What Are Tezos NFTs? A Comprehensive Guide

The most popular blockchain for buying, selling, and creating NFTs is Ethereum. Though Ethereum reigns supreme, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other options to look into such as Tezos NFTs.

Tezos is an energy-efficient, open-source blockchain with smart contract capability. Utilizing a proof-of-stake mechanism, it remains a highly-secure, scalable, and affordable for those looking to create NFTs and Dapps. It embraces long-term upgradability, participation, and collaboration.

Below is a comprehensive guide to Tezos NFTs. We’ll explore what they are, whether they’re any good, their cost, where you can find them, and why they’re gaining some major recognition in the space.

What Are Tezos NFTs?

NFTs on the Tezos blockchain are energy-efficient, cost-effective, and have smart contract capabilities. Since Tezos is a proof-of-stake blockchain, its NFTs require less energy to mint and trade. Other than being more efficient, Tezos NFTs are similar to other tokens on competitor networks.

In terms of the kind of NFTs found on the Tezos network, almost all of them are some form of artwork. With that, you have the ability to mint various file types including audio, video, images, GIFs, SVGs, models, interactives, PDFs, and text files.

Are Tezos NFTs Good?

Tezos NFTs are good because they are energy-efficient and cost-effective. If you are just beginning to explore the NFT space, Tezos might be an appealing option due to its low stakes. For users, Tezos NFTs offer a similar experience as Ethereum. For devs, Tezos has its own language to learn.

In general, Tezos carries the stigma of a low-priced experimental space for newbies who are just getting started in the NFT space and those who don’t have a lot of money to mint on Ethereum. Even though many might view that as a negative, I see it as a positive.

The simple fact that people who are new to the NFT space have the desire to use Tezos as their starting place is a compliment to the network’s user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness. Plus, that means there is a lot of room for growth and innovation.

All it takes is one NFT to make a blockchain like Tezos go from zero to hero. More to come on that further along in this article.

How Much Do Tezos NFTs Cost?

To buy an NFT on Tezos costs as little as $0.02 to as much as $60,000, with the average sale price being $42.82. The average price to mint one NFT costs $0.20, with an entire collection setting you back $2 to $3. Ultimately, Tezos is one of the cheapest blockchains for NFT-related transactions.

Considering Tezos hasn’t seen nearly the same transaction volume as Ethereum or even come close to the record sales on Ethereum, the prices of NFTs on the network remain fairly cheap.

Month	Sales (USD)	Avg Sale (USD)
March 2021	$17,429.64	$111.73
April 2021	$4,831.11	$34.51
May 2021	$3,109.96	$12.90
June 2021	$2,102.63	$12.90
July 2021	$1,489.50	$10.64
August 2021	$84,836.90	$139.99
September 2021	$3,994,309.22	$106.03
October 2021	$9,880,818.17	$32.32
November 2021	$4,278,802.31	$14.21
December 2021	$5,450,252.55	$23.74
January 2022	$3,916,337.71	$18.79
February 2022	$3,828,751.78	$26.81
March 2022	$4,244,714.69	$34.66
April 2022	$2,640,512.47	$30.24
May 2022	$4,313,575.12	$32.86
Total Sales / Total Avg Sale:	$42,661,873.76	$42.82

I thought it’d be fun to gather just over a year’s worth of total NFT sales volume on Tezos and look at the average sale price per transaction for each month. According to the data I gathered using Cryptoslam.io, the average sale price of NFTs on Tezos over the last year is approximately $42.82.

Of course, this is just an average. Some NFTs go for less, and some for much more.

Tezos NFTs Are Gaining Popularity

The Tezos blockchain is gaining recognition for being the premier blockchain of choice for artists. Leading figures in the digital art world such as Snoop Dogg’s alter-ego, Cozmo de Medici, and even XCOPY, have played a large role in the popularization of Tezos NFTs.

In May 2022, Objkt surpassed $100 million in sales. That same month the marketplace saw its largest sale with an NFT art piece called REACHBACK that sold for an astonishing 82k tez (about $164,000). The art piece was created by XCOPY, a well-known artist on the Ethereum network.

XCOPY has minted other versions of the REACHBACK series on Opensea, but the original NFT was minted on Tezos’ indie marketplace HicetNunc, in April 2021. The impressive sale on Objkt goes to show that it doesn’t necessarily matter which blockchain NFT art is minted on, if the artist has a solid reputation, then their art remains valuable regardless of the platform.

Originally, the piece was listed and sold for 5 tez, as a result, it instantly became a piece of folklore. The piece was listed again multiple times, between 10k to 30k tez, eventually selling for 31,337 tez in August 2021.

At the same time, other versions of REACHBACK that were listed on Opensea failed to sell for more than $20,000. Ultimately, the most recent sale of REACHBACK for 82k tez on Objkt marked an important milestone for the Tezos NFT community—giving hope to those who thought the network would only ever be good for low-priced NFTs and experimentations.

With more eco-friendly blockchains and NFT marketplaces being introduced to the Web 3.0 space, it’s exciting to see how Tezos continues to adapt and evolve to the growing ecosystem of green networks.

