Rarible Review: Its Pros, Cons and How it Compares

When it comes to NFTs, platforms like OpenSea get all the credit. And while they are the largest NFT marketplace in the industry at the moment, that's bound to change sooner or later.

After all, the crypto market and the NFT industry place a huge priority on decentralization, meaning that no single entity should be in control. And that's exactly why other platforms, like the Rarible NFT marketplace, are so important.

If you are familiar with how OpenSea works, you will feel right at home on Rarible. It's super easy to buy and sell NFTs on the platform. Not only can anyone join the platform, but it’s also super easy to mint NFTs as an artist on Rarible.

But what is it that sets Rarible apart from other marketplaces, and why should you consider buying NFT art on the site? Read on below to find out.

How Rarible Started? 

The popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to rise tremendously after an explosive start in 2021. And those who realized NFTs potential at an earlier stage even managed to make significant profitable investments. 

But the hype surrounding NFTs is just the beginning, with NFTs expected to be the future of digital transactions thanks to them being unique and proving digital ownership.

It was just before the height of NFT mania that Rarible was launched. The NFT marketplace is still new, having only been launched in 2020. 

Founders Alex Salnikov and Alexei Falin started the company in Moscow, Russia, and before that, both the co-founders were involved in launching other companies, as well.

In June 2021, just 18 months after launching, Rarible announced a $14.2 million Series A funding round from investment firms Venrock Capital, CoinFund, and 01 Advisors. Only a few months before that the company had raised $1.75 million in seed funding. 

With fresh funding, the startup aims to make the NFT space more approachable to everyday users and explore more user-friendly developments.  

“We need a world where an indie creator can effortlessly create an NFT and sell it for $5 to his community of supporters, as well as where a pop icon can use NFTs to establish close contact with her multi-million audience in a sustainable way,” said the company at the time.

Rarible is also working towards transitioning to a true DAO, decentralized autonomous organization, to ensure transparency and decentralization over the platform.

Rarible DAO is supported by the RARI governance token through which the community votes to shape the future of the platform.

The RARI Token

The platform has its own token called RARI, which the community can hold to participate in governance and submit and vote on proposals to improve the platform. The ERC-20 token was launched by Rarible as part of a liquidity mining program, under which active users are incentivized with rewards paid out in RARI tokens.

“Driven by the will to give our community the power to influence decisions and incentivize active participation. We are launching our governance token. This new project-management model has proven to be efficient within the DeFi industry, and we’re excited to launch the first governance token in the NFT space,” is what the team said at the time of the RARI token’s launch. 

Investing in the RARI token means investing in the Rarible ecosystem as it allows you to take part in the NFT platform, assist in the curation of artwork and moderation of creators, and stake RARI as well.

Shark tank star and billionaire Mark Cuban, who backs OpenSea, recently revealed his crypto portfolio, which contains RARI tokens. The Dallas Maverick owner also shared in an interview that the investments he is making now are not in traditional businesses, rather 80% of them are in and around cryptocurrency. Cuban also said that DAOs are where he is looking to invest in as “that is changing decision-making.”

The RARI governance token was launched in the summer of 2020 with a total supply of 25 million, while currently, the circulating supply in the market is just over 5.5 million. 60% of RARI’s total supply is reserved for its users, which will be distributed to buyers and sellers over the course of the first four years.

Every week, about 41,250 RARI tokens are distributed among applications building on the platform, in proportion to sales volumes, as per its website.

Today, the token has a market capitalization of $71.6 million. RARI token’s price meanwhile hit its all-time high in March 2021 and went as high as $46.70. 

If you want access to the Rarible ecosystem through its RARI token, it is available on two popular centralized exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, as well as decentralized exchanges (DEX) Uniswap and SushiSwap.

Rarible NFT Market Stats 

Creators generate tokens on Rarible that are known as non-fungible tokens or NFTs. Each of the NFTs is unique, unlike Bitcoin and fiat currency which are interchangeable, meaning fungible. 

NFTs are particularly revolutionizing due to provable digital ownership. One of the first NFTs to gain traction was CryptoKitties, which let users buy, sell, and breed digital cats. Back in 2017, the popularity of CryptoKitties led to the Ethereum congestion crisis.

On Rarible’s marketplace, NFTs range from digital artworks, memes, music, games, photography to domains, and parcels of virtual land. It basically aims to link buyers and sellers who are typically content creators, such as digital artists.

Before OpenSea made its way to the top, Rarible was seeing higher monthly trading volumes than its competitor. 

And while the launch of the governance token RARI has given it an edge over its counterparts, with OpenSea users urging the platform to launch a token as well, Rarible hasn't been able to sustain its lead and currently pulls in much lower numbers.

As of January 2022, Rarible has handled $275 million in total trading volume, and in comparison, OpenSea has already done a record high volume of $3.88 billion in the first month of this year alone. 

