Here’s the quick start guide in 5 steps. Read on for detailed explanation for each.
- Download Phantom Wallet – it’s available for Chrome, Brave, Firefox and Edge.
- Add new wallet in Phantom (Do not EVER share your Seed phrase!)
- Buy $SOL on FTX (You’ll get 5% discount on fees and I get a small commission)
- Withdraw your $SOL from FTX to your new Phantom Wallet address.
- Browse a collection on a Solana NFT marketplace, find one you want, click connect your wallet then buy.
Congratulations, you are a proud owner of an NFT. If I went too fast for you, I go through each step in detail below.
Detailed Instructions on buying NFTs on Solana
NFTs (or Non Fungible Tokens) exist on many blockchains, the most popular being Etherium. Solana has exploded in popularity largely due to it’s extremely low transactional fees.
It makes trading NFTs a much more budget friendly option compared to Etherium.
Many also find the wallet experience on Solana much smoother with an improved user interface.
1. Get a Solana Wallet
If you’re coming from Etherium, your usual wallet won’t work.
Don’t try it! You’ll lose your funds if you do.
But fear not! There are a wonderful selection of Solana wallets. You can choose one that runs as a browser extension or a dedicated app, whatever your preference.
For the purpose of this tutorial we’ll go with my favourite and the most popular with over 600k users: Phantom. It works very well with NFT marketplaces and the various sites that produce NFTs.
I’ll write a guide shortly covering some of the other wallets.
Head over to Phantom now and add it – it’s available via the Chrome Web Store.
When you open it up for the first time you’ll be asked to enter a seed phrase.
This is a 12-word phrase that you MUST write down in the event of needing to restore your wallet. You’ll then set a password to access your wallet on a regular basis.
IMPORTANT – I can’t emphasise enough how important it is to store your seed phrase securely.
- Anyone who has access to this phrase can access all the funds or NFTs in your wallet.
- Don’t share the keys with anyone who shouldn’t be accessing your wallet.
- Ensure you keep it in a safe place. I have a paper copy at my home and at my parent’s house.
IMPORTANT
Create a burner wallet
2. Let’s Get Some Sol
The next step involves purchasing $SOL (Solana) so you can buy NFTs on Solana-based marketplaces.
Register Your FTX Account
I recommend buying Solana at the FTX Exchange*. It’s lightning fast, never have any transaction delays compared to other exchanges and has some super handy integration with your wallet. More on this a little later.
(*If you use my link you’ll get 5% off your transaction fees and you’ll also be supporting me. Thank you!)
If you’re setting up an account from new at FTX you will be required to complete identity verification before you can make deposits.
There are three verification levels:
- Unverified – You can explore the site, but cannot deposit or trade.
- Level 1 Identity Verification – You can trade with up to 2000USD of daily withdrawals (suitable for most of us!)
- Level 2 Identity Verification – Unlimited deposits and withdrawals.
Deposit Your Current Into USD
You can then deposit any currency using your credit or debit card.
This will automatically be converted to USD.
This process is instant.
Convert That USD into SOL
The next step is to click Convert on your USD. You then change the ‘To Coin’ to Solana. If you want to convert all of your USD, simply click ‘Max’ and then convert.
Congratulations, you now own $SOL
The final step is to send this SOL from your wallet in FTX to your Phantom Wallet.
You’ll want to copy your Phantom Wallet address. To do this, click your Phantom icon in Google Chrome and click on the wallet address – this copies it to the clipboard.
My wallet is GqqNibdSdfAWiGihQi93aofXfp7PKPzF4qMtiveS3zV6
Now go back to FTX and where you have your Solana, click Withdraw.
Enter how much SOL you want to send and then paste the wallet address into the ‘SOL Address’ field. Then click Withdraw – it should take a matter of seconds.
If you open your Phantom Wallet you should see your SOL. Well done!
IMPORTANT: Burner Wallets
Before we go off looking at marketplaces I want you to create a ‘Burner Wallet’.
What the hell is a burner wallet?
Like anything new there are plenty of bad people out there. By creating a separate/new (burner) wallet with only a portion of your SOL it means if anything untoward happens (this particularly applies to newbies but all pro users will use burners too) then you would only lose what is in the burner wallet.
Look at it like this – when you go to the shops to get something, you don’t go out with a wallet stuffed with all the money you own. You withdraw a bit at a time. If you drop your wallet or worse, you only lose the cash you are carrying at that time.
The same principle applies to crypto wallets when are you shopping for NFTs. So say for example you’ve initially transferred 10 SOL from FTX to your Phantom Wallet. I would then recommend creating another wallet in Phantom and name it ‘Burner Wallet’ and then transfer a small amount of SOL into that one from the one that contains 10 SOL. It’s super easy to do this in any wallet.
Okay, we’re ready for the fun part!
3. Let’s Go To Market (Places)
Now you’ve got SOL in your pocket (Phantom Wallet) you’re now ready to buy your first NFT from a secondary marketplace. (You can also buy the NFTs when they are first released from their creator. This is called ‘minting’ – more on this in article shortly).
Back onto the marketplaces – see my summary of each Solana NFT marketplace.
Here are all the marketplaces:
- Solanart
- Digital Eyes
- Magic Eden
- Sol Sea
- Alpha.art
To buy from any of these marketplaces, you’ll simply connect your wallet to the site (usually in top right of website), click to purchase an NFT and you’ll then need to approve or deny this transaction.
If you’re coming from Ethereum you’ll notice how much quicker the transactions are. And how much lower the fees are too!
The beauty of the Phantom Wallet is that it allows you to browse your NFT collections right inside the wallet. If you’re looking for more gallery options see my guide to NFT Galleries.
I’ll be writing a guide shortly on how to stay safe buying NFTs.
For lots more handy resources to help you on your NFT journey, take a look at my
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