In my opinion, the one thing Tezos has going for it is its solid reputation. Sure, it doesn’t have the transaction volume of Ethereum, but it also doesn’t have the negative reputation of say, Terra. Rather, it’s a very neutral blockchain with a lot of room for growth.

Where Can You Buy Tezos NFTs?

Objkt is currently the largest marketplace for buying and selling NFTs on Tezos. The platform hosts an array of various types of NFTs and well-known artists from the digital space. Also, fxhash, a leading generative NFT art platform has gained a solid reputation amongst the Tezos community.

Although Objkt is the most popular marketplace on Tezos, there are a few others that are worth checking out including:

• Kalamint (one of the first marketplaces on Tezos).
• Versum (next-gen NFT platform and metaverse).
• OneOf (an eco-friendly marketplace connecting fans and collectors to their favorite artists, athletes, and brands).
• MinterPop (exclusive artwork by legendary artists mainly focused on comics and illustrations).

I’ve noticed that Tezos NFT marketplaces are really unique when compared to Ethereum’s. I find it fascinating that each marketplace seems to have its own niche art style, and targets certain communities.

While many of them are aimed at eco-friendly consumers, others seek a very specific niche group of people. I’m not going to lie, it’s kind of refreshing.

How to Buy a Tezos NFT

To buy an NFT on Tezos is simple. However, there are a few things you will need to do beforehand. Below I will walk you through the exact steps to buy a Tezos NFT.

Open an exchange account and get a Tezos compatible wallet

The first thing you need to do to buy a Tezos NFT is to get some $XTZ (the native currency on Tezos). To do this, you will need to open a crypto exchange account. The most popular and trusted crypto exchange is Coinbase.

Once you have successfully set up your Coinbase account, you will need to decide how much $XTZ you want to purchase. If you’re just getting to know the blockchain, I suggest buying a small amount to get started.

Now, in order to use $XTZ to buy an NFT on Tezos, you’re going to need to transfer your $XTZ from the crypto exchange to your Tezos compatible wallet. This wallet is your key to accessing the Tezos blockchain.

The most trusted Tezos wallet is Temple Wallet. Previously known as Thanos, this wallet is a browser plugin that supports numerous accounts. You can use Temple Wallet to store your cryptocurrency, NFTs, and other crypto tokens on the Tezos blockchain.

To set up your Temple Wallet, follow these simple steps:

1. Go to the official website.
2. Click install now, and select your browser.
3. Click install or add to browser.
4. Approve the browser plugin installation.
5. After installing, add a wallet to Temple.
6. Click Create a new wallet.
7. Create a secure password to protect your wallet.
8. Accept Terms, and click create.

Nicely done, you are now ready to transfer $XTZ from your crypto exchange to your wallet.

Transfer XTZ to your Temple Wallet

Depending on what exchange you have chosen to buy your $XTZ from, the steps to transfer it to your wallet will vary. Assuming you used Coinbase, I will walk you through the steps to transfer your newly acquired $XTZ to your freshly opened Temple Wallet.

1. In your Temple Wallet, click Recieve, to copy your address.
2. Sign in to your Coinbase account.
3. In Coinbase, click Send, choose XTZ, then enter the amount to send.
4. Enter the recipient (your Temple Wallet address).
5. Verify received funds by checking your Temple Wallet (it can take a few minutes).

Bam! You’re done. It’s literally that easy. I always say, if you can send an email, you can send crypto.

Connect your wallet to a Tezos NFT marketplace

For your first NFT, my recommendation is to take some time to explore all the marketplaces. You never know what you might find, and you’ll never know if you don’t look.

To buy an NFT, first, you’ll need to connect your Temple Wallet to your marketplace of choice. Most marketplaces will either say Sync or Connect, once you find this option, click it, then connect your wallet. Connecting your wallet enables it to communicate with the blockchain to initiate and authenticate your transaction.

Again, take your time to explore all the marketplaces, you can always come back to a marketplace if you don’t find something else you really like.

Buy your NFT

Now comes the time you’ve anxiously been waiting for! You get to click that Buy Now button and purchase your first Tezos NFT.

Keep in mind that not all NFTs are listed as Buy Now. Some of them may be an auction-style where you have to submit your bid and bid against others, or the seller might just decide to accept your offer if you submit one tempting enough.

Either way, just make sure you know what kind of listing it is before submitting your transaction. Once you submit a transaction on the blockchain, there’s no way to go back.

You can view your purchases on Objkt with your wallet connected, under the Collection tab.

Final Thoughts

Tezos is an open-source blockchain that hosts a nice selection of different kinds of NFTs. From Snoop Dogg to XCOPY, Tezos is becoming the go-to source for high-quality NFT creations. Combined with its cost-effectiveness and user-friendly interface, Tezos is sure to continue to climb up the ranks as one of the preferred NFT blockchains.

Even Snoop’s alter-ego, Cozomo de Medici, said “If you’re not collecting on objkt.com, are you even collecting?” Either Snoop knows something we don’t or he just sees the obvious amount of potential waiting for creators on the Tezos network. Regardless, I think Tezos is worth checking out.