What is an NFT Aggregator? One Stop Shop Marketplace
With the skyrocketing popularity of NFTs, the number of NFT marketplaces grows as well. At this, it becomes difficult to monitor all the available options in order to find the best deal.
NFT aggregators represent the next stage of this market development. By combining multiple platforms in a single panel, they enable their users to browse and discover rare NFT assets and compare their prices.
Stop. Traditional NFT marketplaces do the same, don’t they?
Not exactly.
Read this article to find out what makes NFT aggregators different from traditional NFT marketplaces, their pros, cons, and which of the popular options you may try straight away.
Key Takeaways
- NFT aggregators combine numerous NFT marketplaces into a single interface. Thus, they offer higher versatility and help collectors find rare items with ease.
- Bulk purchases are, perhaps, the most convenient option that one may praise NFT aggregator platforms for. Users may save money on the network fees as they pay them once for a whole set of NFTs instead of doing that for every asset separately.
- Some of the key drawbacks of NFT aggregators include the lack of self-custody and potential fraud.
- In spite of numerous advantages, the active growth of NFT aggregators’ popularity began only in January 2023.
What is an NFT Aggregator?
An NFT aggregator is a platform that combines multiple NFT marketplaces into a unified interface. In fact, these are the platforms that allow users to search for various NFTs, and compare their prices across different marketplaces in one place.
At this, NFT aggregator platforms make the process of purchasing NFTs more convenient.
With the help of advanced filters, users can easily find assets from specific NFT collections. They may sort NFT assets by rarity, price, rank, activity, etc.
Moreover, some of them enable searching for specific wallet addresses. This feature may be particularly interesting to those who want to hunt for popular NFTs and track their movements across the network.
Finally, NFT market aggregators feature bulk purchases. Thus, users may buy several assets within a single transaction which also contributes to their convenience.
How do NFT Marketplace Aggregators work?
Thanks to the full transparency provided by the blockchain, the characteristics of all non-fungible tokens that have ever been minted are publicly available.
NFT aggregators make use of this transparency to combine all available options in a single trading interface. At this, the process typically relies on the following principles:
1. Integration with marketplaces.
Many NFT marketplaces feature APIs on their platforms for third-party integrations.
NFT aggregator marketplaces use these APIs to gain full information about all items that are available for sale on these platforms.
2. Data aggregation and classification
With the help of integrated APIs and the so-called web-scraping techniques, NFT aggregators collect data about NFTs.
After that, they classify it with respect to the different characteristics of these tokens such as rarity, price, rank, etc.
3. Bulk purchases
Aggregators enable their users to buy NFTs in bulk. Users can add NFTs to their carts, just like in a regular online shop, and pay for them all with a single transaction.
NFT marketplaces vs NFT aggregators
In order to understand the differences between NFT aggregators and usual NFT marketplaces, check this comparison table below.
The Benefits of Using NFT Aggregators
- Convenience. NFT aggregator platforms combine information from different marketplaces within a single interface. Thus, they make the search process much easier.
- Broader choice. Instead of accessing NFT collections provided by a single marketplace, users can browse across multiple catalogs. Collectors who look out for rare NFTs are the ones to appreciate this option.
- Reduced transaction fees. Since users can buy NFTs in bulk, they pay gas fees for a single transaction, regardless of how many NFTs they’ve added to a cart. This feature is particularly useful on such high-cost blockchains as Ethereum.
- Portfolio management. On top of other features, some NFT marketplace aggregators also provide portfolio management tools. Such tools make it easier to manage NFT holdings across multiple marketplaces.
Drawbacks of Using NFT Aggregators
- Security. Just like other web services, NFT market aggregators may be prone to hacking attempts. Signing up with your private wallet may be risky as your funds and personal data may be compromised.
- Additional fees. NFT aggregators may impose their own fees. One must thoroughly assess all the associated costs before making a final purchase on a marketplace or on an aggregator.
- The lack of customer service. Aggregators are not responsible for the items they list. Therefore, if any issue occurs, they won’t be able to help. Thus, in such a situation, one may have to contact NFT marketplaces directly.
- Fraud. NFT aggregators may not always verify the authenticity of items listed on other marketplaces. Therefore, users risk purchasing fake items on such platforms.
- The lack of control. Portfolio management tools are convenient with no doubt. But they usually require giving up your private keys. As the saying goes, not your keys, not your coins, which is something to think about.
NFT Aggregator List
NFT aggregator platforms have some serious drawbacks, and that’s true. Yet, they are still worth giving a try.
As the number of NFT marketplaces will only grow in time, so will the need for unified solutions to help users find the best option across a wide variety of choices.
Below, we have listed some of the most popular NFT aggregators along with their key characteristics.
Blur
So far, Blur has proved to be one of the most popular solutions in this area. In February 2023, it even managed to surpass another recognized market leader Opensea in trading volume.
It is also a recognized market leader among other NFT aggregators. According to the analytical platform Dune, Blur provides more than 90% of the total trading volume at the time of writing.
Based on Ethereum, Blur aggregates non-fungible tokens across the most popular marketplaces including OpenSea, X2Y2, and LooksRare. To bypass its competitors, Blur doesn’t charge any additional fees on the trades and boasts of really fast transactions.
Uniswap
As a pioneer of DEXes based on liquidity pools, Uniswap acquired an NFT aggregator Genie in June 2022 to broaden the list of available services.
The Uniswap team remastered the product having reduced fees and added a few other perks. At this, it offers a list of trending NFT collections but doesn’t provide any advanced search features.
Gem.xyz
The platform requires connecting your wallet to be able to buy or sell NFTs. One may search collections by their names or specific addresses. At the time of writing, Gem.xyz is integrated with OpenSea, Blur, and Rarible.
The added value of this platform is the whale buy notification feature. Users may track large market movements for free and thus spot a good moment to buy or sell their assets.
Rareboard
Rareboard is the NFT aggregator that focuses specifically on the BNB chain. It features NFTs represented on the largest BNB marketplaces such as PancakeSwap, BinanceNFT, and NFTKey.
In addition, the platform makes it possible to track collections that are minting in real-time. Those who look out for new offers should particularly appreciate this feature.
NFT Aggregator Analytics
Despite all the benefits that NFT aggregators provide, their usage remains at a deficient level.
At the time of writing, only 4.4% of NFT buyers choose aggregators. The majority still prefers buying unique digital assets directly from specialized platforms like OpenSea.
Yet, NFT marketplaces became popular themselves comparatively recently. At the time of writing, a crypto analytical service CryptoWisser lists a little more than 50 NFT marketplaces in total.
As the industry grows, one may expect the usage of NFT aggregator platforms to grow as well.
Bottom Line
When the popularity of some innovative tools grows, so does the diversity of solutions serving to facilitate the usage of these tools. This rule perfectly fits NFT trading.
NFTs became widely acknowledged only in 2021. Some large headlines about popular artists making a fortune with their help made a significant contribution.
NFT marketplaces started popping up like mushrooms soon after that.
As their number grows, the search for rare NFTs will become more and more complicated. At the same time, the demand for portfolio management tools will surely grow as well. NFT aggregators are so far the best solution to facilitate the lives of those who trade NFTs.
Originally published at https://www.liquidloans.io.
