NFTs From WazirX Are A Smart Investing Decision

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Why WazirX NFT Is Unique

When OpenSea, a P2P marketplace for NFTs became the first of its kind for crypto goods, it paved the way for new platforms. Some Indian creators went on to feature their NFTs on OpenSea but did not see much traction. In a marketplace where creators and collectors co-exist, the latter look to purchase digital assets from verified creators. Collectors also find it challenging to spot the right artist when there is clutter.

To deal with this challenge, ensure a well-curated set of great artists and build trust, the WazirX NFT team carefully vets applications when selecting spotlight artists. Vetting is based on well-defined consideration criteria. Art creators with strong social currency, who have consistently delivered value over the years and are willing to drop original artwork only on the WazirX platform are chosen. WazirX NFT has also built a robust community based on strong relationships with both creators and collectors, offering them more than just a digital marketplace. Users are provided with opportunities to share, trade and interact within the community, guided through insightful resources and offered a platform to learn more about the industry.

How It Works

WazirX’s NFT marketplace is a predominantly India-centric creator platform and is currently in a beta phase. The marketplace is open to everyone who wants to buy or sell NFTs, using WRX, the native token on WazirX. All items listed on the platform are based on a ‘fixed price' model. While the marketplace does not charge any listing price, a minimal gas fee–about $1, compared to $60-$100 on other platforms, is charged to mint the NFT on the WazirX NFT marketplace. Here, the Binance Smart Chain is what makes the low gas fee possible.

15,000 artists and creators applied to join the platform just before it launched. But not everyone made the cut. WazirX handpicked spotlight artists to ensure robust quality control and a credible platform with exclusive NFT art. Visual artists such as Vimal Chandran, Montreal-based mixed-media artist Karan Kalra, Santanu Hazarika, Abhinav Chandel, Madhav Shorey, Shreya Daffney, Varundoo, Prasad Bhat and Santanu Hazarika are some of the many talented creators minting on the platform to generate value from their art.

The company currently boasts of a collector-to-creator ratio of 1:5. “Personal attention to our spotlight artists–that’s our USP; no other platform offers that, and we do so to ensure a quality product, a credible marketplace and a trustworthy community,” explains Vishakha Singh, Vice President at WazirX NFT Marketplace.

Easy discoverability is another calling card for WazirX NFT. The company plans to launch community-led invite options and introduce the auction feature in the next three months. Secondary markets will eventually follow. Down the road, WazirX also envisions having linked blockchains. The launch of an interoperability feature will allow users to move their assets from one blockchain to another.

Renditions of Vishnu, Kali most expensive artworks sold on WazirX NFT

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India’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange in terms of trading volume, WazirX , has sold 166 pieces of digital art in the first month of the launch of its platform for NFTs or non-fungible tokens, as more and more Indians try to ride the latest craze in the crypto world. The highest amount for an NFT on WazirX was paid for an art depicting an abstract rendition of the fourth avatar of Vishnu by Ishita Banerjee. The art was sold for 3,112 WRX or ₹2,66,616, as per today’s exchange rate for rupee. Banerjee is an Indian origin artist based out of Montréal, Canada. Intestinally, the next two highest paid NFTs — Kali and Phoenix — also were by Banerjee that went for ₹2,49,743.36 and ₹2,42,019.34, respectively.

The total sale value of NFTs on the platform till 29 June was 44,888 WRX (WazirX token) or ₹61.57 lakh. WazirX said that the number NFTs sold will see a big jump as it was running a flash sale on Wednesday. The amount and the worth of digital art sold so far is significant as NFTs are entirely a new concept for Indians and also WazirX’s NFT platform is still in the beta phase, meaning the company has limited the bandwidth in terms of the inflow of people and those white-listed to drop the NFTs.

“In India, we have seen a collector-to-creator ratio of 1:5 on our platform. As the NFT community is evolving, we are seeing a lot of creators transitioning to become collectors. We are very happy that despite being in beta phase and enabling very few artists to drop NFTs, 80% of our spotlight artists have made a sale. As much as 14 of our handpicked artists account for more than $65,000 in sale,” said Vishakha Singh, vice-president-NFT marketplace, WazirX. The creators have dropped a total of 855 NFTs on the WazirX’s marketplace till now.

In the next phase, WazirX will launch the music category with artists such as multi-instrumentalist Lydian Nadhaswaram and poet Priya Malik featuring on the marketplace. Ahead of the launch, multidisciplinary contemporary visual artist Santanu Hazarika had dropped an NFT on World Music Day (21 June) on WazirX. The digital art bought by one of WazirX’s creators, Karan Kalra, was sold in 37 seconds after its minting. The marketplace, which was launched on 31 May, is run on Binance Smart Chain, a blockchain platform created by Binance, which had acquired WazirX back in 2019. WazirX charges gas fees of $1 for transactions.

WazirX had received over 15,000 applications from creators and collectors but launched the NFT marketplace with 15 creators last month. The marketplace now has about 23 spotlight artists on the landing or the drop page and about 205 artists the ‘Discover’ section. The number of active collectors on the platform is 38 as of now. In terms of creative trends, most of the NFT artworks sold on WazirX marketplace are mixed media and 3-D works layered with music.

