Learn how to join Bybit's VIP Program, where you can realize exclusive benefits — from up to 50% off trading fees and tailored interest rates to instant OTC trades up to $10M.

With the Bybit VIP Program, you can realize exclusive benefits — from up to 50% off trading fees and tailored interest rates to instant OTC trades, Bybit Card cashback and more. Joining the ranks of the very best traders on the platform will boost your profitability, raise your limits and offer access to VIP-only perks.

 and guides you through the steps to become a VIP trader and unlock exclusive benefits. Let's get started!

 is an exclusive club for the most esteemed traders in the crypto market. It’s designed to provide members an enhanced Bybit experience with numerous VIP-only benefits and perks. The program aims to reward avid traders who have high volumes, account equity levels and borrowing activities.

The Bybit VIP Program offers a multitude of benefits for members. These range from discounted trading fees and high limits for withdrawals and application programming interface (API) trades to priority Bybit customer support access, relationship managers and exclusive VIP events and meetups. You can find the full list of VIP exclusive benefits 

Requirements to Become a Bybit VIP Trader

You’ll need to fulfill a specific level for one of the criteria below to become a VIP trader on Bybit:

Bybit's VIP Program features six distinct tiers: 

. Each successively higher tier offers greater rewards, and also comes with more stringent qualification requirements. For instance, as a 

 trader, you’ll enjoy reduced trading fees, such as 0.03% for makers and 0.045% for takers in the spot market. To qualify for this exclusive tier, you must meet at least one of the following criteria:

Once you become a VIP trader, you must continuously meet the above criteria to maintain your Bybit VIP status and keep enjoying the benefits. 

However, this doesn't mean your account will immediately lose its VIP status and revert to standard after a single day in which you don’t meet the requirements. Bybit offers a 14-day grace during which you can continue enjoying VIP perks and benefits, even if you no longer meet the program's conditions. If the criteria are not met by the end of this period, your VIP status will automatically be revoked. However, if that occurs, you can regain your status by fulfilling the requirements for any VIP tier either during or after the grace period. When this happens, Bybit will grant you a new 14-day grace period.

How to Sign up to Become a Bybit VIP Trader

In the following section, you'll find a step-by-step guide that shows you how to join the Bybit VIP Program.

The first step to becoming a VIP trader is to open a Bybit account (if you haven't already done so). Simply 

 and fill out the form with your details. After registering, you’ll need to verify your account to enjoy the platform's full functionality.

Next, fund your Bybit account with crypto or fiat currency.

You can deposit cryptocurrencies by using the 

 menu. On the page, choose your desired coin and the blockchain where you'll be depositing the assets. To avoid any loss of funds, please always ensure that you're transferring crypto from the correct chain.

Next, copy-and-paste the wallet address displayed on the page, or scan the QR code with your smartphone's camera, and initiate the deposit from your wallet. After a few confirmations, your cryptocurrencies will be credited to your Bybit account.

To fund your Bybit account with fiat currency, click on the 

 button and select one of the available services (e.g., 

 service, choose a fiat currency, the deposit amount and one of the available payment methods. After clicking on 

, follow the instructions displayed on the next pages to initiate the transaction. Your funds will be credited to your Bybit account, with processing times varying according to your chosen service and payment method.

After you have a verified Bybit account funded with either crypto or fiat, perform eligible activity on the platform until you qualify for VIP status (see table below).

You can achieve VIP status by fulfilling a minimum level of VIP 1 in either of the following categories (

After becoming a VIP trader on Bybit, don't forget to maintain your VIP status to continue enjoying the exclusive perks and benefits.

If you have active VIP status at another crypto exchange, or your total MT5 trading volume meets Bybit's VIP criteria, you can apply for a VIP+2 upgrade. This upgrade will grant you VIP status on the platform — and instantly elevate it by two levels. (Please 

 that Bybit only considers 10% of any MT5 forex trading volume.)

 and submit your 30-day trading volume on your current exchange. Bybit’s VIP team will review your application, and a Relationship Manager will contact you if you're eligible for the VIP upgrade.