At the beginning of 2021, Rarible’s dominance was just under 22%, while OpenSea was only accounting for almost 30% NFT market share, according to data from Dune Analytics. But, a year later, while Rarible’s market share has gone down under 1%, OpenSea’s has only skyrocketed to over 98%. 

However, keeping the top place in the crypto and NFT space is much harder than in the traditional markets. A new marketplace, LooksRare, launched a vampire attack on OpenSea in Jan. and is now pulling in 78% of all daily volume, pushing OpenSea’s share back to 22%.  

Coming back to Rarible, it is still a small player in the NFT market, considering that 2021 saw an overall $23 billion in NFT sales. But they continue to grow with the backing of a flourishing ecosystem. Still, the total value in volume on Rarible saw a 4% increase from October, at an estimated $18.2 million.

Additionally, more than 400,000 NFTs have been minted on the marketplace so far, and more than 1.6 million users make up the overall community.

Multi-chain Support

Rarible has worked with many notable artists and companies to launch NFT art. Digital artists like Pak, eBoy and Aavegotchi trust the Rarible platform to mint and sell their work. Even the likes of Twitter, Lindsay Lohan, and Floyd Mayweather Jr have launched projects on Rarible.

Rarible also partnered with software giant Adobe to use its Content Credentials to verify the authenticity of the digital content. It allows NFT creators to add their wallet address and social media information to the metadata of tokens to “fight misinformation with attribution and verifiable truth of the content.”

OpenSea, the most popular NFT platform, only supports NFTs minted on Ethereum, Polygon, and Klatyn. But the Ethereum-based Rarible not only supports the most popular blockchain for NFTs Ethereum but also Tezos and Flow. The Flow blockchain was created by Dapper Labs, the company that launched NBA Top Shots and CryptoKitties, and this integration allows individual creators to mint NFTs for near-zero gas fees.

Being multi-chain allows Rarible to prevent smaller users from being priced out due to extremely high fees on Ethereum blockchain during peak times and high volatility. According to the marketplace, “the future of NFTs is multi-chain,” and that’s why they are planning to expand their support to several other prominent blockchains such as Solana and Polygon.

Latest Developments 

Going in 2022, Rarible has introduced an order management tool, following community concerns, to identify and cancel potential “risky sale orders” from OpenSea. This tool helps users differentiate between their active and inactive orders.

Lazy Minting

Recently, the growing NFT marketplace integrated the ‘lazy minting’ feature across its offerings, which allows both creator and buyer to not pay upfront gas fees. The gas fee is paid when the sale actually happens. 

This unique feature of the Rarible Protocol “significantly expands the accessibility and affordability of creating NFT projects and ensures the longevity and sustainability of the industry by empowering creators worldwide to launch NFT innovations rapidly with zero crypto onboarding,” said Salnikov, co-founder and head of product at Rarible, in a recent interview.

Rarible also allows ‘lazy minting’ from its mobile app, which was first released in August, and is currently only available on iOS, with an Android version coming soon. In its latest update, mobile app users can place their NFT art for auction for free, and the buyers would pay the mint price. You can access this option from the home tab via a plus button. However, you still cannot put NFTs on sale from the app for now. 

Gifting NFTs

Another exciting development came in the form of sending NFTs as gifts. NFT gift-giving went live on Rarible in December, which only works for Ethereum NFTs that are not for sale. The receiver doesn't even need to have a crypto wallet to receive the NFT.

This has been done in partnership with LinkdropHQ, an NFT marketing platform. The feature can be accessed on the profile page from the Rarible website. There you have to navigate to the NFT, click on the three dots next to the heart, and simply select “Gift this NFT."

You will also be asked to sponsor the transaction for a small fee so that the person you are gifting the NFT can claim it even if they don’t have any ETH for gas. 

Rarible Messenger

Late last year, Rarible Messenger was also launched, which enables you to message any wallet on Rarible.com and all of its supported blockchains. Currently, the messenger offers instant message notifications and shows when users are online. In the future, the popular platform is planning to add other features such as group chat.

The messaging app is to help users connect to their fans and communities and further communicate about the NFT sales.

“While we’re rolling it out as a built-in marketplace messaging tool, our ultimate goal is to release it as a standalone app to solve the blockchain messaging issue at its core, providing a decentralized and user-friendly solution for everyone out there,” said Rarible at the time.

How Rarible Works?

Rarible bills itself as a safe place for all creators and collectors. Anyone can use the platform to buy, sell, and mint. It is similar to how OpenSea works, as a free-for-all marketplace, similar to eBay. However, it's different from other popular platforms like Foundation or SuperRare, where you either need to be invited to sell on the platform or submit an application.

Interested in buying an NFT from Rarible? The process is similar to most NFT marketplaces. You'll use a crypto wallet like MetaMask, load it with ETH from a crypto exchange, and search for collectibles.

Thanks to a partnership with a payment processor, Wert, buyers can also use Visa credit cards and Apple Pay to purchase an NFT.