In the global context, NFTs have become much more mainstream with digital artist Michael Winkelmann, who is professionally known as Beeple, earlier this year selling one of his crypto arts for nearly $70 million. Moreover, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey had raised $2.9 million for charity by auctioning his first-ever tweet as an NFT. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a cryptographic token that represents something unique and has an individual characteristic that set them apart. Owning an NFT is like owning a one-of-a-kind work of art or a collectible antique. NFTs are unique tokens or digital assets that generate value because of their uniqueness.

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A new NFT platform by an IIT Bombay graduate wants everyone to be able to set up their own shop online

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An IIT Bombay graduate, Toshendra Sharma, has launched a new platform for non-fungible tokens called NFTically.

Sharma wants everyone to be able to set up their own NFT marketplaces, but claims his product is not in competition with WazirX or ZebPay.

NFTically charges lower fees to artists creating their own marketplace, does not push on KYC and claims to be immune to any new crypto regulation in India.

Marketplaces on NFTically Fee Artwork sold on artist’s marketplace 1.5% Artwork sold on NFTically marketplace 2.5%

We love what WazirX has done. We love what ZebPay has done. They’re doing a wonderful job. We just want to be a system that adds value. We’re not competing against them. Toshendra Sharma, CEO and founder of NFTically, told Business Insider during the launch

WazirX wants remain exclusive — NFTically is calling in the masses

NFTically is keeping the barriers to entry low

Regulations won’t affect NFTically, because it’s not dealing with banks

The Indian government’s regulations are more for exchanges. Toshendra Sharma, CEO and founder of NFTically, told Business Insider during the launch

What is an NFT?

Toshendra Sharma, an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) alumnus, wants to democratise the market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs).Rather than have artists list their creations on someone else’s marketplace, Sharma’s new NFT platform — NFTically — lets artists set up their own shop, which also comes with lower fees when making a sale. And, the new NFT platform launched on July 20, is backed with seed funding from Polygon Matic’s CEO, Jayanti Kanani.Sharma maintains that despite NFTically’s proposal, it’s not trying to compete with WazirX — India’s largest crypto exchange, which just launched its own NFT platform just one month ago.Unlike WazirX, which only allows a few ‘exclusive’ members to launch NFTs on its new platform, NFTically’s primary goal is to pump up volume and transactions. “We are focusing on adoption and use cases through the customer’s own marketplace,” said Sharma.This is why not only does the new NFT platform allow the minting of new NFTs but also allows users to set up their own NFT marketplaces as well. The process doesn’t require any substantial investment or cost — aside from the minimum amount of cryptocurrency a person should ideally have in their crypto wallet before signing up.This means anyone from a YouTuber to a TikToker to a journalist can list their digital products to be sold online without having to compromise on the intellectual property rights. NFT rights, or digital rights, are a category of ownership of their own and don’t have anything to do with how the original artist wants to sell their work offline.With NFTically, there is no Know-Your-Customer (KYC) obligation either. But, users will be flagged for suspicious activity like publishing someone else’s copyrighted material or having a wallet address that’s been flagged for illicit activities.“There is no KYC needed because that’s how the Ethereum blockchain system works,” Sharma told Business Insider. “If we find anything suspicious, or something wrong, we may ask you for the KYC. For now, we’re keeping it open.”NFTically is available to users all over the world except for those flagged by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for money laundering — countries like North Korea or Iran.Also, unlike WazirX, NFTically claims that it won’t be affected by any changes in regulation by the Indian government or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) because it’s not converting an Indian currency into cryptocurrency.The new NFT platform allows NFTs to be minted on either Polygon, Ethereum or the Binance Finance Coin. Those looking to make a purchase, but don’t own any cryptocurrency, can do so with their VISA or Mastercard. Even these transactions are not handled by banks, but by external entities.WazirX was already locking horns with the government over currency conversion and, more recently, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has been sniffing around with accusations of money laundering.NFTs are the latest trend in blockchain. Unlike cryptocurrencies, no two NFTs are identical. Simply put, you can’t exchange them and put one in place of another. And, their value comes from how rare they are — akin to collectibles or the art world.In India, Sharma isn’t the only one, nor is he the first, to see the potential of the NFT market. WazirX’s NFT platform, launched just one month ago, lets users post NFTs but the selection process, at least for now, is rigorous and not just anyone can sign up.ZebPay, on the other hand, has launched its own NFTs called Dazzle. According to the company, each Dazzle token will have unique properties and will also dole out rewards to the user — like lower fees on the ZebPay exchange or discounts on partner platforms. The NFTs will gain new powers over time, and give the owner more membership benefits. At some point, it will also be possible to generalize new tokens from pairs of existing ones.In India, the NFT culture has only just come in. According to Sharma, the Asian nation has the potential to be the frontrunner in the whole space. “Once it’s picked up, it won’t take time to beat the West in volume and transaction amounts,” he said. For a more in-depth discussion, come on over to Business Insider Cryptosphere — a forum where users can deep dive into all things crypto, engage in interesting discussions and stay ahead of the curve.

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