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LooksRare NFT Marketplace: How to get started
LooksRare is one of the leading NFT marketplaces on the Ethereum blockchain today for non-fungible token (NFT) trade. Whether you want NFT community favorites like Bored Apes or NFTs fresh out of the oven, the LooksRare platform has it all. Thanks to its many reward mechanisms, such as the LooksRare listing rewards, the platform is also a major OpenSea contender. It also has a number of features, including the LoosRare token, making it an attractive choice for investors.
So, what exactly is the LooksRare NFT Marketplace? In this guide we also answer: What are the best LooksRare features? Can you get free LOOKS tokens? LookRare vs OpenSea: Which is better? How to create, buy and sell NFTs on the LooksRare platform?
So let’s dive right in!
What is LooksRare NFT Marketplace?
Based on the Ethereum network, LooksRare is an NFT marketplace that rewards users for buying and selling NFTs on its platform. As a community-first platform, LooksRare rewards all its creators, collectors and traders with its original utility token, LOOKS. True to the motto – “By NFT People, For NFT People”, the platform emphasizes giving back to the NFT community.
Currently, LooksRare charges a 2% sales fee on NFT sales. Already, it offers several attractive features such as trading rewards, stake rewards, feature offers and more. Furthermore, it has adopted a modular framework for its smart contractwhich makes it easier to add new features in the future.
Who made LooksRare NFT?
Anonymous co-founders, “Zodd” and “Guts” launched LooksRare in January 2022 as an OpenSea competitor. At the time, the duo announced their plans to introduce more features to attract users, most of which revolved around the LOOKS token rewards. However early media reports suggesting that most of the platform’s trading volume was from “wash sales”. To explain, in this scenario users sell tokens to themselves to reap more token rewards.
How to buy NFTs on the LooksRare NFT Marketplace
If the LooksRare NFT marketplace interests you, you might want to look into how to buy NFTs on the platform. Here are the steps:
- Go to LooksRare’s first website and click the “Connect” button to connect to the wallet. Currently, the platform supports MetaMask, WalletConnect and Coinbase Wallet. Whichever wallet you choose, make sure you have enough crypto to buy NFTs.
- Then go to the “Explore” or “Collections” tab to search for NFTs you like. You can search using their token ID or name. Alternatively, you can use different filters, such as price range, to look for NFTs.
- When you find an NFT you like, you can make an offer, either with ETH or wETH. Additionally, if you are interested in an NFT collection but do not have a preference for a particular NFT, you can make a “Collections Offer”.
- Finally, for fixed price NFTs, you can click the “Buy Now” button to buy it immediately.
How to make NFTs on LooksRare
If you’re an NFT creator who wants to create NFTs directly on LooksRare, you can do that too. For this, the marketplace offers the third-party service Manifold Studio. Once you have linked your wallet to the website, just look for the “Manifold” tab after clicking on the “Create a Collection” option. Now you can use Manifold to import files to create an NFT before posting it to LooksRare.
How to sell NFTs on LooksRare
If you already have an NFT, here are the steps to sell it on the LooksRare NFT Marketplace:
- As always, first link your crypto wallet to the website.
- Then click on the “List an NFT” button. This will take you to a page with all the NFTs in your wallet.
- Select the NFT you want to sell and click on the “Sell” option.
- Finally, enter the price of the NFT and the number of days you want to keep the sale active.
It’s also worth noting that LooksRare has an additional feature called “Conditional Listing”. Essentially, it allows users to list two items for sale. However, there is a catch – when one item is sold, the other listing is cancelled. This feature is useful for creators who want to sell one NFT but don’t care which one.
What is LOOKS Token?
The LooksRare token (aka LOOKS) is the marketplace’s native ERC-20 token based on the Ethereum blockchain. The fact that LooksRare has its own token sets it apart from other major NFT marketplaces such as OpenSea. With a total supply of 1 billion, the LOOKS token is currently trading at $0.28 (at the time of writing).
In fact, LOOKS is at the core of LookRare’s various rewards programs. Usually, LooksRare users can bet what is taken for rewards. Moreover, the platform rewards active traders for posting selected NFT collections for sale. Users can also get trading rewards for buying and selling NFTs from selected pools.
List rewards on LooksRare
As previously mentioned, LooksRare has several features in place to attract users with rewards. Among these is a popular “list reward”. To explain, the listing reward program rewards NFT collectors and traders with LOOKS tokens just for posting NFTs for sale on the platform. Every 10 minutes, sellers receive points for all their qualified listings.
Naturally, that begs the question: what makes an entry eligible for reward points? First, the NFT must belong to one of the top 5 eligible NFT pools by 24-hour trading volume. The listing must be active, with a price no more than 1.4 times the global fundraising floor price. Furthermore, the item must be for sale for at least 10 minutes, must be within the maximum limit of 200 eligible listings per collection, and should not expire before 1 hour after each snapshot.
LooksRare will count each day’s points from 9:00 UTC to 9:00 UTC the next day, with 144 snapshots every 10 minutes. At the end of this period, each user will be awarded LOOKS tokens based on their total points for the day. If you want to know more, be sure to read LooksRare’s detailed white paper on list rewards.
How to insert LOOKS chips
One of the key features of LooksRare is the LOOKS token stake. Simply put, users can stake their LOOKS tokens to earn an income in the form of WETH or LOOKS. In fact, the platform offers two types of bets:
- Active strike: Under this, users can unlock all their LOOKS immediately. They get both WETH and SER as stake rewards.
- Passive staking: Here, participants only get WETH and do not earn extra LOOKS for staking. Furthermore, their LOOK is locked, preventing them from acting.
To start betting, go to LooksRare’s homepage and click on the “Rewards” tab. You can either do “standard staking” or automatically compound your tokens. In the former, you stake the amount of tokens you want for rewards. Conversely, in the latter, your stake rewards will be automatically re-deposited.
The rewards you receive are calculated at the end of each period and depend on a number of factors. This includes, among other things, the daily average trading volume and whether you mix your tokens. Finally, when you redeem your tokens, your latest rewards and original stakes will be added to your wallet.
LooksRare vs OpenSea: Which NFT Marketplace is Better?
All things considered, LooksRare is one of the biggest OpenSea competitors. At the time of writing, OpenSea took the top spot for NFT marketplaces by all-time trading volume (about $34.5 billion), followed by LooksRare in fifth place ($1.7 billion). But which marketplace is actually better?
Let’s take a look at some key differences between the two:
- As previously mentioned, one of the main factors that differentiates LooksRare from OpenSea is that it has its own token. This enables the marketplace to offer different reward mechanisms to users.
- LooksRare’s transaction fee is 2%, slightly lower than OpenSea’s 2.5%.
- While OpenSea keeps its platform fees, LooksRare claims to return 100% of it as a reward to those who bet on LOOKS.
- While LooksRare only supports three wallets at the moment, OpenSea supports a wide variety of wallets. The list includes Coinbase, MetaMask, Mintbase and Bitski, to name a few.
- LooksRare only accepts ETH and wETH as payment. OpenSea, on the other hand, supports over 150 currencies.
At the end of the day, the NFT marketplace you choose will depend entirely on your preferences. Since OpenSea has been around longer, many NFT users tend to prefer it over newcomers. Alternatively, those who want to earn rewards and enjoy LooksRare’s additional feature can choose it over OpenSea. Whichever platform you choose, it’s important to do your own due diligence.