Sellers can list any ERC-721 token on Rarible, so you're bound to find artwork from popular collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club, Doodles, Cool Cats, and rising stars like Alien Frens.

When buying an NFT, both the buyer and seller will pay a 2.5% commission to Rarible. Sellers will also pay royalties to the original artist, while buyers will also pay gas fees, which fluctuate based on network activity.

You can keep an eye on gas fees through sites like Eth Gas Station, which shows just how much current transactions will cost based on the standard, fast, or low speed of confirmation.

‍Programming royalties is an interesting feature of NFTs coded directly into the smart contract as it gives the artists the right to future cash flows, which are paid out automatically and immediately, unlike the traditional content platforms. 

Creators on Rarible can set a percentage of future sales that will be paid out to them automatically whenever the NFT is resold. Unlike OpenSea, Rarible has also implemented split royalties, where creators who collaborate on a project can divide secondary sale royalties.

Creating NFTs on Rarible

ERC-721 or ERC-1115 are NFT standards on the Ethereum blockchain. While the ERC-721 NFT standard is used to create a single NFT, to create multiple instances of a single NFT, you have to use the ERC1155 token standard. 

To create a unique 1 of 1 ERC-721 token using Rarible, you have to first start with having some ETH and a MetaMask wallet. Now, go to the Rarible website, select “Connect Wallet,” and choose MetaMask out of the options available.

Now, to start creating, select "Create Collectible,” then select "Single" for an ERC-721. This will prompt you to upload the image or GIF or MP3 that you want to convert into an NFT. Then, set up an instant sale price, this option will immediately sell your item if the buyer is willing to pay the price you set. But you will still be able to drive bids on your item. 

Once this part is done, fill out the NFT details, including name, description, and royalties. Now that you have provided all the details, Rarible will upload the image, and you have to select ‘Mint Token’ to create the NFT on the blockchain. 

It will lead to a MetaMask pop-up that will require you to confirm the transaction. Once confirmed within MetaMask, you have to sign the sell order. After successful signature, you will be taken to your "Profile Page," where you will find your newly created NFT. 

Now that you have your freshly minted NFT, you are ready for the bids to flow in. If you want to sell your NFTs, you have the option to list your NFT for a fixed price or have a timed auction.  

While lazy minting or gasless listing, implemented by the NFT marketplaces, allows users to list NFTs for free on the platform, Rarible does take a 2.5% cut on every transaction. 

Rarible further allows you to apply for a verified badge. As an artist, getting this badge from the team can usually take less than a week but requires you to submit proof that your work is original.

When planning to sell NFTs, it would do you good to build a community and promote your NFTs so that you have an audience and can gain traction for your digital item. On Rarible, you can share your social media channels which will help you with getting a badge and attract even more buyers. 

Final Word

Sales of NFT recorded more than a 25,000% spike from the previous year as they reached $25 billion in 2021. Already, the total USD spent on NFT sales has surpassed $1.3 billion in the first half of January 2021, according to CryptoSlam.

More and more people, celebrities, and brands are joining the NFT space, as well with Walmart being the latest one preparing to create its own collection of NFTs as well as cryptocurrency.

Overall, it’s pretty clear that NFTs are here to stay, and their adoption is only growing further. And amidst NFTs’ mainstream popularity, Rarible has been seeing increased traction. This user-friendly platform allows those without the technical experience to mint NFTs and a seamless marketplace to facilitate the buy and sell of NFTs. 

With Rarible creating a unique NFT is pretty easy and a fast process through its simple and interactive UX/UI. The platform boasts of enabling both NFT experts and blockchain novices to rapidly mint an NFT in under 10 minutes.

Creators on this platform have easy access to a large market of buyers and can set up royalty percentage payments on immediate sales or allow for auctions of artworks. Moreover, Rarible is working on expanding and scaling its multi-chain operations and collaborating with other projects in the NFT and broader crypto space.

But its native token, RARI, is actually what sets Rarible apart from others. While the leading marketplace OpenSea has been recording great numbers in volume, it has been a constant target for its users’ censure for not allowing its users to be a part of its success and growth through a token or fees distribution. 

With Rarible DAO, which is a separate entity from the marketplace and a trustless with no central organization, Rarible aims to become a truly decentralized marketplace for NFTs. The autonomous governance model is controlled by holders of the RARI token, which allows active creators, buyers, and sellers to shape the platform’s decisions and future.

This isn’t to say that Rarible doesn't have its challenges. The issues are present in the form of wash trading, as participants manipulate the rewards model and farm more RARI tokens. It isn’t a true DAO yet as such voting power is advisory only, for now, to help with the scalability and security. 

But Rarible is working towards its goal to become a complete and true DAO system and give its users full control over the platform.

Overall, Rarible’s decentralized ethos coupled with multi-chain support of NFTs is what could help the platform gain traction and more adoption in 2022.