Hearing a lot of hype around NFTs and unsure where to get started?
This guide is for you.
With less than $50 and an hour of your time, you'll learn:
1. How to set up and fund a crypto wallet
2. How to find an NFT to buy on OpenSea, the largest NFT marketplace
3. How to buy the NFT with crypto
An NFT, or non-fungible token, is a digital asset stored on a blockchain. NFTs can be sold and traded, and might be associated with photos, audio, or collectibles.
Disclaimer: Nothing in this guide is legal or financial advice of any kind. It is important that you do your own research and make your own investment decisions.
The first step to purchasing an NFT is to create a crypto wallet. A crypto wallet allows you to send, receive, and spend cryptocurrencies. We'll use the MetaMask wallet, which is available as a Google Chrome extension. MetaMask is one of the most popular wallets available and is trusted by over 21 million users globally.
Head to metamask.io/download from your Google Chrome browser, then click "Install MetaMask for Chrome."
Click "Add to Chrome."
Click "Get Started."
Next, we'll create a new MeaMask wallet.
You'll be prompted to share usage data with MetaMask, which is optional.
Next, create password to keep your wallet secure.
After creating a password, you'll be given information about your wallet's Secret Recovery Phrase.
This 12-word phrase can be used to access the wallet and all the funds in it. For instance, you could use this phrase on the MetaMask mobile app or on another computer to access the wallet. Thus, it is paramount to keep the phrase secure. Watch MetaMask's video about this, and follow their recommendations for storing the Secret Recovery Phrase in a safe place.
If you'd like, you can tap the blue text to download the Secret Recovery Phrase. If you do so, move it to a secure, encrypted external drive.
After reading all of the information about keeping your Secret Recovery Phrase safe, verifying that you know the phrase, and storing it somewhere safe, click "All Done."
Next, we'l buy some ETH cryptocurrency. ETH is the native currency of the Ethereum blockchain, and is commonly used to purchase NFTs. If you already have ETH, you can directly deposit it to your wallet. Otherwise, follow the below steps to purchase ETH with Wyre and a debit card.
You can purchase up to $1,000 of ETH on Wyre, and more if you verify your identity. $50 worth of ETH should be enough to complete this guide. Note that there will be some additional fees associated with purchasing ETH with Wyre.
You will need to have enough ETH to purchase a low cost NFT (which could cost as little as 0.001 ETH), as well as enough ETH to cover the gas fees for the transaction of purchasing the NFT. Check out the Ethereum Gas Tracker to get an idea of the average current gas fee associated with an NFT sale on OpenSea.
After choosing an amount and clicking "Next," your order will process.
Soon, you should be able to see the ETH in your MetaMask wallet!
Next, we will find an NFT to purchase. We'll use OpenSea, which is the largest marketplace for NFTs. Feel free to browse the site for collections you're interested in. OpenSea offers digital art, collectibles, trading cards, and more.
If you're looking for a very low cost NFT, consider the collections "Cheap NFTs For Sale" or "Cheapest NFT Ever."
If the NFT is available for sale, you can click "Buy now." Otherwise, you might consider making an offer, or placing a bid for auction listings.
Select your MetaMask wallet to continue.
Follow the prompts to connect OpenSea to MetaMask.
You'll need to accept OpenSea's Terms of Service.
If you're purchasing an NFT from an unreviewed collection, you'll need to check the box stating that you understand that. Be very careful to ensure you are purchasing a legitimate NFT whenever you're purchasing something of high value.
When ready, you can agree to OpenSea's Terms of Service and confirm checkout. A few more steps (which are listed below) may be necessary before the checkout can be completed.
Note that the NFT you're interested in purchasing may have a purple diamond representing the currency, rather than a black diamond. The purple diamond means that even though you're using the ETH currency to purchase the NFT, the blockchain the transaction takes place on is Polygon, not Ethereum.
In general, lower-cost NFTs listed on OpenSea are on the Polygon blockchain, and more expensive projects are typically available on the Ethereum Mainnet.
Like Ethereum, Polygon is a blockchain. Polygon provides secure, instant transactions with several cryptocurrencies, including ETH.
An advantage of Polygon is that when purchasing NFTs on Polygon, you do not need to pay "gas fees," which are the fees required to conduct transactions on Ethereum. This makes Polygon an economical choice when purchasing lower-cost NFTs. However, a gas fee is required when transferring ETH from the Ethereum Mainnet to the Polygon network.
In the following steps, we'll deposit some ETH from our MetaMask wallet into Polygon so we can finish purchasing the NFT.
OpenSea will prompt you to select an amount of ETH to deposit onto Polygon. This should be at least the cost of the NFT you'd like to purchase. Then, click convert.
You'll need to confirm the deposit in MetaMask.
It may take up to 45 minutes for the deposit to finish.
Once you've made the deposit, click "unlock."
Sign the transaction.
Also, sign a message using your wallet.
After completing these steps, congratulations! You have purchased your first NFT.
Visit opensea.io/account to view your NFT.
Remember that NFT valuations can be volatile. Be careful when investing, and be sure to purchase only reputable projects.
If your NFTs are highly valuable, consider storing them in "cold storage," such as a hardware wallet by Ledger or Trezor.