What is LooksRare NFT Marketplace and How to Get LOOKS Airdrop?
In this guide we will take a closer look at NFT platform LooksRare, including how it works and compares to other options.
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.”
By taking a community-first approach, LooksRare distinguishes itself from the competition, which takes the shape of primarily centralized platforms owned and controlled by a corporation, and it has carved out a niche as the most popular decentralized NFT marketplace out there.
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.
LooksRare NFT marketplace is built on Ethereum, so it operates with a single-chain architecture. LooksRare has indexed every NFT on the Ethereum blockchain, which means that users can purchase any Ethereum-based NFT directly from the site, including those on more popular platforms like OpenSea.
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 has become a favorite NFT exchange for those who want an alternative to the big players such as OpenSea, Binance NFT, and Rarible. However, it has attracted criticism for the lack of a mobile app, the lack of an NFT minting process, and the fact that the all-important LOOKS token is subject to wild volatility, which reduces the incentive to stake.
How to Get LOOKS token Airdrop?
The platform occasionally conducts airdrops, which can be monitored on the official website. Right now you can take part in an airdrop for 5,000,000 LOOKS tokens. We will now tell you how to do it.
Source and Copyright © LooksRare
Step-by-Step Guide:
- Visit the LooksRare airdrop page.
- Connect your ETH wallet.
- Now you will see a banner to check for the airdrop.
- Click on banner to see whether you’re eligible.
- If you’re eligible, then you will be asked to list an NFT for sale.
- You will be able to claim your airdrop once you list an NFT.
- Unclaimed airdrop will go to the treasury for use in the ecosystem development.
- For more information regarding the airdrop, see this page and FAQ here.
LooksRare Pros
Low fees
LooksRare only charges a 2% fee on sales, which is lower than many of its competitors. Be aware that you'll also have to pay gas fees on the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain, and these charges can add up.
LOOKS token rewards
LooksRare users can earn LOOKS rewards -- the platform's native token -- for staking, trading, and listing.The rewards are distributed once every day, and you can retrieve the coins into your private wallet as needed.
LOOKS Token Staking Rewards
You can stake LOOKS in the Compounder and collect WETH as rewards. In this staking plan, the WETH tokens you earn will be compounded automatically to help you generate more LOOKS tokens.
According to the LooksRare website, you can earn up to 161.01% APY by staking LOOKS tokens in this manner.
The next option you have is to stake LOOKS without compounding the rewards that you receive.
With this strategy, you will earn a combination of both WETH and LOOKS. LooksRare offers an APR of 107.45% for users who opt-in for this plan.
LOOKS Trading Fees Rewards
If you already own LOOKS tokens and have staked them on LooksRare, then you are also eligible to earn a part of the trading fees collected by the platform. In fact, 100% of the trading fees generated by LooksRare are distributed among LOOKS stakers.
The fees collected are consolidated every 24 hours and paid out to LOOKS stakers on a daily basis. You will be able to claim the rewards any time you want, as long as you have the LOOKS
tokens staked on the platform.
LOOKS Trading and Listing Rewards
Every time you buy or sell an NFT on LooksRare, you are eligible to collect trading rewards. There is no need to fulfill any minimum trading volume requirement to obtain these incentives.
As long as the NFTs are hosted on Ethereum, you will be able to earn rewards in the form of LOOKS tokens.
On top of this, LooksRare also offers users rewards for listing NFTs from eligible collections. The points you earn can be converted to LOOKS tokens once per day. However, remember that when you claim your LOOKS rewards, you might have to pay gas fees.
Bid on whole collection
LooksRare marketplace allows you to bid on any NFT collections available. Unlike other platforms where the floor price is fixed, the bidding system allows you to set the price for yourself. The advantage of this system is that you can get discounts on the listed price as other collectors bid against each other.
LooksRare Cons
Limited payment options
LooksRare does not accept debit or credit card payments. Indeed, there's no way to buy an NFT using traditional money. In terms of crypto payments, you'll need ETH or WETH to use the site. Users can get ETH from most crypto exchanges, but it does make the site slightly harder for new investor
Limited functionality
The platform doesn't have any helpful category-based search filters. This means there isn't an easy way to browse for specific types of NFTs -- such as music or gaming. In addition, LooksRare doesn't have a mobile app, as it only works in your browser. Creators cannot mint new NFTs on LooksRare, it only allows users to buy or sell.
Reports of wash trading
Wash trading is a form of price manipulation where one person can buy and sell the same NFT using different wallets. It means an NFT might appear more popular or more valuable than it actually is. The platform's earning model encourages this behavior as it rewards users for buying and selling NFTs. This effectively incentivizes people to game the system.
