Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are radically shifting the foundations of the business world. From a concept that didn’t even exist back in 2016 to generating over $2.47 billion in sales just in the first half of 2021, the space has enjoyed rapid growth and many promising opportunities.

Imagine that you were lucky enough to get one of the CryptoPunks that were actually being handed out for free upon their launch in June 2017. Today, you would be able to sell it for almost 70 ETH ($200k at the time of writing) – at the CHEAPEST. But if it’s all about being at the right place at the right time, how can you have a more proactive NFT investment strategy? 

This is how to get ahead of the game by exploring new NFTs and entire digital art collections early. 🚀

1. Check out popular NFT sites and tools

The internet provides a wealth of information on any topic of choice, and NFTs are no exception. A good place to start is by following popular tech publications that are strong in the NFT niche, including TechCrunch, Decrypt, Bankless, and The Verge.

After all, if we delve deeper into Cryptopunks, it’s a collection that started by only a few people claiming the token. But when Mashable covered the Punks, featuring them as a new interesting project within the space, the entire collection was sold out within just a few hours.

NFT platforms and marketplaces, including our Venly Market, can also help you discover new projects. Some sites actually have dedicated “upcoming” sections, where you can find all the relevant information about collections or artwork about to be launched, including the date, links, and the number of tokens to be minted. These include Rarity, the NFT catcher, or How Rare. 

💡 Tip: For advanced exploring, you can take a look at mint scanners and trackers. These sites track what is being minted on the Ethereum blockchain in real-time. This can help you identify which collections are gaining a lot of traction and learn about the ongoing stealth drops. Here, icy.tools and whatsminting.live are some of the popular options.

2. Join Discord channels, NFT community hubs

Over the past years, Discord has reached far beyond just gaming communities. It has become a powerful virtual interactions catalyst, and the crypto community is a great example of that. Whether it’s voice or text chat, you will see people across time zones discussing anything from the best wallet options to social impact NFTs.

Through these interactions, you can learn, bounce ideas, and even explore new projects. Additionally, you can get direct feedback on whether it’s worth investing in it or not. But even above that, the communities tend to be extremely tightly-knit and collaborative, which means that they also inform each other about the latest scams – helping you not to fall into any NFT traps when exploring new collections and artworks.

Most prominent NFT collections have their own Discord channels, so use those to learn more about projects before investing. But to stay on top of the latest trends, you can join channels like NFT Community, Vee Friends, and the Venly Discord. 📢

3. Go Down the Twitter Rabbit Hole

Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn may be cool – but there’s no doubt that the NFT community lives on Twitter. Just by exploring the hashtags #NFT, #NFTCommunity, #NFTCollector, or #NFTart, you will find thousands and thousands of posts about artworks, project launches, and—of course—valuable opinions. 

Not everyone is a crypto influencer, but luckily – and maybe even more than on Discord, Twitter is a place where many NFT projects promote their giveaways to get extra traction. As long as you watch out for frauds, this gives you the opportunity not only to be early to a new drop but even get a token for free (or for the price of gas fees).

If you create your own NFT Twitter bubble, you can surround yourself with relevant leaders, making it easy to consume the latest NFT trends (including the collections expecting to see a big hype) with a simple scroll over your feed. Some of the profiles we recommend following include Chris Dixon, Gary Vaynerchuck, Cooopahtroopa, beanie, 6529, Bankless, and more. 🗣️

The magic of the internet community is that you never know who you’re gonna meet. This is what Ben Yu said in his famous article about NFTs: 

“I was lucky enough to make friends with one of the most successful generative artists in the NFT space very early on in my journey after bidding on one of his pieces, and I now essentially only buy what he tells me to buy, and it’s been great for both making great investments and also just looking cool as hell buying the most hip art pieces while knowing and understanding literally nothing about art still.” 

NFTs are all about communities, so to stay on top of what’s happening in the field, you need to be where the people are.

The crypto world keeps moving fast. To keep yourself informed, make sure to read our blog. 💪