OpenSea is one of the premiere and leading marketplaces for all kinds of NFTs. It is the largest P2P (peer-to-peer) online marketplace for buying and selling NFTs at a fixed price or through auctions. OpenSea was co-founded in America by Devin Finzer and Alex Atallah in December 2017. The masterpiece platform is headquartered in New York City as it stood out among its contemporaries and became a haven for all kinds of NFTs across several blockchains. OpenSea shelters several categories of NFTs like arts, collectibles, domain names, music, photography, sport, utility NFTs, and virtual worlds.
This guide is an extension to the previous treatise, ‘A Comprehensive Guide on How to Use OpenSea – Part 1‘, where we dived into how to set up an account, mint, list, buy, and sell NFTs on OpenSea. In this extension, we’ll dive into how to use the essential features on OpenSea for optimum user experience.
How to Find Trending Projects on OpenSea
Aside from individual minting and listing of NFTs, the bulk of NFTs on OpenSea are collections of various projects from reputable and outstanding NFT companies like Dapper Labs, Yuga Labs, Larva Labs, Forte Labs, and more.
In order to find trending NFT projects in the pool of hundreds of thousands of NFTs on OpenSea, visitors can scroll down the OpenSea homepage to reveal a list of the top 10 trending NFT projects.
These projects were not just handpicked or enlisted by paying for publicity; they made it to the list by the merit of their trading statistics.
How to Delve Further into OpenSea’s Statistics
It’s simple. At the top right corner of the homepage, users can navigate to the “Stats” tab and click on “Ranking” from the drop-down menu.
The collection stats will default to the ‘Top’ NFTs, so, click the “Trending” tab to reveal details on the latest high-flying digital assets.
In the image above, the Grails III Mint Pass tops the list of trending NFTs on OpenSea. From the description of this NFT, it is a limited pass to an upcoming event with just 377 NFTs available. According to the above statistics, it has the highest floor price (minimum or least price) and volume (trading volume) in the last 24 hours.
The two significant metrics used in this ranking are the floor price and trading volume. That’s why the MERGE VV ranks second even with its greater positive 32,292% change, sales (6,388), and unique owners (2,498). The trading volume of 302 ETH and floor price of 2.70 ETH placed the Grails III Mint Pass higher, unlike the MERGE VV which has 24 hours trading volume of 101 ETH and a floor price of 0.01 ETH.
Visitors can also use this approach to determine a trending project or which project will trend soon on OpenSea. YAs such, they can use these statistics to devise an investment plan as deemed fit, as trending projects usually attract higher prices due to higher demands.
How to Learn About the Trading History or Data of an NFT
The next deterministic feature to look at is the trading history and data. This could help make informed decisions about whether to purchase or back off. To check the trading history of a particular NFT, click the preferred asset.
Using Ape Moss, as an example, its transaction history and other information can be verified by clicking on the particular NFT. Then scroll down to view its trading history, including the time it was minted, sales, and transfer from whom to whom.
From the information above, the Ape Moss was minted two years ago and was sold at 0.08 ETH by user 0908 to PartyFinanceHackedWallet a year ago. It was transferred to the buyer at the same time, and the buyer also transferred it to PartyFinance, eight months ago.
Let’s use another NFT with more history
Mutant Ape #12668 was minted by Bernie_Straw a year ago and has traded wallets. The image below reveals 11 months of trading history hitherto.
The usefulness of the above data is to fish out shady sales that can mislead investors or enthusiasts. For instance, an NFT holder can sell an NFT to themself at an outrageous price and keep to the trend for five to six trades with different accounts and wallets.
How to Spot These Shenanigans
Collectors can monitor this by correlating buyers’ and sellers’ accounts. If a previous seller’s account shows up after 3-4 trades or transfers, it’s likely a wash trading to fool intending buyers that the NFT is highly sought after.
Furthermore, users can also make informed decisions with the price history of the token they intend to purchase. The image below is the price history of Mutant Ape #12668, which reflects the upward and downward price trend of the NFT from the minting date to the present time.
