With the rise in popularity of NFTs, many people want to learn more about NFT marketplaces like LooksRare. LooksRare is just one of many NFT marketplaces available. It describes itself as “the community-first NFT marketplace with rewards for participating.”
In this review we will take a closer look at this NFT platform, including how it works and compares to other options.
What is LooksRare ?
LooksRare has been around since January 2022. As mentioned, it is a self-described “community-first NFT marketplace.” The goal of LooksRare is to become the crypto industry’s top provider of NFTs. While this is a goal of many other marketplaces, LooksRare has taken a unique approach and created a reward-based business model. This seems to be working well, and although the marketplace was only founded in January, it already has a fair number of users.
Of all of that basic information, the most important thing to know is that LooksRare is a reward-based marketplace. This means that it incentivizes users to participate in the platform. When users participate in the NFT marketplace, they earn LOOKS coins. Unsurprisingly, LOOKS coins are the ecosystem’s native digital token.
LooksRare Architecture and Blockchain
As is the case with many other crypto platforms, LooksRare was developed using the Ethereum blockchain. In practical terms, that means that most people will use ETH tokens to buy NFTs. Alternatively, you can use Wrapped Ethereum (WETH) tokens or a combination of ETH and WETH.
LooksRare easily connects to the most common digital wallets, including Coinbase, MetaMask, and WalletConnect. This makes it easy for users to buy NFTs.
LooksRare also lets you list any NFTs that you own, selling them on the platform’s secondary marketplace.
Browsing NFTs on LooksRare
If you are familiar with other NFT marketplaces, you are likely used to see non-fungible tokens arranged in categories. Common examples include categories for music, art, or gaming. LooksRare, however, organizes the NFTs by collection.
Sorting NFTs
In addition to looking at NFTs on LooksRare by collection, you can also sort them by price or trading activity. There are both ascending and descending options.
Whether you like this organization method for NFTs will be a personal preference. It’s worth noting that most of the NFTs on the marketplace are artwork, with a few videos or audio NFTs. However, you can’t filter your search based on the format, which some NFT shoppers may dislike.
Otherwise, the way that LooksRare organizes NFTs by collection is very similar to how other marketplaces organize them by category. There should be almost no learning curve in that respect.
Additional Information on NFTs
Unsurprisingly, clicking on an NFT as you browse will give you more information about it. You can use that information to help you decide whether to buy an NFT. Some of the information you will see includes:
- Description of the collection
- Token standard
- Transaction history
The LOOKS Token
LooksRare incentivizes participation via its native token. There are several ways that users can earn LOOKS coins:
- As a trading reward for buying or selling an NFT
- As a reward for listing NFTs from a selected eligible collection
- As a commission from staking LOOKS tokens on the platform
Those who earn rewards receive them once per day. You can easily retrieve the coins, transferring them to your private wallet.
You can buy LOOKS tokens on Uniswap, Pancakeswap, and other decentralized platforms. You can also earn the tokens by participating in LooksRare’s marketplace in one of the ways mentioned above. Let’s explore this in more detail below.
Staking Rewards
LooksRare encourages you to stake your LOOKS tokens. There are two main options, with or without compounding. When you do so with compounding, you earn WETH as a reward. Those WETH staking rewards compound automatically, so the base number of tokens you stake continues to grow. The result is that you earn LOOKS or WETH tokens more quickly. According to LooksRare, this can generate as much as 161.01% APY on your tokens.
Staking without compounding rewards also results in earning LOOKS and WETH tokens. This can yield up to 107.45% APR.
Earning Commissions From Trading Fees
As is common among crypto platforms, those who hold and stake LOOKS tokens on LooksRare can earn a portion of the platform’s trading fees. Importantly, LooksRare distributes 100% of its trading fees among LOOKS stakeholders, not taking a cut of the fees for themselves.
LooksRare calculates the trading fees every 24 hours and then distributes them daily. You can claim your rewards at any point.
Rewards for Listing or Trading NFTs
One of the most common ways that LooksRare users earn LOOKS is by trading or listing NFTs on the platform. LooksRare doesn’t have a minimum trading volume needed to earn LOOKS for trading. The only requirement is that your NFTs must be hosted on Ethereum.
