How to buy NFTs on OpenSea using MetaMask

So…I’ve seen a lot of confusion lately from people who are new to crypto and are trying to buy NFTs on marketplaces like OpenSea. Sometimes I forget that I’ve been sending BTC, ETH and a range of other cryptos around for so long that there is a bit of a learning curve. The good news is, I can tell you, once you get the hang of it, it’s actually easier to send crypto around than it is to send a wire, and it’s a lot faster.

Yesterday I wrote a post sharing three of my favorite NFT projects and I had a deluge of questions from readers about how to actually transact on OpenSea. Rather than walking everyone through this one by one I thought – there are probably a lot of people that are confused about this so I may as well put it into a post, so here we go 🕺

First things first, a little primer. If you’re new to crypto, buying NFTs is a three step process, here’s the overview:

  1. Buy ETH somewhere like Coinbase or Kraken
  2. Setup an account with a wallet, I’m a big fan of MetaMask
  3. Transfer ETH to your wallet

I’ll walk through each of these steps and honestly, three minutes from now you’ll be ready to rock, and hopefully you’ll also see that it’s not as intimidating as you might think.

  1. Buy ETH – While Coinbase is dominating the headlines lately there are lots of different places where you can use regular old money to buy crypto. Pick your favorite, and if you’re the most comfortable with Coinbase, use that. As for an amount to start with, only put in what you’d be okay to lose – crypto is still very risky.
  2. Setup an account with an ETH wallet like MetaMask – just head on over to MetaMask.io and create an account. It’s completely free to create an account and the whole process should take about two minutes. Make sure to add the Chrome extension and I’d recommend pinning it so it’s easy to access.
  3. Transfer ETH to your wallet – this is pretty simple but it’s the step that I find confuses most people who are new to crypto, so I’ll walk you through it visually below with Coinbase as the example.

How to transfer ETH from Coinbase to your MetaMask wallet:

When you’re logged into Coinbase, click the “Send / Receive” button at the top right, it looks like this:

Send crypto Coinbase

You’re going to need the address for your MetaMask wallet now. To get this click on the MetaMask extension in Chrome then click on those little three dots in the upper right to access account options:

MetaMask

Now select Account Details:

MetaMask Account Details

Copy the address that shows up in Account Details, I’ve circled where it will show up in green below. Note I hide my QR code and address in the screenshot below for security purposes:

MetaMask Address

Okay, you’re almost there! Now got back to Coinbase, enter the amount you want to send, then paste the address you copied from MetaMask into the “To” section of the “Send / Receive” pop-up. Also make sure “Pay with” is set to Ethereum:

Send Ethereum with Coinbase

Hit continue and boom you’ve just sent Ethereum to your MetaMask wallet 🚀  If you’ve ever sent BTC you’re probably used to a long waiting game. BTC can take 30 minutes or sometimes even an hour to send, ETH is much faster so you should see this show up in your MetaMask account in a minute or two (or faster).

And that’s it, now just head on over to OpenSea, pick an NFT you want to buy, and with fresh ETH in your MetaMask account (and enough of it) begin your NFT journey. I hope this is helpful!

Disclosure: The content on MorganLinton.com is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as professional financial advice. Morgan owns a wide range of cryptos including BTC and ETH, and many of the NFT projects mentioned on this blog.

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton