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LooksRare is one of the Ethereum blockchain’s numerous non-fungible token (NFT) markets. The platform’s developers have stated that they intend to construct “something greater” than competitors, notably Bored Ape monster OpenSea.
LooksRare describes itself as a site “by and for NFT individuals,” employing incentive schemes and specific listing choices to entice users away from competitors. It provides free LOOKS tokens in exchange for participation, and the LooksRare team is constantly adding features to improve the NFT trading experience.
LooksRare has yet to reach OpenSea’s market valuation, but it has garnered considerable attention for its concentration on community and innovative participation incentives. This is how it works.
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LooksRare provides an Ethereum-based NFT marketplace where users may purchase and sell NFTs to receive incentives in the form of LOOKS, the native utility currency. The platform charges a regular 2% sales fee from all NFT purchases, somewhat lower than the 2.5% charged by OpenSea.
The LOOKS token is crucial to the LooksRare ecosystem and may be staked to get daily trading fees in LOOKS as well as wrapped Ether (wETH).
LooksRare airdropped 120 million LOOKS to everyone who transacted over 3 ETH via OpenSea between June and December 2021 to encourage new customers during its debut. Users had to list a minimum of one NFT on LooksRare to claim their LOOKS. This led to a torrent of new listings on the platform and a $105 million first-day trading volume. Furthermore, almost $2 million in platform fees were produced and paid to LOOKS stakeholders.
The platform has been co-founded by the anonymous “Zodd” and “Guts” and now employs 22 people worldwide. However, its activities remain shrouded in secrecy.
LooksRare is considered an NFT platform with a high volume of transactions and inexpensive transaction costs that is rapidly gaining traction in the NFT sector. However, the rewards LooksRare provides are both its greatest benefit and its worst drawback. The following are the advantages of the LooksRare NFT Marketplace:
LooksRare costs are often lower than those charged by other rivals. The platform only charges 2% on transactions, whereas most other marketplaces charge an average of 2.5%. That 0.5% difference may not seem like much, but when you consider the high purchasing costs that NFTs may fetch, it can be a major savings opportunity.
LooksRare, unlike many other sites, allows you to bid on a full collection rather than just a single NFT buy. Furthermore, the site allows you to purchase through set sales or auctions, giving you additional alternatives when trading on this platform.
LOOKS tokens may be awarded to users that invest, trade, or list on LooksRare. As of early August, the staking rate has risen to 50.39% APY, implying that staking via this platform might be tremendously profitable for the right person.
The following are the disadvantages of the LooksRare NFT marketplace:
The LooksRare marketplace is built on the Ethereum network, so you’ll need ETH or wrapped ETH to utilize it. The website does not take credit or debit cards, and there is no payment method with fiat currency or stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC). The ETH demands add an extra step to the procedure and may make it difficult for novice investors unfamiliar with the crypto sector to navigate.
Another major disadvantage of LooksRare is that the platform income model practically encourages wash trade because it compensates users for selling and buying.
There is no LooksRare app, and you can only access the NFT marketplace through their website. Furthermore, there isn’t a category-based search filter, making it difficult to identify certain types of NFTs, whether you’re seeking amusement, art, music, or something different. The only ways to filter are by collection name, “purchase it now” choices, and price. This gives this platform a disorganized appearance.
If you’ve used OpenSea previously, visiting LooksRare’s marketplace will seem familiar. The website is highly user-friendly, and all you need to start dealing with NFTs is an NFT wallet. You can quickly set up a wallet, but if you haven’t done so previously, setting up one is a pretty simple process.
Even though LooksRare appears to be an OpenSea clone, at first sight, certain elements distinguish this new NFT marketplace.
LooksRare does not have as many NFT genres as other prominent NFT exchanges. The most valuable collections on this marketplace include collectibles as well as generative art initiatives such as the Bored Ape Yacht Club.
LooksRare executes derivative PFP NFT projects differently than other NFT markets. Because they are based on existing NFT collections, this kind of collection has a difficult time being confirmed on OpenSea, for example.
Rather than cracking down on all those collections and removing them from the marketplace, they will not withhold an NFT collection’s verified status if their acts are not deemed harmful.
In addition to the standard choices of instant buying and offers, LooksRare allows users to propose a whole collection. For example, suppose a user wants to participate in a project and isn’t concerned about which NFT they will receive. In that case, they may submit an offer to every wallet address holding an NFT from a certain collection, with LooksRare covering the gas expenses along the way.
Every transaction on the LooksRare marketplace is subject to a 2% fee. Fees are collected in wrapped Ether and delivered to wallets with 100% interest in the platform’s LOOKS token at the time of writing. Users who engage in LooksRare’s staking program will always receive a partial return of their costs.
Buyers can purchase NFTs with either ETH or WETH. If the sum of either is insufficient to fund a transaction, customers can pay in either Ether or its wrapped form.
Because of these and other characteristics, the LooksRare marketplace is incredibly appealing to both artists and customers, and it is perhaps the greatest NFT minting marketplace because of its excellent incentives.
LooksRare supports three Ethereum-compatible wallets: MetaMask, WalletConnect, and Coinbase Wallet.
After linking a wallet, go to the site and click the “List an NFT” button to get a list of all the NFTs in your wallet. You may specify a fixed price as well as the number of days you would like the listing to be available by clicking “Sell” on each of the NFTs you want to list here on the LooksRare platform.
A new function called “Conditional Listing” has been recently launched, which allows users to post two goods; when one item sells, the second listing is canceled, and the seller’s wallet is promptly restored.
