Explained: India’s NFT Marketplace

A non-fungible token or NFT is a unit of data stored on a blockchain, that certifies and a digital asset interchangeable and thus, be unique.

NFTs exist on blockchain a distributed public and digital ledger that records transactions. NFTs are typically held on the Ethereum blockchain however other block chains support them too.

An NFT is minted from those digital objects that represent both intangible items and tangible items. It includes:

• GIFs
• Videos
• Art
• Virtual avatars and video game skins
• Music
• Sports highlights

Most Expensive and Famous NFTs transactions-

The following is the list of top most expensive and famous NFTs on the market that’ll help us to understand why NFTs are so valuables.

1. Everydays: the First 5000 Days – $69.3 million
2. CryptoPunk #3100 – $7.58 Million
3. CryptoPunk #7804 – $7.57 Million
4. Crossroads – $6.6 Million
5. The first Tweet – $2.9 Million
6. CryptoPunk #6965 – $1.54 Million
7. Axie Infinity Genesis Land – $1.5 Million
8. CryptoPunk #4156 – $1.25 Million

WazirX – India’s largest crypto trading exchange

Nischal Shetty is the 36-year-old CEO and co-founder of WazirX, a cryptocurrency platform that allows different users to and trade, buy, sell popular virtual coins such as, Ripple’s XRP, ethereum, bitcoin, litecoin.

Started in 2018, alongside co-founders Siddharth Menon and Sameer Mhatre, Wazirx has capitalized the increased number of retail traders investing in cryptocurrencies.

In less than two years after launching, the company was acquired by the world’s largest crypto exchange-Binance. And in April, its WRX crypto token temporarily reached a valuation of billion-dollar.

In January 2021, the Enforcement Directorate had questioned WazirX, to explain transaction of worth Rs 2,790.74 crore that the company had alleged were carried out in foreign exchange rules violation. Responding to Enforcement Directorate’s charge, WazirX asserted that the exchange was in compliance with all the applicable laws to be followed and it was yet to receive a show-cause notice.

WazirX and India’s first NFT market

WazirX, announced India’s first NFT- non-fungible tokens marketplace on May 31, amid crypto boom. The will run on Binance Smart Chain which is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the current world scenario, which acquired WazirX back in 2019.

Here’s what all you need to know about India’s first NFT market place:

The marketplace will initially host works from anonymous street artist Tyler, automotive photographer Arjun Menon, visual artist Vimal Chandran and Montreal-based mixed media artist Ishita Banerjee amongst others.

The market has already received more than 15,000 applications from its creators and collectors. The marketplace already has 15 creators and more than 300 creators have been ‘whitelisted’ to display their work on the marketplace.

The marketplace is welcoming those who are interested in either buying or selling NFT and has no listing price. The platform will charge a ‘minimal gas fee’ of $1 per transaction.

NFTs can be transferred to another block chain (e.g. Ethereum) and will be interoperable.

The artwork on sale will be ‘displayed’ in the given two sections – Discover and Spotlight. The Discover section will contain of a list of 50 final selected artists each day from over 15,000 applications received and the Spotlight section will be featuring curated artists.

At the moment, only fixed price sales are allowed by the marketplace and it won’t take bids for the pieces on any sale right now.

Other NFT marketplaces for Indian artists and investors:

• OpenSea
• Foundation
• Arkane Network
• Nifty Gateway
• SuperRare
• Zora

NFTs have gained enormous popularity in India recent years. The RBI also sent a breather to the crypto exchanges saying financial entities and banks can’t cite its order of 2018 that barred them from dealing virtual cryptocurrencies.

The author is Tanisha Gupta.