Alternative to Consider
LooksRare Vs OpenSea
Marketplace | Decentralized | Token | Buyer Fees | Selle Fees | Collection Sales History | Real Time Prices | Multiple Blockchains |
OpenSea | No | No | None, gas fees only | 2.5% fee on all secondary sales (excluding promos), 0.5 minimum creator royalty | No, per-NFT sales history only | Yes (beta) | Yes, Ethereum, Arbitrum, Polygon, Solana |
LooksRare | Yes | Yes, LOOKS utility token | None, gas fees only | 2%, including 0.5% creator fee, plus gas fee | Yes, new analytics section | Yes |
No, Ethereum only |
LooksRare Vs Blur
Marketplace | Decentralized | Token- | Buyer Fees | Selle Fees | Collection Sales History | Real Time Prices | Multiple Blockchains |
Blur | Yes | Yes, BLUR governance token | None, gas fees only | Gas fee for listing, 0.5% minimum creator royalty | Yes, detailed charts | Yes | No, Ethereum only |
LooksRare | Yes | Yes, LOOKS utility token | None, gas fees only | 2%, including 0.5% creator fee, plus gas fee | Yes, new analytics section | Yes |
No, Ethereum only |
Platform features
When compared to other prominent NFT marketplaces – LooksRare has a few attributes that sets it apart. Its main attraction is that it is community driven and rewards users for activity on the system. But it isn't super easy to use, offers limited payment methods, and only works with the Ethereum blockchain.
Services
LooksRare is a straightforward NFT marketplace. Here's what you can and can't do on the platform:
- Buying NFTs
- Selling NFTs
- The platform currently does not allow NFT minting.
LooksRare says it is a community-driven project that uses its native LOOKS token to pay rewards to the people who use the platform. For example, LOOKS stakers receive a share of all trading fees.
Blockchains
Unlike other top NFT marketplaces, LooksRare only uses the Ethereum (ETH) blockchain. Many NFTs are built on Ethereum, so this won't have much impact on the number of NFTs available. However, it does affect gas fees. Ethereum is by far the most expensive blockchain and the gas fees can significantly push up the price of your NFT activity.
Fees on other blockchains such as Polygon (MATIC), Solana (SOL), or Tezos (XTZ) are a fraction of those on Ethereum. Other NFT marketplaces, such as OpenSea or Rarible, allow users to trade on different blockchain networks, opening up the way for significant gas fee reductions.
Supported wallets
LooksRare supports the following crypto wallets:
- MetaMask
- WalletConnect
- Coinbase Wallet
MetaMask and Coinbase are two of the biggest hot wallets on the market, while WalletConnect integrates with many different wallets and applications. As such, most NFT investors will likely be able to connect to LooksRare.
Payment methods
LooksRare uses three cryptocurrencies: Ethereum (ETH), Wrapped Ethereum (WETH), and its own Looks token (LOOKS). The platform does not accept debit or credit cards. There's no way to pay using fiat currencies (traditional money like dollars) or stablecoins like USD Coin (USDC).
If you're trying to buy an NFT for a fixed price, LooksRare accepts both ETH and WETH. However, if you want to make an offer on an item, you'll need to use WETH. Without getting too technical, wrapped Ethereum is a tokenized version of Ethereum. Each WETH is worth one ETH, and WETH is easier to use on some decentralized applications.
Fees
While it is free to create and use an account on LooksRare, you will need to pay fees on basic NFT sales. Depending on the artwork purchased, sellers may also need to pay between 5 – 10% royalty fees from the total price of the sale. If sellers accept an offer, they will pay gas fees on the transaction.
Buyers will need to pay a 2% transaction fee when purchasing a piece of digital art. Buyers will also need to pay gas fees to the Ethereum blockchain (this fee does not go to LooksRare). There is no transaction fee paid to LooksRare for private sales.
Minting
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.
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.
Who Is LooksRare Best For?
LooksRare could be a solid option for those who are looking to pay fixed transaction fees and earn rewards on staking, trading, or listing NFTs. LooksRare redistributes 100% of the trading fees back to LOOKS stakers. If you want to mint NFTs, though, LooksRare is not the right platform for you, as the platform does not allow minting.
Ultimately, LooksRare is best for:
- Those who want to earn rewards: LooksRare is excellent for users looking to earn rewards from buying or selling, as it offers rewards for doing so. It also offers high APYs on staking, so it’s possible to earn in multiple ways on this platform.
- Those who want to pay set transaction fees: LooksRare charges a flat 2% transaction fee, which is one of the lowest fees charged by NFT platforms.
- Those who want a community-focused platform: LooksRare also has a very active community on Discord. Their Discord server features chats for different types of NFT enthusiasts, and bots to monitor trades.
Frequently Asked Questions
What NFTs can you buy on LooksRare?
Using LooksRare, you can currently purchase any eligible collections of NFTs that have been minted on the Ethereum blockchain. You will also be able to find NFTs that are posted on a variety of other marketplaces, such as OpenSea or Uniswap, making this a good one-stop shop.
Is LooksRare safe to use?
LooksRare is a decentralized platform that will not take custody of your assets or funds during a transaction. The platform mainly serves as a marketplace that allows two users to connect to each other’s wallets so that they can safely make a transaction without personal risk. Any dealings in cryptocurrencies are risky financial transactions. Be sure to do your own research and don't risk funds you are not prepared to lose.
What wallets does LooksRare support?
You have your share of soption when it comes to wallets on the LooksRare platform. LooksRare supports about 100 wallets using WalletConnect.
Does LooksRare report to the IRS?
No, as there’s nothing to indicate that LooksRare reports to the IRS. You should self-report your NFT-related income, as they’re considered taxable assets by the IRS. We recommend that you thoroughly research the tax laws in your country before taking any action related to cryptocurrencies.
Can You Mint on LooksRare?
Users can not currently mint on LooksRare. It is currently unknown when this feature will be added in the future.