2021 has been without a doubt the year of the NFT. As cryptocurrencies soared in their 4th bull cycle since their induction in 2009, NFTs have taken center-stage and were one of the major drivers of the crypto narrative and hype. With a total sales volume of about 25 billion US$ in 2021, the NFT market has made a 100x just in 2021 (recording a total sales volume of about 250 million US$ in 2020).
With the surge of interest of potential buyers in a booming market, crypto enthusiasts have detected NFTs as the next big money making machine. As a result, NFT projects have popped up like mushrooms and doing proper research about the quality of the vast amount of projects has become exceedingly difficult. Hence, it is vital to find simple & effective ways to separate the wheat from the chaff, so that your investments are more likely to moon than to go to zero. Knowing what others dont know (yet), seeing what others dont see (yet) can be a profitable investment opportunity.
Apart from the standard platforms/tools that are used (like marketplaces, discord, twitter etc.) over the course of the last years, several tools have emerged with the promise to give you exactly that knowledge advantage.
In this article, I want to introduce my TOP 10 most essential tools that you have to use to stay ahead in the NFT game. Generally, I categorize the current tools into 5 categories.
Sales trackers
These tools give you a good overview of the development of sales of a certain NFT collection. You see things like average price, amount of holders, highest sales, etc. The 3 I propose to use here are similar and depend a bit on your preferences. 2 sites that I like to use regularly are:
Tool #1: DAPP Radar
Allows for a good overview over the sales of NFTs over different blockchains. I like the structured dashboard as well as the depth of info available for free.
Tool #2: Non Fungible
Similar good overview and depth of information. You can deep-dive into the collection and get things like recent sales, # of sales, sales in USD, average price etc. you can subscribe to their newsletter and get quarterly reports which are nice. They claim to be the largest NFT data resource.
Rarity checkers
The rarity of your NFT is one of the most important things to know. It is always worthwhile checking the official rankings, as a more rare NFT is usually worth more. Legit projects will always look for a way to be listed on one of these tools. As it usually costs the project something (e.g. rarity tools 2ETH) to be listed, I tend to trust the official rankings. Make sure to only use the official ranking that is announced in the official discord, as other rarity trackers use a different methodology to rank the NFTs which not necessarily need to be identical with the real one. The 2 most used Rarity checker tools are:
Tool #3 Rarity sniper
Show rank, rarity score, owner and if an NFT is currently listed at an exchange. It also allows you to filter according to certain criteria and it features a section for upcoming drops.
Tool #4: Rarity Tools
Identical functionalities as rarity sniper.
News & Media
Learning and being up-to-date with developments in the NFT space is super important. There are a few decent sites specialized on NFTs. Here it is hard to make the best choice as some stories are great on one source and on another. So in fact it is a personal choice how you like your content. Here are 2 NFT focused sites that I really enjoy:
Tool #5: NFT evening
Tool #6: NFT Plazas
NFT Analytics
DYOR is cumbersome but necessary in this market. I bet you thought for yourself that it would be cool to have some sites that not just show the sales and rankings, but that actually give you deeper insights into a project with an expert evaluation or opinion. Or maybe a nice dashboard with an overview of the whole market development. Then you need to check out the next 2 tools.
Tool #7: Minty Score
I really enjoy the idea of this page. Currently you have to always DYOR (Do your own research) about projects. This is the first attempt at giving a score/rating to upcoming and existing project. One thing that I would wish for is that there is a more elaborate report on the rating. Also, currently not all projects are listed on it.
Tool #8: Dune Analytics
Dune Analytics is a really cool tool. It contains user-created dashboards about the crypto & NFT space. Below you see an example of an NFT market overview dashboards. Can be really useful to check these dashboards or create your own.
Social media Trackers
Wouldnt it be great to know what the best accounts buy and sell and with whom they interact on twitter? There are tools to do exactly that.
Tool #9: Whotwi
Want to know whom prominent NFT influencers are interacting with. Then “whotwi” is your tool. Just type in the twitter handle of a certain person and check whom it interacts with the most and whom it follows. Knowing this can also give you good insights into what projects might be popping off.
Tool #10: Context App
There are several tools where you can follow what the wallets of influencers do. Mostly you need to pay for the services. Context app is a service that allows you to see what happens with these wallets. Below you see an example of where pranksy has sold an item.
Conclusion
Naturally, there are a lot of other tools that didnt make the top 10 for me, but could for you. The aim of this 10 tools what to give you, first, an understanding of what types of tools are out there and, second, what I personally find the best to start with. As the NFT market grows new tools will come and might replace other tool on the list. Only time will tell.
I hope you learned something today and would love you to consider following me on my twitter @0xCryptonite if you like more recent updates about the space.