How to Get Started With a 20-Day Bybit VIP Trial

Another way to qualify for VIP status on Bybit is through a 20-day trial. Instead of fulfilling the requirements of the VIP 1 level, simply fund your account with $50,000 to enjoy the exclusive benefits of the program for 20 days with a VIP Trial Card (issued one day after your deposit). The VIP trial offer is available to users who haven't used a trial within the past two months.

To unlock the 20-day VIP trial, head to the 

 menu on Bybit and use one of the available payment methods to fund your account with $50,000 in assets.

With VIP Level-Up Tasks, you can earn generous bonuses as high as 6,000 USDT. You can claim rewards for Level-Up Tasks for five VIP levels (VIP 1, VIP 2, VIP 3, VIP 4 and VIP 5), with higher tiers offering greater bonuses upon completion.

If you're eligible, you’ll see a pop-up window with VIP Level-Up Tasks after you log into your account. To claim your rewards, complete the specified trading volume requirement within 14 days of receiving the task, and click on the 

 page. You can learn more about Bybit VIP Level-Up Tasks

Exclusive Trading Benefits Offered to Bybit VIPs

As a member of the Bybit VIP Program, you can unlock exclusive benefits to supercharge your trading experience. Among these are discounted trading fees (which can significantly boost your trading revenue), profitability and chances of winning trades.

In addition to discounted trading fees, you’ll also enjoy substantially higher API trading and withdrawal limits. While the former is restricted to 10 trades per second for non-VIP users, you can take advantage of up to 120 API trades per second as a VIP trader. Simultaneously, your daily withdrawal limit is increased from the basic 1 million USDT to as high as 12 million USDT.

 is an exclusive club that provides an enhanced service experience for the most esteemed traders. As a member, you can access a multitude of exclusive benefits and perks, such as the following:

Are you ready to supercharge your trading experience? 

Intermediate

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How to Become a Bybit VIP: Your Guide to Exclusive Benefits

LETSTOP is a drive-to-earn mobile app that monitors phone distractions while driving. Learn more about how it works in this article.

Smartphone distractions have created an unprecedented road safety crisis worldwide. 

: texting behind the wheel makes drivers six times more likely to crash than drunk driving does — yet millions of drivers still use their phones while operating vehicles.

This article explores how LETSTOP is transforming safe driving into rewarding experiences through blockchain technology. We'll examine its drive-to-earn model, reward system, tokenomics and potential as both a road safety solution and an investment opportunity.

 is a drive-to-earn mobile app that monitors phone distractions while driving. Users earn STOP tokens for phone-free driving through a gamified system that transforms daily drives into rewarding experiences.

A life-changing car accident caused by a distracted driver running a red light inspired LETSTOP co-founder Almog Nissan to reimagine road safety. Together with co-founder and CEO Dor Levy, they envisioned rewarding safe driving, rather than just punishing dangerous behavior.

The founders built a platform that combines automotive technology, cryptocurrency and AI to revolutionize road safety through rewards. This innovative approach has quickly gained traction, with over 50,000 users logging over 3 million kilometers of safe driving since the app’s launch.

Distracted driving claims thousands of lives annually, with 

, of which 9% are directly linked to phone use. LETSTOP aims to tackle this crisis as follows:

Each of these objectives works harmoniously to support LETSTOP's ultimate mission of transforming road safety into a rewarding experience that benefits both individual drivers and society.

The LETSTOP app operates through a sophisticated system that monitors and rewards safe driving through the following apps and features:

The result is a dynamic system in which better driving habits unlock greater earning potential.

The following five core features power LETSTOP's drive-to-earn ecosystem.

LETSTOP uses a dynamic 40-level system to make safe driving rewarding. As drivers earn XP through distraction-free journeys, they advance from Level 1's 2% bonus toward Level 40's 70% boost. Through this gamified approach, daily commutes become opportunities to climb the ranks while building safer driving habits.