The rewards for listing NFTs in collections or trading NFTs come in the form of points. You can redeem these as LOOKS tokens up to one time per day. The only notable caveat is that there may be gas fees when you claim the tokens.
Airdrop
LooksRare is also running an airdrop. To be eligible for the airdrop, you must have traded at least 3 ETH on OpenSea from June 16, 2021, to Dec. 16, 2021. Until the airdrop occurs, you can check your eligibility by linking your wallet to LooksRare. Then, look at the large green banner and select “Check now” right under it. The airdrop only lasts 7 to 10 days, and LooksRare says the dates are TBD.
LOOKS Token Allocation
Learning about earning LOOKS coins is just one part of the token. You may also be interested in the token allocation, which is as follows. For reference, there are 1 billion LOOKS tokens in total.
- Airdrop – 12% or 120 million tokens
- Strategic sale – 3.3% or 33,083,003 tokens
- Liquidity management – 1.7% or 16,916,997 tokens
- Volume rewards – 44.1% or 441 million tokens
- Staking rewards – 18.9% or 189 million tokens
- Founding team – 10% or 100 million tokens
- Treasury – 10% or 100 million tokens
Buying and Selling NFTs on LooksRare
As an NFT marketplace, the primary purpose of LooksRare is to buy and sell non-fungible tokens. For your convenience, LooksRare organizes the NFTs in collections. Currently, you have to buy NFTs individually. However, there will eventually be a feature that lets you buy an entire collection in a single click or purchase. This is called the Collection Offer.
LooksRare also plans to create a Trait Offer. This will let you buy any NFT within a given collection as long as it has a certain trait.
Let’s look into the step-by-step process of buying NFTs via LooksRare later in the guide. For now, learn about some basic features to know.
No Minting – You Can Only Sell NFTs You Already Own
One important thing to mention about LooksRare is that you cannot use the marketplace to mint NFTs. If you want to mint an NFT and sell it, you will have to do the minting on another platform. After that, you can easily transfer the minted NFT to your LooksRare account and sell it.
Simply put, you can deposit or transfer NFTs to LooksRare but cannot mint them there. They must already be minted before you bring them to the platform.
Royalties
As a seller, you can collect royalties on the NFTs that you sell. Just keep in mind that these are limited to up to 10%.
Your LooksRare Profile
After you connect a wallet to your LooksRare account, you can go ahead and customize your profile if you want. There are multiple ways to personalize your profile. To do so, just click on
“Edit Profile” on your account page’s drop-down menu. You can fill in the following fields, some of which have restrictions:
- Profile picture (It must be an NFT that you own. If you transfer, trade, or sell the NFT, the profile picture will disappear)
- Username (Up to 20 characters)
- Bio
- Social (Your social site)
LooksRare Fees
Every single transaction on LooksRare comes with a 2% transaction fee. This is a flat rate, making it easy to calculate.
Additionally, the fact that you can collect royalties on your NFTs also means you may have to pay royalties. If you resell an NFT whose original creator set royalty fees, you will have to pay those fees when you sell it.
In terms of gas fees, LooksRare hopes to add a feature that lets you cancel multiple open orders at once. This multi-cancellation feature should save you gas fees.
LooksRare Help and Community
You can find a Help Center on the LooksRare marketplace. This is great for your most basic questions. If you still have any doubts after reading this guide, it’s a good idea to check out the Help Center.
If you use Discord, you can also participate in the LooksRare community there. The community is helpful.
Is LooksRare Secure?
One of the most common concerns people in the cryptocurrency world have is security. Most people involved in crypto are concerned about privacy and the security of their information. LooksRare does excellent in this respect.
The platform does not store any of your personal information. You control all of your information when you connect your wallet to the marketplace.
For added security, LooksRare set up a bug bounty program. This runs on ImmuneFi and is typically considered an effective way to find potential bugs immediately.
Who Is LooksRare Best For?
If you aren’t familiar with buying or selling NFTs already, you may want to start with a different platform. That is because compared to some, LooksRare has a slight learning curve. That being said, those who are familiar with NFTs and securely storing digital assets should get the hang of it incredibly quickly.
How Does LooksRare Compare to Other NFT Marketplaces?
LooksRare is far from the only NFT marketplace available. As such, you may find yourself wondering how it compares to others. This can give you a better idea of whether you want to buy or sell NFTs on the LooksRare platform or somewhere else.