Before running it on LooksRare, link your wallet to the Manifold Studio, then import any photos, audio recordings, or movies you want to generate as an NFT. As an added plus, LooksRare provides royalties on-chain, which means that payments are paid within the same transactions as the sale, providing creators with fast rewards.
LooksRare, like its competitor, supports a large variety of Web3 wallets using the “wallet connect” function. At the time of writing, over a hundred other wallets are available for exchanging NFTs on LooksRare.
If you are unsure which one to use or have never set up a wallet for yourself, we recommend MetaMask because they do not require users to go through a KYC procedure beforehand.
LooksRare NFT marketplace now only provides the ability to purchase and sell NFTs tied to the Ethereum blockchain network. Because NFTs are linked to identical smart contracts as OpenSea listings, it is simple to import them without creating new ones.
While this lowers the entrance hurdle to join the marketplace, on the one hand, it will most likely make it difficult for LooksRare to compete for the finest NFT exchange platform in the future.
Looksrare is a decentralized Ethereum-based marketplace that allows minting and exchanging Ethereum NFTs. Each sale on the site incurs a 2% charge, which is gathered and disbursed to stakers accounts every 24 hours.
Aside from that, stakers are rewarded with other earnings on the site. As a result, Looksrare, as a community-focused platform, pays all users on its platform 100% of their earnings. Staking $LOOKS tokens allows users to generate passive revenue. The technique lets users earn extra LOOKS in addition to the wETH trading fee incentives.
Looksrare allows you to stake LOOKS tokens in a variety of ways. As a result, stakers may quickly claim their incentives and unlock their tokens. Here’s how to stake $LOOKS coins on the Looksrare Staking Platform in detail:
It would be best if you first filled your wallet with LOOKS to stake them. You may just purchase ETH and exchange it for LOOKS. In the meantime, make sure you have enough ETH to pay transaction costs. How to purchase LOOKS tokens via Uniswap?
Ether tokens may be purchased on practically any centralized exchange, particularly Binance. By opening and validating a Binance account, you may effortlessly purchase ETH.
If you already have an account, simply go to the “BUY CRYPTO” area and pay using a bank deposit or debit/credit card. Afterward, move the funds to your cryptocurrency wallet, ideally MetaMask, which supports several platforms.
After loading your crypto wallet with ETH, go to app.uniswap.org to convert part of the Ether tokens into LOOKS tokens. Tap “CONNECT WALLET” in the top right of the Uniswap home screen. Accept the connection by signing the MetaMask prompt.
Once connected, in the first section, choose ETH as the cryptocurrency you’re switching from. Search for the LOOKS token in the next field and then hit IMPORT to add the coins in the second section directly. Enter the amount of ETH you want to exchange for LOOKS, and then hit SWAP to fill your crypto wallet with LOOKS tokens.
After you’ve loaded LOOKS tokens into your wallet, you may go to the LooksRare Staking site to lock up the asset for incentives.
One of the most crucial advantages of LooksRare’s staking platform is its user-friendly, easy-to-use UI. As a result, you won’t need any technical knowledge. To stake your tokens, go to looksrare.org/rewards and go to the Looksrare Staking platform. From the staking platform’s upper right corner, choose the “WALLET” icon. To link your crypto wallet to the staking platform, sign the agreement in the Metamask prompt that appears.
After linking your wallet, select the “LOOKS COMPOUNDER” or the “STANDARD STAKING: alternative. Enter the amount of LOOKS you want to allocate and press STAKE. To execute the transaction, approve the operation in your Metamask wallet.
While LooksRare is frequently lauded for its reward and staking systems, statistics published by NFT tracker CryptoSlam in April revealed that around $18 billion of the platform’s trading volume, or almost 95% of all activity, has been related to wash trading.
Wash trading is a technique used by sellers to influence the market, frequently by purchasing and selling to oneself to make an item appear to be in great demand. In the case of LooksRare, the incentives system may encourage users to influence purchases to obtain LOOKS tokens.
Wash trading is therefore referred to as “false trading” because it occurs when cash is transferred between users in an insignificant manner. They are not true sales but monies traveling back and forth between individuals or groups on both the buyer’s and seller’s sides. Wash trading is unlawful in the United States and is still difficult to detect in the cryptocurrency industry.
Individuals earn unethically via wash trading by inflating prices artificially, as NFTs offer the impression of value as they are transferred around. Furthermore, when more transactions occur, the platform earns more revenue.
The consequences of this action might be severe, especially when authorities scrutinize the market more thoroughly. Wash trading is unlawful in other markets, and increasing regulation may make it criminal in the cryptocurrency market.
The decision to purchase and trade NFTs via LooksRare or other Ethereum-based markets such as OpenSea, SuperRare, or Rarible is a question of personal discretion. Users should do their homework and weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each platform.
Wash trading within the NFT market has resulted in false price hikes, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain monitoring, and security business. Chainalysis discovered that 262 people traded NFTs to addresses affiliated with them in its February 2022 report. Furthermore, the business discovered that money laundering was frequently carried out using NFTs.
Surprisingly, the bulk of NFT wash transactions has not been profitable. Those who have been lucrative, on the other hand, have made enormous gains, with total profits in the millions.
Their triumph, however, may not last long, as Chainalysis reports that authorities are shifting their focus to the crypto sector. For the sake of the industry, the business recommends that markets oppose such behavior.
We hope this tour gives you a sense of how the competitor for the largest NFT marketplace works. LooksRare NFT marketplace has distinct characteristics that set it apart from the competitors.
Time will tell if these qualities will prevail, but LooksRare appears to have a promising future in the NFT market. Selling and buying NFTs on LooksRare is as simple as using OpenSea, and if you enjoy receiving rewards for exchanging NFTs, LooksRare is worth investigating.
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