Gary Vaynerchuck and Mark Cuban, two influential entrepreneurs who are making waves on Twitter, can buy a $ 250 NFT today, show it to their many social media followers (thus increasing its value) and sell it tomorrow for 10,000 $. Cha Ching! It’s as simple as that. Unfortunately, the average Joe lacks the Midas touch that allows him to capitalize on popularity online, so NFTs are more difficult to cash in.
So how can ordinary people successfully reverse NFTs?
Many “How to buy an NFT” the guides will direct you to OpenSea, Rarible, and Mintable, but the truth is, the best place to buy NFTs are the backdoor pre-sale events that usually happen on Discord. On top of that, no everyone can participate in these exclusive transactions – only whitelisters have this privilege.
Securing a spot on the whitelist, dear reader, is one of the best ways to maximize your chances of making a profit with Bored Apes, or any silly, cartoonish NFT that is popular these days. I know what you are thinking, “What is a whitelist?” Like the NBA seats on the court or the VIP section of the club, this is where everyone wants to be, but only a privileged few have access.
What is a whitelist?
You may have seen the word “whitelist” in cybersecurity scenarios. For example, if you are already fed up with your firewall sending you bogus alerts about a harmless program, you may have whitelisted the app. Or if you have an ad blocker, chances are you’ve come across a website that requires you to whitelist them.
As such, you can infer that getting whitelisted means you have access to special privileges. In the world of NFT, getting a whitelist means that you are one of the few people who can buy NFTs at a discount before the public gets their hands on them. To show you a real world example, Mutant Mingos, an NFT art project that features weird and colorful flamingos, has offered its whitelist the option to purchase an NFT for just 0.035 ETH ($ 140, to date). A few days after the whitelists hit their NFTs, Mutant Mingos then allowed the public to buy NFTs at a price of 0.07 ETH ($ 280, to date). This is the advantage of whitelisting: you secure NFTs at discounted prices so that you can sell them to the general public at a profit.
Another benefit of getting whitelisted is avoiding gas wars, a common problem on the Ethereum network. All blockchains like Solana and Bitcoin charge transaction fees, but Ethereum is known to be expensive (its fees are based on its network congestion).
That being said, when an Ethereum-based NFT project is presented to the public and thousands of people scramble to buy one, gasoline costs skyrocket. I saw the Ethereum gas charge climb to $ 850, which was three times the price of the NFT I wanted to buy. Ouch! If you are whitelisted, on the other hand, gasoline costs are much lower during the pre-sale event. In some cases, I have seen smart developers of NFT projects fend for themselves with the backend to help reduce Ethereum gas charges down to $ 15 for their whitelists.
NFT whitelisted fins are the most successful
If you’re not convinced of the power of whitelisting, take a look at the stats – the numbers don’t lie. Whitelisters profit from their NFT 76% of the time, according to a new study from Chainalysis. Conversely, the ROI rate of non-whitelisters is only 21% (via Bloomberg).
“A very small group of very sophisticated investors reap most of the profits from NFT’s collection,” Chainalysis said, citing data from OpenSea. “This is especially true in coinage, where the whitelisting process gives early collectors access to lower prices that translate to greater profits. “
” Alright I understand. Whitelists are important, but how do I secure a spot on one? You may be wondering. This is where things get interesting. You won’t believe the hoops people go through to land the most enviable VIP positions in the crypto world.
How to be added to the whitelist
I did a little investigation to see what it takes to be whitelisted. Truth be told, most NFT communities operate like pyramid schemes. In order to participate in the presale event, NFT teams often require their members to invite a certain number of people to their Discord servers before they can be whitelisted. I saw an NFT project asking whitelisted applicants to bring in 20 recruits.
Other NFT projects require members to reach a specified level on their Discord servers before being granted the VIP role. For example, the people behind Lazy Bucks NFT are asking their members to reach level 15 to achieve whitelist status.
Reaching level 15 on a server requires a lot of commitment (i.e. a lot of typing in general chat), which is often a nuisance for NFT pinball machines. I saw people spend all day and all night trying to level up on the servers – only stopping to take bathroom breaks or to eat – because the deadline to get a whitelist is in 24 hours. Reaching level 15 isn’t a snap, especially if you’re pressed for time.
Some NFT communities prefer to use games, puzzles, and puzzles to distribute whitelist spots. For example, every day at 9 p.m. EST, the Lab Rats NFT team hosts daily games on their Discord server. A popular game that I have seen there is a pictorial type competition where members have to be the first to guess the subject of randomly drawn digital images. The top scorer wins a place on the white list. It might sound like fun, but remember you can only be whitelisted if you are the winner of the game – and the competition is stiff. It may take a few games before you can get the top spot, or you may not win at all.
Social media influencers may have the best edge when it comes to landing on whitelists. Many NFT communities reserve whitelisted spots for members heavily involved in social media, as long as they post their project on Twitter at least once.
After being whitelisted, there are several ways to get discounted NFTs. In some cases, I have seen team members requesting whitelists to send money to a designated wallet address. So if the price of the discounted artwork is 0.07 ETH, you will need to send $ 280 to the wallet address. Whitelists can also get their NFTs by connecting their Metamask wallet to the project website. It’s less risky than the old process, but you should still beware of NFT scams – malicious actors can take off with your money and leave you without NFT.
It should be noted that you cannot choose which NFT you want to purchase. Like Pokémon Cards, you won’t know which NFT Collection Artworks you get until you after you buy it. If you are lucky you will get the rarest item in the series, which increases its value exponentially.
How to successfully flip NFTs without the whitelist rat race
Whether you’re tasked with recruiting 20 people or spending hours and hours leveling up on a Discord server, in the words of Sweet Brown, “no one has time for this”. NFT fin Franklin hatchett explained that he found a loophole that allows him to buy low and sell high like a whitelist.
Before we dive into the Hatchett process, let me walk you through what typically happens during presale events. There are always whitelists who want to sell their newly created NFTs on the open market (eg OpenSea) almost immediately. At first they sell their NFTs for the highest price possible, but for sure the hours will pass and no one will bite the hook. Anxious to sell their NFTs, these white lists are starting to lower the price. At some point, they will start to undercut (for example, a seller lowers their price to 1.1 ETH after seeing the cheapest sell for 1.2 ETH). That’s when Hatchett rushes to snatch a cheap NFT from a desperate seller.
So when is Hatchett flipping NFT for profit? Well, he noticed a trend: Many buyers are hoping to land an NFT during OpenSea hours. before the public sale. Why? As mentioned, the price of gas is skyrocketing as hundreds, if not thousands, of people clog the Ethereum network to hit NFT. After getting an NFT at a discounted price, Hatchett manages to sell it several hours before the public sale at a high price. “[Buyers] you don’t mind paying a premium because they know gasoline costs will be big on public money, ”Hatchett said. NFT pinball machine said it refuses to look for whitelisted spots – it prefers to use that time to gamble on its Xbox X series.
Instead of flipping NFTs, consider creating them instead. Check out our How to do an NFT for free guide to get started.