In a capitalist society, anything can be for sale, and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) truly exemplify this. Backed by blockchain technology, NFTs are shaking up the world of digital art and are quickly gaining popularity in other domains.

What Are NFT Marketplaces?

NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are taking the cryptocurrency industry by storm. To cater to the rising demand for different NFTs, blockchain companies are swiftly setting up NFT marketplaces on the internet. As its name suggests, an NFT marketplace is basically an online platform where buyers and sellers gather to sell and purchase NFTs.

But what do you actually own if you buy an NFT? Well, in the virtual space, owning a digital certificate can mean a lot of different things—here's a list of the top NFT marketplaces for buying specific types of digital assets.

1. For Basketball: NBA Top Shot

Screen capture of NBA Top Shot's NFT marketplace homepage

There's definitely a market for one of the most popular sports in the US. The platform is a joint venture between the NBA and Dapper Labs, a highly successful blockchain company that brought us the infamous CryptoKitties.

NBA Top Shot opened its virtual doors to the public in October 2020, and marketed itself as "a revolutionary new experience in which jaw-dropping plays and unforgettable highlights become collectibles that you can own forever." Today, NBA Top Shot is valued at around $7 billion, illustrating the attractive money-making potential of NFTs.

The platform essentially sells digitalized trading cards of your favorite NBA players, except thanks to blockchain, they're non-fungible. Each virtual card sold also contains a snippet of "Moments," which includes a player's stats and replays of a game's highlights.

2. For Soccer: Sorare

Screen capture of Sorare NFT Marketplace's homepage

Developed by Nicolas Julia and Adrien Montfort, Sorare is the soccer world's fantasy game—but on the Ethereum blockchain.

Sorare essentially runs on the concept of fantasy trading in soccer, where users collect player cards and build their own teams to compete with each other in weekly matches. On Sorare, instead of buying their favorite soccer players' cards with traditional cash, users buy with Ethereum.

Build Your Dream Soccer Team Now, With Sorare

The NFT marketplace was launched in 2018 and caters to more than two billion soccer fans worldwide. Today, as many as 140 soccer clubs from the US, Europe, and Asia have licensed their players' information to Sorare with new clubs joining the platform every week.

Several important factors, including a player's stats and card rarity, affect the price of a card. How high can the price of a trading card go? One Cristiano Ronaldo Unique Card sold for $102,000 in February 2021.

3. For Virtual Real Estate: Decentraland

Screen capture of Decentraland NFT marketplace homepage

Want to own property? No problem, because virtual real estate is a thing now with Decentraland.

Decentraland offers its players a chance to buy virtual land and build a virtual community on its platform. If you are familiar with virtual open-world games like SecondLife and Roblox, you'll quickly be acquainted with Decentraland—except for the fact that plots of land on the NFT marketplace can cost up to thousands of dollars.

Decentraland's online community is gaining a lot of clout, especially in the art world. Digital artists have hopped on to Decentraland to buy real estate and build art galleries to exhibit their work. Even Sotheby's, one of the world's most renowned auction houses, is now on Decentraland with a virtual gallery.

4. For Video Games: Axie Infinity

Screen capture of Axie Infinity NFT marketplace

We already know that pro gamers are able to earn a handsome amount of money by playing video games for a living. However, Axie Infinity is about to make the world of professional gaming more accessible with its video game-based NFT marketplace.

Created by game studio SkyMavis, Axie Infinity basically allows players to raise, trade, and battle digital pets called "Axies" for in-game NFT tokens called AXS tokens. These can be traded for Ethereum coins (ETH) and then swapped for traditional currency.

At this time of writing, there are over 90,000 monthly active players from all around the world on Axie Infinity. So far, the most expensive Axie pet ever sold costs 300 ETH, which is approximately $788,000.

Like Decentraland, Axie Infinity is also expanding into virtual real estate NFTs. In February 2021, the marketplace delivered the most expensive digital land sale on the blockchain, amounting to around $1.5 million.

5. For Tweets: Valuables

Valuables Tweet NFTs

A Malaysia-based businessman's purchase of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's first-ever tweet for $2.9 million thrust the NFT world into the mainstream.

So, for those who want to follow in the businessman's footsteps, NFT marketplace Valuables is the place to go, as it focuses exclusively on the sale and purchase of Tweets.

Anyone holding ETH can just hop on to the site, and copy and paste the URL of the Tweet into the search bar. From there, Valuables will inform the sender of the tweet that someone is interested in buying it.

However, another person could be interested in the same Tweet and raise a counter-offer to outbid you. Once the owner of a Tweet accepts a bid, an NFT with the owner's signature will be minted for the buyer.

Screen capture of Valuables NFT marketplace leaderboard page

Valuables'exclusive focus on Twitter means that practically anyone put their Tweets up for sale, opening up a level of accessibility that was previously unheard of. If you take a look at Valuables' weekly seller, bidder, and collector leader board, most are regular, everyday Twitter users like you and me.

6. For Music: The Musician Marketplace

Screen capture of The Musician Marketplace homepage

The Musician Marketplace operates very much like your typical eCommerce website, except instead of traditional online payment methods, artists and buyers trade with ETH coins.

Buyers are able to explore musicians, composers, producers, and stock music samples on the platform. On the other hand, artists are also able to sell their work as producers, composers, or soloists, and even give remote musical lessons and live performances.

For sellers, The Musician Marketplace offers three different NFT packages depending on what you are looking to sell. However, due to the fluctuating nature of ETH tokens, rates on the marketplace change often.

NFT Marketplaces Prove Anything Can Be Sold

The rise of NFT marketplaces shows that in-game assets, albeit digital, are of value. Whilst still niche and somewhat absurd to those who are not involved in the scene, the world of NFTs is nonetheless a booming market that is capturing the attention of investors.

If you have some ETH to spare and would like to try your hand at owning, say, a Tweet, why not give NFTs a try to see what the hype is all about?