LETSTOP Credits are the core currency of the platform, earned directly through safe driving achievements. Earning rates directly scale with user level, vehicle type and subscription tier as follows: PRO subscribers enjoy unlimited earning potential, while PLUS and LITE tiers are capped at 300 and 150 monthly credits, respectively.

In the STOP Store, users invest their earned credits into virtual cars with unique earning multipliers. From the basic model's 2% bonus to the Jazzster GN's 150% boost, each vehicle offers different strategic advantages for maximizing rewards.

Beyond vehicles, the store features mystery boxes containing rewards from 10 to 450 credits, as well as car upgrades and subscription boosts. Users can also access a voucher marketplace to redeem credits for real-world rewards through LETSTOP's partnership network.

LETSTOP's triple-boost system combines vehicle multipliers for immediate earnings acceleration, a level-progression system for sustained growth and a 5% referral program for community expansion. Premium membership unlocks enhanced benefits across three tiers, while special events create time-limited opportunities for increased rewards.

The platform's comprehensive rewards system operates across three membership tiers, each one tailored to different user needs. LETSTOP PRO (at $9.90 monthly) offers unlimited credit earning potential and exclusive benefits. The PLUS tier provides a balanced option at $4.90 monthly with a 300-credit earning cap, while the free LITE tier allows users to earn up to 150 monthly credits.

Beyond direct earnings, the rewards system incorporates partner vouchers, cryptocurrency conversion options and community features, such as leaderboards. Achievement rewards recognize milestones in users' safe driving journeys, while the upcoming cryptocurrency integration will allow users to convert their efforts into tradeable STOP tokens.

LETSTOP has shown consistent progress, with the following key milestones already achieved:

Looking ahead to 2025, LETSTOP plans to implement the following key developments:

These developments aim to strengthen LETSTOP's position as a leader in drive-to-earn while furthering its mission to enable safer roads worldwide.

STOP is an SPL token built on the Solana network. It’s designed to bridge safe driving behavior with cryptocurrency rewards. The STOP token implements an annual halving mechanism to ensure long-term value preservation, similar to Bitcoin's model, but accelerated to align with the project's growth trajectory.

STOP has a max supply of 100 million tokens, to be distributed in the following manner:

The growing adoption of LETSTOP's drive-to-earn app and its impact on road safety directly influence STOP's price trajectory. While cryptocurrency forecasts remain speculative by nature, multiple price analysis platforms project the following for STOP:

These forecasts suggest a positive long-term outlook for STOP, driven by the growing drive-to-earn sector and LETSTOP's innovative approach to road safety. However, STOP's future value will ultimately depend upon user adoption, platform development and broader market conditions.

Looking to trade LETSTOP tokens? Bybit now offers the STOP/USDT Spot trading pair. To get started, you’ll first need to create a Bybit account, then fund it with cryptocurrency and navigate to the 

STOP shows promising potential in the drive-to-earn sector, though investors should carefully weigh both its strengths and potential risks before making investment decisions.

While STOP's innovative approach to road safety and its strong initial traction distinguish it in the market, potential investors should 

 and invest no more than they can afford to lose.

As smartphone distractions continue to endanger lives on roads worldwide, LETSTOP offers an innovative path forward. Through its innovative drive-to-earn model and STOP token ecosystem, the platform transforms daily commutes into safer roads and user earnings opportunities, showing how digital innovation can effectively “drive” positive behavioral change.

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LETSTOP (STOP): Turning Daily Rides Into Profitable Journeys

FDUSD, a stablecoin from First Digital Labs, is now live on Sui as a native token, joining other stablecoins like USDC and AUSD.

The S&P 500 ended flat amid mixed earnings and geopolitical concerns, as investors awaited Thursday's data and Fed commentary. Coindesk Indices, an index measuring broader cryptocurrency market performance was up by 2.01%, with Bitcoin rising by 1.91% and Ether dropping by 0.59%, in the past 24 hours.

Today's top performer is LUMIA, which surged 16.1% following the announcement of its partnership with Cobox to bridge real-world assets and virtual ownership.

