The blockchain has been the talk of the town for some time now, and as it evolves, investment opportunities are mounting. Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have quickly become a popular type of collectible as everyone from novice investors to celebrities and investing pros continues to dive in.
If you want to get your hands on one of these crypto-collectibles, you need to work with a marketplace.
Mintable is one such marketplace that has gotten quite a bit of attention because one of its backers is Mark Cuban, a shark on the TV series “Shark Tank” and the outspoken owner of the Dallas Mavericks.
But is Mintable the best NFT marketplace for you? Read on to learn more about its features, fees, and how the platform stacks up against its competitors.
Key Features of Mintable
As Mintable’s name suggests, the platform is geared toward creators with features that make the NFT minting process more efficient. It’s also a great place for investors, traders, and collectors. Here are the key features that keep hundreds of thousands of active users coming back for more:
Gasless Minting
One of the biggest setbacks for NFT creators is the gas fee that comes along with minting new pieces of digital art. When you mint NFTs, smart contracts are created and stored on the blockchain — the Ethereum blockchain in the case of Mintable.
The problem is that the blockchain charges gas fees that rise and fall depending on the demand for transactions on the blockchain at any given time. Those fees are charged in Ethereum (ETH) and are often exorbitantly high. New creators who aren’t sure their art will sell may not be willing to fork over the fees to find out.
When you mint NFTs on Mintable, you won’t have to pay gas fees or any other fees until your new NFT sells. You’ll pay gas fees and a 2.5% transaction fee when you sell NFTs on the platform, but you don’t have to pay anything before you sell.
Intuitive NFT Platform
Any time you work in a new industry, it’s nice to work with easy-to-use tools. The Mintable platform is easy to navigate and use whether you’re interested in buying, selling, trading, or minting digital assets.
NFTs are categorized by different qualities, making it easy to find what you’re looking for or attract the right audience for your newly minted collectibles.
Batch Minting
If you plan on minting more than a few NFTs, doing so on a one-by-one basis will take you hours, if not days. When you mint with Mintable, it only takes a matter of minutes thanks to batch minting. You can mint as many collectibles as you’d like with a single transaction.
Several Categories of NFTs to Choose From
NFTs first started as digital art. Then, collectible items with unique traits started to pop up. Today, there are collectibles, unique artworks, digital items like music and video clips, and pieces that come with utility.
Although some marketplaces focus on one or two different types of digital assets, Mintable carries all types of NFTs. The categories include:
- Art. Art NFTs are where these tokens got their start. This category includes paintings, digital artworks, drawings, GIFs, and other forms of digital art.
- Music. Music tokens feature songs, albums, or snippets of music.
- Videos. You can also find NFTs that give you ownership of video content on the Mintable platform.
- Collectibles. These include pieces of collections like the Bored Ape Yacht Club or CryptoKitties.
- Sports. Sports tokens are like digital trading cards.
- Utility. Some NFTs unlock access to exclusive clubs, support charities with every sale,or act as event tickets. Mintable has a long list of NFTs with utility.
Printable NFTs
Mintable was the first platform to offer printable NFTs. If you’re a creator, you’ll love this feature. With printable NFTs, you can set up a collection of as many NFTs as you’d like. However, those NFTs don’t actually exist until they’re sold.
Say you have a collection of 10,000 NFTs, but you’re not sure releasing them all is a good idea from a supply-and-demand perspective. To combat the issue, you can set up printable NFTs that are only actually minted and listed on the blockchain if there’s interest in purchasing them.
There is one major downside to using this feature. You pay a 10% transaction fee when you sell printable NFTs, rather than the 2.5% fee you’ll pay on traditional NFTs.
Mintable Academy
NFTs are a new way to invest, trade, and make money. However, any time you work with a financial asset, it’s important to do your research and educate yourself on exactly what you’re buying.
Mintable knows the importance of education and shows it by offering free access to the Mintable Academy.
The academy is designed to teach you how to use the platform to become a profitable NFT collector or creator. The lessons walk you through the basics of the industry and what makes NFTs profitable. They also act as a guide to building your first NFT collection or earning money by minting your own art.
Advantages of Mintable
Mintable has quickly become a popular NFT marketplace, and the fact that Mark Cuban is a backer isn’t the only reason for the rapid growth. Some of the biggest perks to working with Mintable include:
- Built on the Ethereum Blockchain. Mintable is built on the Ethereum blockchain, which is believed to be one of the most secure. Moreover, it’s the blockchain with the most active development, which means it will likely continue to stay ahead of its competition in terms of security and utility.
- Easily Find What You’re Looking For. Mintable’s user interface is easy to navigate, and the NFTs categories make it easy to find the exact types of digital collectibles you’re looking for.
- Low Transaction Fees on Traditional NFTs. If you’re selling traditional NFTs, you’ll only pay 2.5%, which is on the low end of the spectrum. Buyers pay no transaction fees.
- Educational Tools. The Mintable Academy has the lessons you need to venture into the NFT industry with confidence.
- Gasless Minting. You don’t have to pay gas fees until your newly-minted NFTs sell.
- Rapid Growth. Mintable has grown from a few thousand members to a few hundred thousand members in what seems like no time flat. As the platform continues to experience rapid growth, more and more NFTs will become available. If you’re an artist, a larger audience equates to larger earnings potential.
- Royalties. If you’re a creator, you can earn royalties every time your NFTs trade hands on the secondary market.
Disadvantages of Mintable
Sure, there are plenty of reasons to consider diving into the Mintable platform, but there are also a few drawbacks to consider. Some of the biggest disadvantages of the marketplace include:
- Only One Supported Cryptocurrency. Ethereum (ETH) is the only supported cryptocurrency on the platform. Most other platforms accept Bitcoin payments and payments using other altcoins. However, Mintable does accept debit card and credit card payments.
- Only One Supported Crypto Wallet. MetaMask is the only supported crypto wallet. Sure, it’s the most popular, but there are several other popular options like Coinbase Wallet and Trust Wallet. Lack of support for other popular wallets is a turnoff to users who aren’t interested in setting up a secondary wallet.
- Only One Supported Blockchain. Some NFT marketplaces support multiple blockchains to help cut down on Ethereum demand and offer drastically reduced gas fees. Unfortunately, Mintable only uses the Ethereum blockchain. You won’t have access to popular competing blockchains like Solana and Polygon.
How Mintable Stacks Up
Rarible is Mintable’s closest competitor in the NFT marketplace space. Check out the chart below to see how the two compare.
| Mintable | Rarible | |
| Gas Fees | Option to pay at the time of the mint or take advantage of gasless minting. | Option to pay at the time of the mint or take advantage of gasless minting. |
| Transaction Fees | 2.5% on traditional NFTs or 10% on printable NFTs. | 2.5% on traditional NFTs; printable NFTs aren’t available. |
| Royalties | Set your own royalty. Royalties usually range from 0% to 10%. | Set your own royalty. Royalties usually range from 0% to 10%. |
| Wallet Options | MetaMask. | MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Rainbow, Portis, and others. |
Final Word
Mintable is a great place to buy, sell, and trade NFTs, and it’s growing quickly. This rapid growth means you have a growing collection of available NFTs if you’re a collector and a growing audience to sell your work to if you’re a creator.
The only real downside to the platform is integration. It’s only compatible with the Ethereum blockchain, which means ETH is the only accepted cryptocurrency. The same integration issue is found in supported crypto wallets. Most NFT marketplaces can connect to a wide range of wallets, but Mintable only works with MetaMask.
Nonetheless, if you can get past these slight inconveniences, Mintable is a great marketplace to dive into!