Unlike cryptocurrency markets where price action and support levels make sense, the NFT marketplace doesn’t work that way. We’re still in the era of FOMO and FUD, where volatility and unpredictability is a normal circumstance.
In that case, how can you navigate the ever-changing NFT scene?
A good place to start is by identifying blue chip SolNFTs, ones with a strong community, powerful utility, and a dedicated core team. If you don’t know what are some high-potential NFTs in the Solana ecosystem, do give our article on “Top 10 Solana NFT Projects” a read!
But for those starting small, blue chips may not be in line with your budget. How then, can you start flipping NFTs from scratch? In this article, I’ll be sharing some awesome FREE Solana NFT tools, which will definitely help you have an easier time identifying the next killer project!
Without further ado, let’s get into it.
Solana NFT Wallets
Solana NFT wallets are the first thing you’d need to start trading NFTs. We’re obviously referring to decentralized software wallets here, so if your SOL is stashed in a Coinbase wallet, you’ll need to transfer it out.
Luckily for you, creating a Solana NFT wallet is easy… and free! Here are two Solana NFT wallets I recommend you use.
Phantom
Phantom is a free software wallet built for Solana users. Whether you’re on IOS, Android, or using browsers like Google and Brave, they’ve got you covered.
As one of the most established Solana NFT wallets in the space, I’d 100% recommend that you create a Phantom wallet. The main reason is tons of integrations with other related websites, such as NFT marketplaces, custom auction sites, etc.
Their UI is pretty clean as well, showing your crypto balance, Solana NFTs, transaction activity, and settings for configuration. A beginner-friendly extension, Phantom is a must-have Solana NFT tool for traders.
Slope
Slope is another awesome Solana NFT wallet that you should download. Akin to Phantom, Slope is also a widely accepted wallet to connect with NFT sites, and can be used on IOS, Android, and as an extension.
One winning feature of Slope is its “Auto-approval” toggle button, which allows you to approve transactions without a second confirmation. Usually, wallets such as Phantom would require you to “approve” a transaction once more after you’ve hit a button, which could waste precious time in a high-demand mint.
By flipping on the “Auto-approval” switch, you can mint SolNFTs faster and not miss out due to slow fingers. But hey, the risk goes both ways… don’t fat-finger it!
Solana NFT Marketplaces
After you’ve got your Solana software wallet all set, it’s time to find a marketplace where you can trade your NFTs.
There’s a host of up-and-coming Solana NFT marketplaces, but I prefer to stick with those that have been tried and tested. (speaking from personal experience, of course!)
Here are two marketplaces I use often.
MagicEden
MagicEden is the OpenSea of the Solana NFT ecosystem. With a total volume of close to 11 million SOL on the platform so far, this puts ME far ahead of its other Solana NFT marketplace competitors.
MagicEden is great because of its popularity. Literally every half-decent Solana NFT collection is featured on MagicEden, because that’s where the buyers are. If you want to trade a particular NFT collection, you can count on MagicEden to have it.
The platform also has multi-featured functionality, consolidating all your Solana NFT activities into one place. Aside from the individual NFT collection pages, MagicEden also has a Launchpad (for projects to mint off), auction pages to bid on 1/1 artworks, and also a stats page to track NFT project volume.
For any Solana NFT trader, having MagicEden on tab is a must-do!
SolSea
SolSea is another NFT marketplace, with much less volume as compared to MagicEden. And deservedly so, I feel that SolSea is a poor marketplace choice to do NFT trading on, because of their “listing fee” which never gets refunded. (unlike ME)
The only reason for recommending SolSea in this piece is their art presence in the Solana ecosystem. Despite being a poor Solana NFT tool for trading, SolSea is still my go-to for finding awesome blockchain art to buy for arts patronage.
Finding great art, the truly well-drawn 1/1’s, is pretty difficult on MagicEden and other platforms. But SolSea helps you find them through their filter feature (filter by art/PFP), and gives you an acceptable range of great art to discover.
But as far as NFT trading goes, stick with MagicEden as your Solana NFT tool of choice.
Solana NFT Blockchain Explorers
Now, we’re starting to get into the real “trading” aspect of SolNFTs.
One underrated but overpowered technique when trading NFTs is to look at price action and sales of the overall collection. This sounds like a paid tool is required, but no… there are free ones everywhere!
Of course, we’re talking about the blockchain. Yes, what better resource than the open ledger which tracks all transactions? Let me recommend two Solana NFT Blockchain explorers which give you a picture of sales volume; in real-time.
Solscan
Solscan is a free Solana-focused blockchain explorer, where you can track transactions on the Solana blockchain in real-time (1-2 minutes difference max).
Since tracking all the transactions on the Solana blockchain is not necessary, Solscan has implemented an NFT filter feature, so only NFT sales are shown.
In the NFT category, you can explore individual NFTs, top collections, new projects that have been minted, and much more. But I only focus on the “Trade” section, which displays the selling of NFTs, and by who.
This way, we can track collections that have been selling more and more by the minute. To make sure that it’s not an individual buying his own NFTs, we can also ensure that wallet addresses buying these NFTs aren’t the same.
When seeing many sales of a particular NFT project, it could be time to jump in before a breakout. Be sure to check this Solana NFT tool out, that’s how I got introduced to secondary plays in SolNFTs!