Lumia (LUMIA), founded in 2024, is a Layer 2 blockchain solution leveraging the Polygon CDK to enhance scalability, liquidity, and interoperability. It addresses challenges like data availability and cross-chain interactions by incorporating AvailDA for decentralized data and Polygon AggLayer for cross-chain functionality, enabling efficient and flexible dApp development. 

 to integrate real-world assets (RWAs) into its immersive, player-owned universe. This collaboration aims to enhance asset liquidity, trading, and gameplay experiences, bridging digital and physical realms for more tangible and vibrant virtual ownership.

Check Out the Latest Prices, Charts, and Data of 

, a stablecoin from First Digital Labs, is now live on Sui as a native token, joining other stablecoins like USDC and AUSD. This launch reflects growing institutional confidence in Sui, which has seen significant growth in TVL and DeFi volume. FDUSD, backed by reserves in Asian banks and US Treasury debt, offers DeFi users a reliable, US Dollar-pegged stablecoin, bridging traditional finance and cryptocurrency ecosystems.

Yesterday, the total flow into Bitcoin Spot ETFs is $146.9 million, with $0 million in GBTC and $146.9 million in non-GBTC products.

: the Spotlight Badge, which requires minting through the Spotlight Protocol and joining a Spotlight circle; the Impossible Finance Badge, which involves completing social tasks, claiming the TIDIA faucet, staking TIDIA on Impossible Finance, and then claiming the badge; and the SNGLR Badge, where users connect their wallet, follow artists, mint IP assets, tweet, and provide personal details to claim their badge. More badges are coming soon!

Beginner

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FDUSD Launches as Native Stablecoin on Sui, Strengthening DeFi Ecosystem

Morpho (MORPHO) is an efficient Ethereum-based protocol revolutionizing decentralized lending with customizable peer-to-peer and pool-based solutions.

Liquidity pools have revolutionized decentralized lending and borrowing by offering a wide choice of product options and significant liquidity levels. For several years, protocols like 

 (COMP) have been lauded as true innovators that introduced a real game-changer: pool-based lending and borrowing. However, a closer look reveals that things aren’t as efficient and smooth as they may seem within the world of crypto lending. The problem is that lending pools on decentralized protocols often have mismatches between lenders and borrowers, with the former substantially outnumbering the latter. As a result, lenders earn only meager 

s, while borrowers pay exorbitant fees to access funds via these pools. Another critical problem is the lack of customizability in lending and borrowing products, with many protocols adopting a one-size-fits-all approach.

Morpho (MORPHO) is a decentralized protocol on 

 (ETH) that aims to improve the efficiency and flexibility of crypto lending and borrowing by offering a unique model that combines the elements of 

 (P2P) and pool-based matching of lenders and borrowers. To be precise, one of Morpho's essential products, Morpho Optimizers, specifically focuses on P2P matching, with pool-based lending and borrowing used as a fallback option. Morpho also offers users an excellent level of customization for creating new lending markets through its core protocol.

With its innovative lender-borrower matching mechanism and highly customizable and flexible markets, Morpho greatly improves capital allocation and transaction efficiency in the 

 (MORPHO) is an Ethereum-based decentralized lending protocol that offers a unique P2P order matching mechanism to improve the efficiency and affordability of 

 The platform also enables users to create efficient lending markets with highly customizable lending and borrowing parameters. Additionally, it offers a product, Morpho Vaults, for curated lending at varying risk levels.

, a France-based software development company founded in 2021 by Merlin Egalité and Paul Frambot. It's also supported by the nonprofit 

As its first major product, the project launched Morpho Optimizers on the Ethereum blockchain in 2022. Morpho Optimizers is designed as an add-on solution for lending pools on Aave and Compound to help match individual lenders and borrowers. The transacting parties can benefit from a more efficient lending process than with the default pool-based mode.

In January 2024, the project launched Morpho Blue, later rebranded to Morpho, a solution to help users create highly flexible lending markets with custom parameters and options. Morpho acts as the backbone of the Morpho ecosystem, and the project team has turned its focus to promoting and further developing this product. At the same time, Morpho Optimizers remains an integral part of the platform's core offering, albeit in a less prioritized state than Morpho.

