A free NFT is a non-fungible token (NFT) that you can own without paying any money or cryptocurrency assets. An NFT is a record on a blockchain that proves the authenticity and ownership of physical or digital assets like artwork, identity, real estate, etc.
A free NFT is further subcategorized into truly free NFTs where no payment, time, or effort is required in appropriation (e.g., NFT giveaways) and free earned NFTs where there is no cost, but effort is involved (e.g., playing P2E games).
These are the 5 benefits of an NFT.
- Provides proof of ownership and authenticity.
- Easily transferrable between parties.
- Profitable for reselling and efficient for smart contracts.
- Earning potential through royalties for NFT content creators.
- Gives identity security.
The Geekflare team has researched different ways to get free NFTs, ranging from games, giveaways, minting, and faucets, as listed below.
- Playing P2E Games
- Participate in Social Media NFT Giveaways
- Participate in NFT Airdrops
- Get into NFT Breeding Games
- Minting Free NFT
- Using NFT Faucets
Playing P2E Games for Free NFT
Play-to-earn games are a way for those who love gaming to get free game NFTs. P2E games provide a win-win situation for both gamers and the gaming platform. The platform gains more user engagement, and the gamer receives free gaming NFTs for their time and effort.
The advantage here is not only the enjoyment of the gamer, but also the possibility of obtaining valuable NFTs for expert gamers. In addition, you can own digital ownership and trade or sell your NFTs at various marketplaces.
Though free P2E games based on NFTs don’t come with a monetary cost, obtaining them requires an investment of time and effort, which varies depending on the gaming platform.
For example, in the popular game Gods Unchained, gamers can start playing this blockchain game by trading cards without adding any money or cryptos. As a reward for their participation, they’ll receive GODS tokens.
The potential for earning tokens here increases based on the gaming skills. The GODS tokens can then be used to purchase NFTs that can be stored, traded, or sold accordingly.
Other popular P2E games get free NFTs are The Sandbox, Splinterlands, and Parallel.
Crypto projects offer NFTs through social media giveaways as a form of marketing to attract new users, where most crypto community members have an active presence.
These types of giveaways are promoted as ‘upcoming giveaways’ mainly through social media platforms like:
- X: Crypto projects use X as an important platform for NFT giveaways. You can find such upcoming projects by looking for the hashtags like #NFTGiveaway.
- Discord: Discord servers are hotspots for finding NFT giveaways as projects reward community members for their loyalty. Some popular servers where you can find such Discord giveaways include r/NFT, NFTs World, and Big Time.
- Telegram: There is a huge demand for NFT-based marketing on Telegram groups. With over 1 billion users, Telegram channels like NFTCommunity and NFT Discussion provide news and updates on NFT giveaways and airdrops.
- Reddit: NFT enthusiasts are all over the Reddit communities looking for giveaways from people or projects. For example, members of r/NFTgiveaway offer NFTs to fellow members.
Joining numerous social media community groups, servers, or channels is perfect for finding free NFT giveaways. While some giveaways are easy to avail, others require investment in the form of time and effort.
Participate in NFT Airdrops
An NFT airdrop is the process of distributing NFTs to the public, often for free, as a part of their marketing strategy for promotional events. This method is commonly used when crypto projects plan to expand their community.
Cryptocurrency-based airdrops, which provided free tokens, gained popularity in the crypto space. For this reason, projects started to airdrop NFTs to build a strong community around their ecosystem. Projects mostly promote their crypto airdrops through their official social media handles. The best way to find new NFT airdrops is to follow NFT projects on X, Discord, or Reddit.
VeeFriends is a popular blue-chip NFT project that offers frequent NFT airdrops to its community. Such reward programs have played a crucial part in building over 300,000 members on Discord and over 250,000 followers on X and Instagram.
The advantage of Airdrops is that they are one of the easiest ways to obtain free NFTs. In most cases, you just need to provide your wallet address, and you will receive the NFTs in that wallet.
Get into NFT Breeding Games
NFT breeding is the process of merging two or more NFTs to create a new NFT. This method allows you to get new NFTs while playing breeding games.
The NFTs created after breeding are considered unique and rarer than the original ones. In 2017, the blockchain game CryptoKitties was the first to introduce the NFT breeding concept, followed by other gaming projects.
This NFT breeding method is ideal for gamers who have already earned at least two breedable NFTs. They can create a new free sibling NFT that holds more value than the parent NFTs.
You can start the breeding process using two NFTs in a few clicks. However, the time taken to complete this process varies depending on the gaming platform. You can also participate in other popular breeding games, including Axie Infinity and Crypto Beasts.
Minting Free NFT
Free NFT minting allows users to create NFTs without spending money. Previously, to mint an NFT, you needed to pay gas fees that varied based on the blockchain and marketplace.