Scour
Scour is another Solana NFT blockchain explorer with an additional layer of features as compared to Solscan.
On the occasion that Solscan goes down, I usually transition to Scour. Scour has a page to discover new and “trending” NFT projects, so you’ll have to navigate to “Activity” to check out all the live sales in the Solana ecosystem.
A great feature of Scour is its ability to track not only sales, but also listings, price drops, and bids of individual collections. While Solscan is better at showing you the entire picture, Scour can be used for sniping individual collections and tracking their performance.
In this sense, Scour acts as both a blockchain explorer and a price tracking tool. Personally, I wouldn’t use it to track prices as there are better tools out there (we’ll be covering next), but it certainly makes their service more comprehensive!
Solana NFT Tracking Tools
Solana NFT tracking tools are perhaps the most important when it comes to SolNFT trading. These are the services that help traders make informed decisions based on various parameters.
Let’s explore some of these Solana NFT tracking tools, and what each of them can offer to the user.
Hyperspace (Formerly Solanalysis)
Hyperspace was once known as Solanalysis, and was one of the original NFT tracking tools which provided such statistics to traders for free.
While Hyperspace has evolved into a hybrid between an NFT marketplace with floor tracking abilities, and some of its competitors have “overtaken” it in a sense, I find that one thing still stands out for this platform.
It is their precision of tracking – which is as close to “real-time data” as you can get. Having a look at the price of popular collections, SOL’s price and more, I’ve found that Hyperspace updates theirs the quickest. A big help if you’re making plays by the second.
SolSniper
SolSniper has been a hidden gem for a pretty long time, but it’s finally gaining visibility in the Solana NFT space. I would say SolSniper is the most helpful and valuable Solana NFT tool for tracking projects; people wouldn’t hesitate to pay for their services.
SolSniper displays trending collections and what people are searching for at the moment, a good indicator of what’s getting hype. A dive deeper and we find their Live “blockchain explorer” type system, which refreshes every few seconds.
SolSniper’s main features come in when you click on an NFT project. A Tradingview-inspired graph appears, along with the total number of listed NFTs and an RSI (Relative Strength Index) indicator. This truly makes you feel like a crypto trader!
I find SolSniper’s “Watchlist” tool most helpful. Add any NFT collection to your watchlist, and you’ll get an interactive chart with the floor price of the collection against the number of listings. Traders usually watch for the correlation between these two variables… a consistently lowered listing count usually means a bullrun for the NFTs’ floor price!
SolRadar
Before SolSniper, I guess NFT traders used SolRadar to identify secondary plays. But now, I still find some of SolRadar’s features relevant to let it remain on the list of worthy Solana NFT tools.
A unique feature of SolRadar is its Price Movers section, showing the 24H highest sale, lowest sale, and whales that spent big.
Another innovative category that SolRadar displays are an NFT project’s social presence, which as we explored in previous articles, can make or break a project. This function tracks the percentage change of Discord members and Twitter followers for a particular community.
In all, a combination of this trio; real-time updates from Hyperspace, charts from SolSniper, and socials tracking from SolRadar, is key to unlocking a master trading strategy.
Solana NFT Rarity Checker
Another vital aspect of NFT trading is the rarity of your NFT. As you should know, the more scarce the features of your NFT have, the higher the rarity rank it holds. But this can be pretty difficult to tell… especially if the founders of the project make it random.
So how can you tell the right price to list your NFT at?
Here are some Solana NFT tools you can try to check and confirm your NFT rarity ranking.
MoonRank & HowRare.is
MoonRank and HowRare.is are two different ranking systems, but I’ve grouped them together because you should use them hand-in-hand. You know, one to cross-check with the other, in case there are some technical errors on either side.
Both MoonRank and HowRare.is are able to determine your NFT’s rarity ranking. Simply navigate to their website, choose your collection, and input your NFT id in the search bar.
For more established NFT collections, MagicEden would already have integrated both rarity rankings of MoonRank and HowRare.is, saving you the hassle of checking it on their sites.
If you’re wondering why your NFT is ranked differently by MoonRank and HowRare.is, it’s probably due to the difference in their way of trait rarity calculations. So which do you deem “correct” if there are two contrasting rarity rankings?
SolRarity
SolRarity is another Solana NFT tool for rarity checking, but this one is a little different. While they have a website, SolRarity has its rarity checking services done on a Discord server.
To check your NFT rarity ranking on SolRarity, head to their Discord server, and find the appropriate channels titled “Rarity-checker”. The next steps would be finding your collection’s tag, and inputting your NFT id beside it before hitting “send”.
Eh, you’ll get it when you enter the Discord! I find it incredibly useful since I’m on Discord most of the time, and it eliminates the confusion between MoonRank and HowRare.is having different rarity rankings.
Wrap Up
So that’s all the Solana NFT tools we have for today! As a beginner in the Solana NFT trading space, having access to these tools will be helpful; in more ways than you can imagine.
Of course, these tools all have their limitations. For example, Solscan may just stop functioning properly at times, and MagicEden has had its fair share of site crashes and bugs.
But since these are all free Solana NFT tools, why not make use of them… at least till you can afford better premium tools! But that begs the question, are premium Solana NFT tools really better than these already amazing free ones?
That’s a story for another day.
){kind=link}