The Morpho protocol consists of three main products — Morpho, Morpho Vaults (based on the underlying protocol) and the legacy Morpho Optimizers. Morpho allows users to create individual lending markets by specifying their preferred options for the following key attributes:

All these parameters are highly customizable, with minimal interference from the Morpho governance mechanism. Some parameters do have to conform to certain requirements; e.g., the IRM and LLTV must be from the list approved by the protocol's governance.

Morpho's high level of customizability is a significant departure from the typical model used on decentralized lending and borrowing platforms. On most other protocols, there are fixed parameters governing the lending and borrowing process; e.g., only certain collateral assets, lending assets or LLTV rates are allowed. In contrast, Morpho lets you customize all of these options, giving lending market creators an unmatched degree of freedom. The protocol offers the following key benefits to users, developers and market operators:

While Morpho is currently the platform's flagship product, the legacy Morpho Optimizers continues as a key offering in the platform's product line. Morpho Optimizers are add-on layers to the Aave and Compound lending pools. They can be used to facilitate a peer-to-peer match between lenders and borrowers. Since typical lending pools — including on platforms like Aave and Compound — are often heavily skewed with more lenders than borrowers, both parties end up paying excessive fees. Borrowers have to confront high costs due to the need to service the many lenders in the pool. In turn, lenders fight for the meager scraps left over from insufficient numbers of borrowers.

By using a P2P matching mechanism, Morpho Optimizers effectively takes the lender and borrower away from pool-based interaction and establishes a direct relationship between them. This allows users to borrow assets at cheaper rates, while also delivering better APYs for lenders. If either party withdraws from the direct lending relationship, both parties have the option to use the standard lending pools on Aave and Compound as a fallback.

The platform's third core product, Morpho Vaults (covered in more detail below) utilizes the underlying protocol and provides a way to lend through carefully curated market options at different risk profiles. This can suit lenders who are less proficient in using fully customized markets, but still prefer to take advantage of the lending opportunities offered by Morpho.

In order to create a custom lending market on Morpho, you need to have some technical proficiency and, preferably, knowledge of Solidity, the programming language that the protocol uses for its smart contracts. As noted earlier, developers can create a custom market by supplying five base parameters — a collateral asset, an asset offered for lending, an oracle, a preferred IRM and an LLTV. The first four of these normally require an Ethereum smart contract address to be specified. For the collateral and lending assets, these are the addresses for the tokens' contracts. The selected oracle is also usually established via a pointer to its smart contract address, although oracle-less hard-coded prices for the collateral and lent assets are acceptable. Morpho also maintains Ethereum addresses for each IRM whitelisted by the protocol's governance; developers can use these when choosing a preferred IRM.

The last value, LLTV, is a hard-coded figure that defines the threshold beyond which a loan becomes unhealthy due to its poor 

. Liquidators on Morpho are protocol actors who are incentivized to cover bad debts in return for collateral, similar to the method used on many other lending platforms. They’re allowed to liquidate up to 100% of the debt. In return, liquidators receive the debt's collateral, as well as an additional incentive for their work.

Since Morpho is an oracle-agnostic protocol without a built-in oracle, each market can have its own oracle that sources prices for the collateral and lending assets from external sources. Developers are completely free in that regard, and can even hard-code asset prices for the market if they don't wish to use a price oracle at all. Naturally, an oracle is preferred for maintaining the most up-to-date and dynamic pricing information.

The IRM used is the only base parameter with which developers are somewhat restricted in their choice, as only whitelisted IRMs are allowed for a market. As of mid-November 2024, there’s just one whitelisted IRM that market creators can specify — the 

. This model dynamically adjusts interest rates to maintain the proportion of borrowed funds to supplied funds at close to 90%.

Morpho Vaults are a tokenized vault product that offers curated lending opportunities with varying pre-programmed risk parameters. Each vault is associated with a single loan asset, and can allocate deposits across multiple Morpho markets, thereby leveraging the overall liquidity available on the Morpho protocol. Morpho Vaults suit lenders who prefer predictable risk management over the uncertainty of completely custom markets. Each lender can earn APY rates commensurate with their chosen 

There is no limit on the number of vaults you can open on Morpho. Thus, you might even allocate funds to different vaults with significantly different risk levels to diversify your exposure.

