The social media platform Reddit has experimented with crypto and NFTs for years. Albeit, indirectly — and without actually using blockchain technology.

For years, power users have deployed a feature of the site to highlight particularly funny, informative, or touching comments from other users: Awards. These awards come in three tiers of ascending price and have been common sights on Reddit for years. They also cost real money to purchase and confer. However, doing so bestows a special, unique status on the post or comment upon which an Award is conferred. Sound familiar?

With Reddit’s recent launch of its collectible NFT avatars, Reddit has finally cashed in on concepts increasingly familiar with its users, in full force. For Reddit’s most engaged users, this could be a long-run benefit. Reddit’s recent NFT launch comes two years after the launch of its Avatar Builder platform, which users could opt to upgrade with special parts purchasable on-site. For real money, of course. Money that you’d probably never be able to earn back if you took such a plunge. But not anymore.

Now that Reddit has made good on its prior commitment to enter the NFT market, this is shaping up to be one of the most perfect marriages of platform and technology we’ve seen on the Internet to date. And the best part? Getting in on it is far more straightforward — and secure — than buying into the existing Reddit Coins ecosystem.

So where can I buy these Reddit NFTs you speak of?

Initially, Reddit’s NFT avatars were put up for sale on its own Avatar Marketplace. To make things as easy as possible for those first lucky buyers, Reddit allowed users to pay for these avatars using fiat currencies which ranged in price from $10 to $100. Reddit also offered site users an in-house NFT wallet to use: the Reddit Vault.

Although they’ve sold out on the site itself, avatars from the initial drop remain available on secondary NFT marketplaces like OpenSea. Here, you can purchase a Reddit NFT avatar from one of its previous owners. Easy, right? Yes, but there are a couple of steps you need to take to get there if you’re starting from absolute zero. If you’re already neck-deep in NFTs, then fire away.

1. Set up a crypto wallet

First things first, you’ll need to set up a crypto wallet. Here, you can store the cryptocurrency you’ll have to use to purchase your Reddit NFT avatar from OpenSea, and of course, the NFT itself. While the Reddit Vault is a compelling option for convenience, Reddit itself will not be able to assist you should you lose access to its password or recovery phrase.

So, if you’re looking for an experience that mirrors what most in the NFT space enjoy, the most popular and trusted crypto wallet in the community is MetaMask. You can even use it as a simple browser extension. That means once you’ve got it set up, you can easily buy crypto and NFTs from marketplaces and exchanges in just a few clicks.

2. Buy some crypto

With your crypto wallet in tow, your next step is to pick up some crypto at an exchange like Binance or CoinBase. You can look at this process as converting your “real” (fiat) currency into a virtual counterpart usable on blockchain-enabled marketplaces. If you also want to stow away some cash in your crypto wallet for future purchases, we recommend you convert most of your Web3 budget into a stablecoin like USDC or USDT. These coins have their values backed by the actual U.S. dollar, so if they somehow tank in value, then you’ve probably got bigger problems on your hands than losing a few hundred bucks.

Whatever is left of your budget, feel free to use it to purchase Ethereum. With its recent Merge, Ethereum has managed to cut down significantly on its energy consumption, and therefore its environmental impact. That means no Al Gore sneaking up behind you. Yay!

Once you have your crypto purchased and ready, it’s time to transfer it to your newly made personal crypto wallet. With that out of the way, you’re almost there when it comes to buying (or selling) your Reddit NFT Avatars.

3. Make an OpenSea account

Since most Reddit NFT Avatars are being sold on OpenSea, it makes the most sense to commit there via making an account on that platform. If you’re also interested in selling NFTs in the future, OpenSea is also a great option since it’s the most widely used NFT marketplace in the community.

Making an account on OpenSea is pretty straightforward. Provided you have a crypto wallet ready to go, it’s really just a couple clicks to get the job done. The crucial thing you’ll need to do is to connect your crypto wallet to your OpenSea account. Once that’s out of the way, you’re free to sail on OpenSea to your heart’s content.

Learn more about NFTs and crypto

If you want to know a bit more about the crypto and NFT spaces before you jump in, we’ve got you covered. Here are some of our best guides to starting out in the space.

• NFTs Explained: A Must-Read Guide to Everything Non-Fungible
• NFTL;DR | Non-Fungibles in a Nutshell
• How to Buy an NFT in a Few Simple Steps
• What Are NFT Wallets, and Why Do You Need One?

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