If you want to learn, consider buying on L2 chains like Polygon or non-eth L1 chains like Solana to save on gas. See our gas guide for details.
If you want to support the creator or like the art, then you probably have a project in mind already.
If you want to invest, remember that NFTs are high risk. Many “blue clip” projects are expensive, and many new projects fail. Therefore, NFT investors need to spend time chasing alpha (e.g., getting the latest intel on projects).
Find a project
There are several ways to find interesting projects:
Look for trending projects. You can find trending projects on OpenSea, CryptoSlam, and NonFungible. You can also use paid NFT tools like Icy.tools, Nansen, and Moby.gg to find trending projects up to the last minute.
Follow NFT collectors. Top NFT collectors trade a large volume of NFTs and are often the first to find hot projects. Tools like Moby.gg let you see recent transactions from collectors. You can also follow interesting collectors on Twitter (follow the NFT topic to start).
Join NFT communities. You can join communities for NFT enthusiasts to get the latest intel on projects. The Odyssey community is a good (and free) place to start. The most desired NFT communities usually have a paywall (e.g., Metaverse, FWB, and CPG Club).
Icy.tools lets you see trending NFT collections in the past few minutes
If someone DMs (direct messages) you on Discord about an NFT project, ignore it. That person is likely a scammer looking to phish for your wallet’s seed phrase. Turn off Discord DMs when you join new servers and read our How to avoid scams guide.
Discord DMs about new NFT projects are 99% scams
Do your research
After you find a project, visit its website, social handle, and community to understand:
Mission: What is the project trying to achieve? Does the mission resonate with you?
Team: Who’s the core team behind the project? Do you like what they’re tweeting? Do they have the right skillset (e.g., designer, developer, community manager) to execute? Is there proof of their previous work?
Roadmap: Does the project have a plan to deliver clear utility over time? For example, are there going to be new drops for NFT owners?
Community: Is the core team active in the community? Are members excited about the project’s roadmap and contributing to the conversation or only speculating on prices? How many people are active in the community?
Social: Are NFT collectors talking about the project? What activity do you find if you search for the project’s name on Twitter?
If the project has already been minted, you can visit its NFT marketplace profile (e.g., Wanderers on OpenSea) to look for additional signals:
Verification: Is the project verified? Sometimes scammers will make a fake project with the same name.
Owners: How many items are there per owner? 2-3 items per owner (divide items by owners) is a good sign that the project isn’t concentrated in the hands of a few collectors.
Floor price: Is the floor price holding? If there are a lot of floor listings, that’s a sign that people are trying to dump the project.
Rarity: Rarity is a sign of how rare and valuable an NFT is. Collectors often (but not always) seek the rarest NFTs from a project. Use rarity.tools and howrare.is to look up NFT rarity for Ethereum and Solana NFTs respectively.
Buy an NFT
Once you do your research, you’re ready to decide if you want to buy the NFT or not.
You can buy by:
Minting (creating) an NFT for the first time
Buying an NFT on a secondary market
If you have conviction about a project’s success, you might want to buy multiple NFTs so that you can sell some later.
We’ll cover minting NFTs and buying NFTs on secondary markets in the next two guides.
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