Morpho Vaults' curated nature eliminates the need for users to spend time researching and evaluating individual markets' risk levels and return opportunities, as risk exposure is actively managed by the vault.

Since the vaults are connected to the underlying protocol, and source liquidity from it, they’re dynamically rebalanced, which helps optimize yields. Thanks to their permissionless and immutable nature, the vaults are also completely transparent. Moreover, they’re noncustodial, granting users full control over their deposited assets, which can be withdrawn at any time.

A lender deposits an asset into a Morpho Vault and receives shares of the vault as confirmation of their investment. The vaults themselves are tokenized products utilizing Ethereum's 

 standard, designed to represent tokenized vaults for yield-bearing assets. Each vault may be owned by a 

 (DAO), an individual DeFi expert or some algorithm maintained by a DeFi platform. A vault can be owned by only one entity. The owner may specify additional roles/entities for managing the vault. These roles can include one curator, one guardian and multiple allocators.

The curator is a party who sets certain limits, rules and boundaries for the vault, such as specifying asset supply limitations and enabling/disabling specific markets. Curators are instrumental in maintaining appropriate risk levels for their vaults. Assets that lenders lock in a vault are supplied to the protocol's underlying markets, based on curators' whitelists. There can only be one curator for each vault.

The role of guardian is a key vault position. A guardian protects the integrity and security of the vault. Guardians can revoke any action by the vault owner (or other entities) if they consider it to be against the interests of vault lenders. Each vault can only have one guardian, typically a DAO consisting of vault depositors.

Allocators are protocol actors whose job is to rebalance the liquidity utilized by Morpho Vaults to optimize interest rates and accessible liquidity. An allocator’s job is to rebalance and optimize the total liquidity, either manually or using bots, to best meet the needs of Morpho borrowers.

Morpho Vaults' operations aren't regulated by the protocol's governance mechanism. Each vault owner is responsible for their vault's governance model. Specific roles, such as the curator and the guardian, are designed to help in establishing transparent and secure governance procedures for a vault.

What Is the Morpho Crypto Token (MORPHO)?

The platform's native cryptocurrency, MORPHO, is envisioned as a 

. Holders of MORPHO have the right to participate in decision-making on the platform's future direction, general rules, deployment of smart contracts and allocation of funds from the treasury. Although Morpho promotes lending and borrowing markets that operate with minimal interference from the protocol's governance community, there are some general guidelines and rules through which the community needs to establish certain standards, minimum requirements or whitelists. MORPHO token holders are instrumental in this process.

The original MORHPO token was launched on Ethereum in June 2022 with a supply cap of 1 billion. However, there were limitations to the original token contract that negatively affected its functionality. Specifically, the token wasn't designed to facilitate efficient on-chain voting. As a result of these limitations, the project decided to relaunch the token, now on an upgraded contract. The new reincarnation of MORPHO will offer better functional capabilities, including more efficient on-chain governance processes. 

As of the time of writing on Nov 17, 2024, the project team has yet to deploy the new token. The new MORPHO will also be a supply-capped crypto, with a maximum and total supply of 1 billion. The token's supply distribution shares are shown in the chart below.

 token before its market launch. Bybit Pre-Market Trading is an over-the-counter (OTC) trading platform that provides access to promising new cryptocurrencies before their listings on the Spot market. The key advantage of the platform is the ability to access cryptocurrencies at desirable rates before the broader crypto market affects their prices.

Bybit's carefully designed curation process ensures that only crypto assets with solid potential and fundamentals are whitelisted for Pre-Market Trading. This saves you the time required to investigate each cryptocurrency, and reduces the risk of investing in scam projects. Naturally, you’re also encouraged to 

 on crypto assets you might consider purchasing through Bybit Pre-Market Trading.

