Register to get $180 Welcome Bonus!Owning an NFT from a renowned project lets you tap into significant value, but how do you get one? The most popular projects like BAYC and their collections, Cryptopunks, Meebits, and others, are all envied by NFT projects, selling at 6-figure valuations on exclusive NFT marketplaces like Opensea. This puts them out of reach for most investors. These NFTs were ‘minted’ by early investors at 0.08 ETH per NFT, roughly $100 by today’s prices, giving them a return thousands of times their initial investment.
BAYC wasn’t the last good project; there will be many more. However, if you’re looking to mint a multi-bagger, it’s crucial to stay aware of the industry’s developments and get on the right NFT whitelists.
What Is An NFT Whitelist?
An NFT whitelist is a list of wallet addresses that are allowed to mint NFTs at the project’s initial prices.
How To Get Whitelisted For NFTs?
There are a variety of methods to get into these lists, including:
- By engaging with the project’s social media activities. A whitelist helps NFT projects with marketing. If you contribute, you will be rewarded.
- By engaging with the community on Discord and Twitter. Many projects give whitelist spots to people contributing to their project or helping the community on these platforms.
- Some NFT projects like to test you. They might be running puzzles in stealth mode as we speak, and only the solvers will be able to mint their NFT. Syn City and Neo Tokyo are notable projects that took this approach.
- Reaching out directly. When the project doesn’t enjoy traction, simply messaging the project team can get you on the whitelist at times.
Minting & NFT Whitelists
Minting an NFT just means obtaining an NFT directly from a smart contract before the entire collection is sold out. This requires sending on-chain transactions, which can get quite expensive depending on the token’s demand and the load on Ethereum. If you miss the mint, these NFTs will soon be available for purchase on secondary marketplaces at a price the owner decides.
So the real question is, why buy when you can mint? Minting an NFT has many advantages:
- Cheap: Once whitelisted for an NFT project, the cost of minting is generally the lowest possible price you can pay to own a good NFT. Think of it as an ICO. During Ethereum’s ICO, ETH was sold at $0.31, bringing 10,000x returns to early investors during the bull market.
- Airdrops: If you manage to mint a high-value project NFT after getting on the whitelist, many projects will further bestow you with supplementary airdrops to your wallet. These can be worth a lot. For example, Bored Ape holders got Mutant Apes, Cool Cat holders got Cool Pets, and holders of the PROOF Collection received Moonbirds.
- Community: Get access to exclusive Discord servers and real-life events conducted by these NFT projects. Imagine meeting the likes of Eminem or Paris Hilton by owning an NFT.
How Do You Mint NFTs?
Minting NFTs is not open to all. Because these collections often have a finite number of NFTs to sell, there can be only so many people minting it. To be one of those, one must get on the project’s whitelist.
A Word Of Caution
Before you start minting every single NFT you find, note that it’s risky! Thousands of NFT collections may never see the light of day simply because:
- They’re just a clone of a successful one
- They intend to take your money and vanish
- They’re minting at exorbitant prices
- The technology is still nascent and evolving
Many investors have had poor experiences investing in NFTs and getting on whitelists due to these reasons. Moreover, projects are turning to opportunists to extract the maximum value from their supporters by using Dutch Auctions. Pixelmon, a highly awaited mint, was Dutch auctioned at 3 ETH per NFT. The project raised $80 million for a game that won’t exist until at least 2024. Currently, each NFT is worth only around 0.2 ETH, 15x less than what they were initially sold for. Please be aware of high mint prices, dutch auctions, and scammer links, as these are rife in this space and can leave you with heavy losses.