The data above shows that this NFT value surged from January to May 2022 before it dipped and maintained a static price. A prudent investor might conclude that for this particular NFT to survive an unprecedented crypto bear market, it’ll be an excellent piece to keep. In contrast, another investor might interpret it to be otherwise.
How to Use Filters to Find Rare NFTs
Rarity is a significant factor in pricing NFTs; it measures the rareness of an NFT’s attributes. All NFT collections usually have rare items with distinctive attributes, i.e., their attributes are found in very few NFTs. Such NFTs are ranked and priced higher than others due to the scarcity of their components.
Though several online tools calculate the rarities of NFTs based on different standards, users can also use the OpenSea filter to discover these gems.
How?
Click on the preferred NFT collection and click the “Price low to high” drop-down tab at the top right corner above the listed NFTs. Most NFTs with rare attributes are usually “priced higher, most viewed, and most favorited” by investors and enthusiasts.
For the higher price filter, click the “Price high to low” tab to view the listed items from their highest to lowest price ranks. If there are few NFTs in such a collection, collectors can do a technical sorting by going through their attributes. By standard, NFTs with small percentages of shared attributes are rarer than those with common or higher percentages of attributes. Let’s consider the following examples.
The first traits (attributes) belong to one of the low-priced Mutant Apes, while the second belongs to one of the highly-priced Mutant Apes. From the above, both NFTs have the exact trait count (7), but the second NFT is rarer than the first because 2% of the entire 20,000 NFTs in the collection shares 4 traits with it, while the first NFT only shares 2 traits with 2% NFTs in the collection. The essence of these percentages depicts the rareness of each trait; if an NFT shares most of its traits with 2% or lesser percentage of the NFTs in the collection, then its rarity scorecard ranks higher than others.
For some NFT collections, the lowest rarity percentage might be greater than 2%; it might be 5% or more. What determines this is the least percentage in each collection. Visitors can also use the above technicalities to confirm if an NFT is overpriced or not because a piece might be aesthetic to an enthusiast and priced higher, while it is not appealing to the potential buyer.
Aside from using filters to find rare NFTs, the search field can also help filter and search for specific NFTs with their names, number tags, collections, or users’ accounts.
How to Stay Safe on OpenSea
Con artists are on a rampage in the decentralized space, leaving no niche undisturbed. Users on OpenSea must be vigilant in their platform usage to avoid being a victim of fraudulent schemes. Below are a few tips to stay safe on OpenSea
- Avoid Fake or Mimicked NFTs – Several high profile collections on the OpenSea marketplace sit among a hundred million NFTs. It is easier for con artists to fraudulently mint and list dummy NFTs with reputable project names to fool unsuspecting enthusiasts. For instance, someone can mint and name an NFT “Bored Aped” or “Bored Yacht.” While such NFTs appealing may seem appealing, users must remember that such NFTs have nothing to do with the reputable BAYC brand. Furthermore, such NFTs can lose value anytime because they are mainly created with no utility.
- Secure the crypto wallet with a strong password.
- Avoid signing outrageous transactions from suspicious NFT airdrops.
- Conduct thorough research before buying NFTs.
- Ensure you purchase NFTs from reputable or verified projects.
- Don’t purchase NFTs based on media hype.
Conclusion
OpenSea is one of the reputable online marketplaces for NFT minting and trading. The platform has maintained its rank with flexible features to achieve a seamless user experience. Although the Ethereum network is the most prevalent, OpenSea is also compatible with the BNB chain, Avalanche, Arbitrum, Solana, Klaytn, Optimism, and Polygon.
Take a look at ‘A Comprehensive Guide on How To Use OpenSea – Part 1’ >> Here
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*All investment/financial opinions expressed by NFT Plazas are from the personal research and experience of our site moderators and are intended as educational material only. Individuals are required to fully research any product prior to making any kind of investment.
Technical writer, an enthusiast for everything blockchain and decentralized world.