Guide to Polygon NFTs
Polygon is one of the leading EVM networks and is home to many NFTs.
With a string of a-list partners and an ever-expanding ecosystem, Polygon is a network that’s worth paying attention to. However, Polygon NFT collections are relatively lesser-known compared to Ethereum, perhaps because many wallets don’t fully support them.
In this guide, we’ll dive into the Polygon blockchain, see where to buy Polygon NFTs and how to view them.
Understanding the Polygon blockchain
Polygon is a whole set of technologies for scaling Ethereum.
The best-known Polygon network is the Polygon Proof of Stake network. It’s an EVM network, which means it works like Ethereum. Developers can easily port their Ethereum smart contracts to Polygon. And you can use the same wallets as for the mainnet Ethereum.
The main advantages of Polygon over Ethereum are lower fees and fast transaction finality.
Meanwhile, Polygon has a much broader ecosystem than other networks. Many exchanges, protocols, platforms, apps, and wallets support Polygon.
Finally, Polygon has built partnerships with some of the biggest brands: Starbucks, Draftkings, The Walt Disney Company, Adidas, Meta, Adobe, and many others.
How to bridge funds to Polygon
Before you can buy your first Polygon NFT, you need to get MATIC.
While some NFT marketplaces support other assets such as USDC and WETH, MATIC is needed to pay gas for transactions.
You can do this with the Zerion bridge — it will find the cheapest and fastest Polygon bridge. You can also bridge any asset and swap it to MATIC.
Polygon NFT marketplaces
Many NFT marketplaces support Polygon — below are the leading ones in terms of volume.
OpenSea
The best-known NFT marketplace, OpenSea added Polygon in August 2022. Despite lots of competition, OpenSea has the largest trading volumes for Polygon NFTs.
Besides trading, OpenSea also lets anyone easily create Polygon NFTs with “lazy minting”. With this method, no gas is paid until the NFT is sold.
MagicEden
Originally focused on Solana, MagicEden has grown into a cross-chain NFT giant. The marketplace added support for Polygon in November 2022.
MagicEden also has lots of tools to help creators successfully sell NFTs. This includes whitelists, launchpads, and auctions. This isn’t open to all, and there is a vetting process for creators to ensure quality.
Dew
Currently in invite-only, Dew is a dedicated Polygon NFT marketplace aggregator tailored for pro traders on the Polygon network. Despite still not being fully open, Dew has been steadily gaining trading volumes.
Dew offers features that help traders, such as fast listing updates, floor sweeping, and advanced charts. To get access to Dew, you need an invite from one of the existing users (each user gets 5 invites).
Now that you know where to trade NFTs on Polygon, let’s see what collections are worth exploring.
Polygon NFT collections
While Polygon has lots of run-of-the-mill PFP collections, it’s also home to some of the most interesting NFT experiments.
Y00ts
Launched in September 2022 on Solana, y00ts is a generative art project with 15,000 NFTs.
The project made headlines when De Labs, the company behind y00ts, got a $3 million grant from Polygon to move the collection from Solana to the Polygon blockchain. The transfer started in March, and now over 12k NFTs are on Polygon. With a nearly 2 ETH floor, it’s currently the top collection on Polygon.
Lens profiles
Lens handles are a hot commodity — still, only whitelisted addresses can mint the handle.
While mining is free, the floor price is over $200. The total volume traded is over 4.2 million MATIC, according to MagicEden.
Collected Lens posts are also Polygon NFTs. However, a different collection is created for each post. So the market is somewhat fragmented and posts rarely feature in the lists of trending NFTs.
Reddit Collectible Avatars
Reddit chose the Polygon blockchain to launch the sale of their collectible avatars. Reddit sold over 10 million NFTs with a total market cap exceeding $75 million.
Recently, Reddit launched the second wave of avatars from 100 different artists. Each artist has a separate NFT collection.
Sandbox land NFTs
In November 2022, Sandbox, the popular metaverse and gaming platform, started to sell their digital land as Polygon NFTs, moving on from Ethereum.
Most Sanbox land plots are now traded on Polygon with a total volume of over 6.2 million MATIC. The land isn’t cheap: the average price is over 1,000 MATIC.
Unstoppable Domains
Similar to ENS, Unstoppable Domains offer domain names as NFTs. Unlike ENS, these NFTs live on the Polygon blockchain.
There are over 3 million Unstoppable Domain NFTs. So the floor price is extremely low. However, shorter and more memorable domains could be valuable.
Galxe OAT2
Galxe OAT (On-chain Achievement Token) are free NFTs issued for taking parts in various campaigns on Galxe. Over 9 million OATs were issued.
While OATs are minted for free, some people buy them. Perhaps they expect to qualify for some whitelisted, allowlists, or other on-chain opportunities.
Gaming NFTs
Polygon is the network of choice for many blockchain games. Some of those games use NFTs to represent characters and items in the games.
Game NFTs are often even more volatile than other collections. That’s because the value of NFTs can depend on the in-game mechanics (which can change). Games can also quickly go viral and can fall out of favor just as fast.
To find interesting game NFTs on Polygon, you can simply filter collections on OpenSea. MagicEden also has a dedicated Games tab, which features various blockchain games.
How to view your Polygon NFTs
You need the right wallet for Polygon, not every crypto wallet adequately displays Polygon NFTs.
However, Zerion Wallet fully supports the Polygon blockchain, including NFTs. You can easily import your existing wallet via a seed phrase or private key.
When you mint or buy NFTs, you can see them in your transaction history. After that, the NFT will show up in a dedicated part of the portfolio that tracks NFTs across all chains.
Alternatively, you can connect your existing wallet to the Zerion web app and see all your Polygon NFTs.