolio.

Stay tuned for more NFT topics! Explore our library of crypto coin fundamentals on our learning hub at Easy Crypto.

What is SolSea? The Solana NFT Marketplace