Supported Blockchains
While LooksRare only supports Ethereum-hosted NFTs, some platforms offer additional options. Crypto.com, for example, also supports NFTs hosted on Crypto.org or Polygon.
Supported Payments
Because LooksRare only supports Ethereum-hosted NFTs, it should come as no surprise that you need ETH or WETH to buy NFTs. Other platforms offer more choices. Many let you use additional cryptocurrencies, and some even let you use debit or credit cards, although they charge fees for doing so.
Fees
LooksRare’s fees are more competitive than many popular options, such as NFTs. However, the fee structure is different on various platforms, so it is worth taking a closer look. For example, on LooksRare, you pay 2% whether you buy or sell. On Crypto.com, you only pay a fee if you sell an NFT, not if you buy one. But the fee Crypto.com charges sellers is essentially the same as that of LooksRare at 1.99%.
Minting
Remember that you cannot mint NFTs on LooksRare. Many marketplaces let you do both on the same platform.
Rewards
LooksRare is one of the few NFT marketplaces that lets you earn rewards just for participating. This is a very nice incentive to use the marketplace. Those rewards can reduce the cost of buying an NFT or increase your income from selling one.
Search Filters
If you know what you are looking for in an NFT, LooksRare may not have enough search filters to fit your needs. Crypto.com, for example, has a lot of categories and search filters. But this is not an issue if you just want to browse NFTs to see what catches your eye.
How to Buy NFTs on LooksRare – Step By Step
The process of buying NFTs on LooksRare is fairly straightforward, especially if you are already familiar with buying and using cryptocurrency and NFTs.
Get Some Ethereum (ETH)
Remember that you need ETH or WETH tokens to buy NFTs on LooksRare. As such, if you don’t already have any Ethereum, getting some will be your first step.
There are hundreds of exchanges that let you buy Ethereum. The one you choose will depend on whether you are buying it with crypto or fiat, where you live, and your other preferences. Always select an exchange carefully, as you don’t want to accidentally send your funds to a scam.
When choosing an exchange, remember that you may have to trade off some privacy or anonymity for security. For example, the best-regulated exchanges will require you to verify your account with an ID. You will typically need to verify your identity to exchange fiat for Ethereum.
If you currently have Bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, there are plenty of crypto-to-crypto exchanges that let you convert between tokens without sharing identifying information. Just remember to do your research before transferring funds, as all crypto transactions are final. You don’t want to accidentally send tokens to a scammer.
Move Your Crypto to a Compatible Wallet, If Necessary
Depending on where you buy or currently hold your Ethereum, you may need to move it to a different wallet. While LooksRare connects with multiple wallets, it doesn’t do so with all of them. So, you may need to move your Ethereum to MetaMask, WalletConnect, or Coinbase.
The process of doing this is just like moving cryptocurrency between any other wallets. Open the wallet where your ETH currently is. Select “Send” or something similar. Enter the wallet address of your destination wallet. Either scan a QR code or copy and paste it to avoid errors. Finalize the transfer.
Connect Your Supported Wallet to LooksRare
Once you have Ethereum in a supported wallet, all you have to do is connect it. Navigate to LooksRare and look at the top right corner of the page. You will see a button “Connect Wallet.” Select your wallet from the three options:
- MetaMask
- WalletConnect
- Coinbase Wallet
Log into your wallet. Then, you are ready to start browsing NFTs.
Buy the NFTs of Your Choice
Now that you have a wallet with Ethereum connected to LooksRare, you can easily buy whichever NFTs you want. Start browsing the options to find one that catches your eye.
Click on the NFT you are interested in to see more information about it. This is also where you will see a “Buy Now” button or “Make Offer” button. Select that, and your wallet will start loading. From there, you can just follow the on-screen instructions. You will be prompted to confirm your transaction.
Visit Your Profile Page to See Your NFT
Once you buy an NFT, you can easily see it by navigating to your profile page on LooksRare. Here, you will find a list of all the NFTs you have bought on the platform.
Conclusion
LooksRare is one of many marketplaces that let you buy or sell NFTs. One of the most enticing features of the platform is the ability to earn rewards for buying or selling NFTs, as well as for staking and even just for listing. LooksRare is a solid option, although beginners or those who want more search filters when browsing NFTs may want to consider a different platform.