Now, NFT marketplaces like Rarible offer “lazy minting,” where the buyer pays for the fees for minting your NFTs. It’s a great option to consider, as you can create numerous NFT collections at zero cost.
If you have some creative or artistic skills, this method can help you convert your piece of art to NFTs. Moreover, after the minting, you can list your NFTs for sale with a good floor price.
Popular NFT marketplaces like OpenSea and Mintable also allow users to mint free NFTs. Once you have your file in JPG, GIF, MP4, PNG, or other supported format, you can easily mint it to an NFT within a few minutes.
Using NFT Faucets
NFT faucets include apps or platforms that allow you to mint free NFTs on your connected crypto wallet. This method is inspired by crypto faucets, where people receive cryptocurrencies for task completions.
Developers mostly mint this kind of NFTs to test the features of their tokens. Here, you can use a wide range of blockchain networks to mint an NFT of your choice.
You can use darkcodi/nft-faucet, which is available on GitHub, to mint free NFTs. This platform is a web application that allows you to mint NFTs in your crypto wallet.
You can also use other NFT faucets like Paradigm to explore more NFT minting opportunities.
Free NFT Scams to Avoid
When looking for free NFTs, one should be aware of free NFT schemes and token scams. Where there is a monetary value, there is a potential for scams. The same goes for NFTs, too, and here are the popular scams associated with free NFTs.
#1. Giveaway Scams
Giveaways are top favorites for getting free NFTs as they involve simple steps. For these reasons, fraudsters place their traps using a sign-up process that looks genuine to users, especially the less experienced ones in the crypto space.
A major example of this type of scam happened with Fractal, an NFT marketplace. In 2021, scammers shared a fake NFT giveaway through Fractal’s official Discord channel, which has over 100K+ users.
Long story short, users who connected their wallets following the giveaway link lost cryptos worth around $150,000[1]. Following this massive scam, Fractal’s founder Justin Kan posted on X asking users to avoid visiting any URL to connect wallet or mint NFTs.
The scammers ask for the user’s wallet details to deposit free NFTs. After acquiring the required information, they crack into your digital wallet and disappear with the cryptos or NFTs stored in your account.
How to Avoid: Never share your secret wallet details, especially your crypto wallet’s seed phrase or private keys.
#2. Social Media Impersonation
Social media impersonation involves creating accounts that look similar to popular NFT projects. Scammers design their fake accounts with profile pictures and descriptions that resemble the real official project.
Once their account is ready, the fraudsters use various tactics to gain followers and establish credibility. Thereafter, they use their account to post free NFT scams through fake airdrops or giveaways.
Moreover, they also implement marketing techniques in their posts to promote their scam. For example, they ask users to repost fake social media campaign posts and tag their friends as the first task for giveaways.
How to Avoid: Always ensure that the social media account has a verification tick. The safest method I would suggest is to visit the NFT project’s website to find its official social media accounts.
#3. Fake NFT Websites
Scammers and hackers trick users by creating clones of the original NFT websites. These fake websites closely resemble the originals, making them difficult to identify at first glance.
Once users visit the fake website, they’ll be asked to provide wallet details to mint free NFTs. The visitors provide confidential details only to get scammed.
Some scammers also create fake pages featuring only one or a few NFTs. These pages may include fake wallet pop-ups that request wallet information, aiming to steal the user’s assets.
For example, blur.io is the official website of Blur, a top NFT marketplace. However, Scammers can create websites using domains like blur.co or blur.net to attract and scam users.
How to Avoid: Double-check the URL properly to ensure that the link belongs to the official NFT website.
Author’s Note: In most NFT-related activities, there is less opportunity for reversal. Therefore, it is important to carefully consider and research before participating in any free NFT programs.
NFT Best Practices
These are 3 NFT best practices that improve chances of getting truly free NFT legitimate opportunities:
- Follow crypto projects’ official social media accounts to obtain their NFT airdrops or giveaways by paying attention to events announced.
- Breed two NFTs or play P2E games like God’s Unchained, which have a proven track record.
- Create a seperate wallet specifically for receiving airdrops or giveaways. Even if the wallet is hacked, assets will not be lost since it is empty. Upon receipt of an NFT, it can be transferred from this wallet to the usual one, protecting crypto assets in the process.
FAQs
Yes, you can generate an NFT for free by participating in NFT giveaways and airdrops, playing P2E and breeding games, and minting free NFT.
Yes, there are many free NFT marketplaces, such as Mintable and NFT-Inator, where you can mint your NFT for free.
You can start your NFT project for free by choosing free minting NFT marketplaces like OpenSea or Mintable. You can also list your free NFT for sale.