Part 2: Setting up a crypto wallet
So you might have seen my previous story on introducing NFTs and now you’re interested in maybe buying a few as an investment or maybe just as an interest. So how do I go about it?
Firstly, the most important thing you need currency to purchase NFTs. As previously mentioned, NFTs predominantly exist on 2 blockchains, Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). I’ll be going over the Solana blockchain, as its has a younger and growing NFT community. But not to worry, the steps are generally about the same.
Currency in this case would refer to acquiring cryptocurrency, which is the Solana (SOL) token. Where do I purchase SOL? All cryptocurrency can be purchased from crypto exchanges such as Binance, Huobi & FTX. I would recommend using FTX due to their low fees (0.02% to purchase, 0.07% to sell) and their easy-to-use interface which I prefer as compared to the other exchanges (You may use my affiliate link here to receive 5% fee discount on all your trades!).
For my Singaporean friends, things might be a bit more complicated to convert your fiat to crypto. Personally if I require to convert SGD to crypto, I use Huobi as they offer a P2P service (which is completely safe as Huobi acts as an Escrow). So you can use bank transfer/Paynow to purchase crypto directly using SGD. You can use my Huobi referral here to receive 5% rebate off your trading fees!
So once you’ve gotten your USD/USDC/USDT on your chosen exchange, you can purchase SOL. There are 2 ways to do it:
1. Use the Convert/Swap function to swap USD/USDC/USDT to SOL (simpler)
2. Purchase SOL from their sot market/exchange, similar to buying stocks (advanced)
Great, so now you have your SOL and you’re ready to purchase some NFTs! But wait, you still need a wallet that is compatible with Solana NFT marketplaces to store your SOL and your NFTs. The wallet I use is Phantom, which is super easy to use and very user-friendly. It is basically a browser extension and exists within your browser.
So, just load up your browser, install the extension and follow the steps to create your wallet!
When creating your wallet, you’ll be given a Secret Recovery Phrase, COPY AND KEEP IT SOMEWHERE SAFE! AND DO NOT REVEAL THE PHRASE TO ANYONE.
Anyone will be able to access your wallet with the phrase so please do not share it. After going through the steps, you’ll have created your wallet and it would look something like this:
You’ll be able to see your wallet address when you mouse over the name of your wallet at the top. This address is used to send or receive SOL or other crypto supported by Phantom. So now once you have your wallet set-up, it’s time to transfer the SOL you purchased on your chosen exchange (FTX/Huobi/Binance) to Phantom.
To do so, go to the withdrawal page of your exchange, select Solana (SOL) and paste your Phantom wallet address into the form and you’re ready to go! Once you’ve sent the SOL, it’ll be reflected in your Phantom wallet in about 5–15 minutes. Vice versa applies for withdrawing SOL from your Phantom wallet to your exchange.
So now that you have SOL in your Phantom wallet, you’re ready to browse collections on marketplaces such as Digitaleyes or Solanart to purchase NFTs! These two marketplaces are the more established and stable marketplaces to ensure that you’re purchasing authentic NFTs of a collection. You can look through the different collections and projects listed to see what piques your interest. Not to worry, I’ll be going through NFT marketplaces in the next part, so stay tuned for that.
Thanks for taking the time to read through my guide and hope it helps you start off your NFT journey. This is the end of Part 2: Setting up a crypto wallet. Make sure to follow my Medium page for the next part of the series. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter and let me know if you have any feedback/suggestions for future articles.
Till then, the world is your oyster.
