NFT and ways to make a profit on hype

NFT

Just three letters, but what they represent...

These are non-fungible tokens. This technology is usually used for collections of images on the blockchain. For example, one of the most popular collections in the world is called Pudgy Penguins. It consists of 8,888 adorable little penguins, each unique in color, background, headwear, accessories, etc.

This little penguin costs around $60,000 apiece.

You might be shaking your head, wondering why people pay such money when they can just download the images… But let’s draw an analogy with real paintings—collectors buy them for a reason.

And from my experience, I can confidently say why. By purchasing these penguins, you gain access to a top-tier community filled with builders, project owners, and other high-profile individuals. But sometimes, it’s the opposite—some collections hold no real value at all, which is what usually happens.

What does the process of creating an NFT collection look like?

To understand how to make money from this, you need to understand how a typical NFT collection is built.

1. Idea. The creator comes up with the concept for the future collection.
2. Building. There’s not much to actually “build.” 99% of NFT collections follow the same mechanics. The most important things here are creating a lore (the story behind the collection), drawing traits (NFT parts—example below), and generating the collection. NFTs are usually launched on Ethereum and Solana blockchains. Less commonly on Avalanche, Binance Smart Chain, and others.
3. Marketing. It’s crucial to build an audience on Twitter and Discord. Without hype, the collection is doomed to fail.
4. Minting. Let’s go deep into details. Minting is the process of creating an NFT on the blockchain. But it’s not the collection owner who mints—it’s the participants. Confused? Keep reading. Suppose there’s a collection of these cute flowers called Murakami Flowers. Its supply (the maximum number of NFTs in the collection) is 10,145. How does this collection launch? The community needs to mint all the NFTs. But usually, collections don’t allow everyone to mint. You have to earn the right to mint an NFT. Pretty complicated, right? They won’t even let you spend money easily (minting is usually paid). This right to mint an NFT is called a whitelist (WL). And you actually have to earn or win it. The way to get whitelisted varies by project. For Murakami Flowers, people had to fill out a form, and winners were chosen randomly. But usually, projects grant WL for contributing to the community—drawing fan art, writing Twitter threads, etc. Or sometimes through raffles and giveaways. So, let’s say we got a whitelist and minted our Murakami Flowers NFT. The minting cost was 0.108 ETH (~$300).
5. Opening the secondary market. Now, how do we make money? There’s a secondary market (NFT marketplaces) where we sell our NFTs to other crypto enthusiasts. It usually opens immediately after minting begins. Right after minting, you could have sold a Murakami Flowers NFT for 6 ETH, meaning your $300 turned into about $18,000.

Types of earnings on NFT

There are three main types:

1. Selling Whitelists

Beginners in crypto usually start with this.

You already know what a whitelist is (the right to mint an NFT). You can earn a whitelist through certain actions (more on that later) and then sell it to someone who doesn’t want to grind for it but believes the investment will pay off. Example:

The Memeland project launched its main collection Captainz. For a long time, a whitelist for this project could be bought for around $600–$800. The whitelist was obtained through typical methods—being active in Discord, creating artwork, etc.

Let’s say someone earned a whitelist and sold it to me. I waited, minted the NFT for 1.069 ETH, and sold it the same day for 4 ETH. Now, let’s do the math:

• +4 ETH (~$5,600 at the time) – revenue from the sale
• -1.069 ETH (~$1,500 at the time) – minting cost
• -$800 – cost of buying the whitelist

= $3,300 profit from the whole deal.

Both I and the whitelist seller made a profit, though the seller might have later regretted it due to FOMO—but that’s another story.

There are many ways to earn whitelists, and each project has its own methods. Here are the main ones:

• Grinding – Simply being active in the project’s Discord and sending thousands of messages. Sometimes, that’s enough.
• Invites – Inviting a set number of "friends" to the project’s Discord server.
• Creativity – This depends on your skills: making artwork, music, Twitter threads, or writing articles about the project. Projects love this.
• Mini-games – Winning games may grant WL or future priority access.
• Influencing – Posting about the project on your Telegram channel = getting a WL.
• Raffles – Basically giveaways. Platforms like Premint host them. Enter, wait for results, and either celebrate or move on.

Once you get a WL, you can sell it in OTC (over-the-counter) chats, where people trade whitelists and similar assets. Some trusted ones include:

2. Minting

We already touched on this in the first point. Profit from minting comes from the difference between the mint price and the secondary market price.

However, you don’t always need a whitelist to mint. There are different mint phases, typically structured like this:

• Whitelist Mint – For example, 50% of all NFTs. Only WL holders can mint.
• Public Mint – The remaining 50%. Anyone can mint here. But if the price after the WL phase is high, public sales usually turn into a bot war, and manual minting becomes nearly impossible. So, if you're a beginner, stay away from public sales.

3. Investing/Flipping

Do you believe that a specific NFT collection will increase in value? Do you have insider info about upcoming news? Have you spotted an interesting detail about a project? If so, buying its NFTs might be a good move. This is what NFT investing is about.

Then, there are flips—short-term investments, usually lasting from a few minutes to a few days.

Trading ideas on the market