Morpho represents a unique and potentially highly effective approach to DeFi lending and borrowing. The platform's facilitation of isolated and highly customizable lending markets gives DeFi users unmatched freedom in terms of choice and variety. In addition, users who prefer the stability of curated and well-defined risk profiles can take advantage of Morpho Vaults for more predictable yields. The use of the overall underlying protocol liquidity along with entities such as allocators makes Morpho Vaults particularly effective at optimizing lending and borrowing costs.

While custom lending markets launched via the protocol are now Morpho's key focus, the legacy Morpho Optimizers also continue to offer value. P2P matching of lenders and borrowers as an add-on to the standard pool-based mechanism is a functionality many DeFi users will find helpful. Morpho Optimizers can offer lenders and borrowers active on Aave and Compound an alternative and highly effective way of conducting their operations.

With this arsenal of innovative and unique products, the Morpho protocol is quickly shaping up as a leading platform in the lending niche of the DeFi industry.

Advanced

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Morpho (MORPHO): Leading Efficient, Permissionless Crypto Lending

Azuki, Bored Yacht Ape Club (BYAC), KIWAMI Genesis...These are just 3 of the hottest NFT collections right now. But did you know that there's a dark side to NFTs? We explore its environmental impacts in this article.

, with single digital assets commonly fetching prices in the millions of dollars.

For example, an animated image of the rainbow-shooting "

" sold for $660,000 in a blockchain sale, while musician 

In one of the largest NFT transactions to date, crypto artist 

 for the astronomical figure of $69.4 million.

A year later, top celebrities, brands and influencers have hopped on the NFT bandwagon, leveraging this space to buy and create their own NFTs. While NFTs are taking the crypto world by storm, however, few people are discussing the negative impact they could have on the environment.

This article will take you through the concept of an NFT, the ongoing speculations about unsustainable energy consumption in the NFT domain, and environment-friendly options for buying NFTs so traders can make more well-informed choices.

An NFT is a unique and collectible digital asset that represents real-world objects, such as 

 and GIFs. One-of-a-kind assets that cannot be exchanged or replaced unlike 

 tokens (or fiat currency), NFTs are often purchased and sold online with 

. Validated and stored using blockchain technology, NFTs hold value the same way physical assets do. Essentially, the owner of an NFT is buying a verified token that serves as digital proof of an asset's authenticity and ownership.

NFTs are making an especially powerful impact on the virtual gaming space, with 

 offering unique NFTs as rewards for participating and 

. In the art domain, NFTs enable digital artists to release collectibles that cannot be copied, thus giving them the credit they deserve — and greater peace of mind.

As mentioned earlier, an NFT comprises a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data that proves 1) the authenticity of the asset and 2) the ownership of the person in question. This data is stored on a digital ledger using blockchain technology. When an NFT is listed on a crypto marketplace, the creator of the NFT pays a "gas fee" (or transaction fee) for using the blockchain. This digital asset is then recorded on the

, with the creator's address as the owner of that particular NFT. NFTs can have only a single owner at a time, and ownership cannot be edited or modified by anyone.

NFTs: A Timeline — and the Surrounding Controversy

The main issue with the minting of NFTs is the release of carbon emissions that contribute to greenhouse gases and lead to global warming.

NFTs gained momentum in 2014–2015, when members of the art community — who were initially enthusiastic about owning and selling their own unique NFT art pieces — began voicing their concern about the energy impact. As a result, many artists dropped out of the space and began looking for more sustainable alternatives. Several also claimed they would offset the damage caused by their NFT drops by investing in climate-saving schemes.

Various websites and studies were set up to calculate the energy consumed during the NFT minting process. In 2014, a site called 

 began to help consumers calculate the energy and carbon footprints of

 revealed that cryptocurrency mining required for the NFT process consumes more energy for every dollar of value generated, as compared to the physical extraction of gold or copper. 

In 2021, a montage of art turned into an NFT by the digital artist Beeple sold for more than 

. Calculations showed that creating the 300 items of digital art which Beeple had planned to sell would have burned through 

How Much Energy Does it Take to Trade NFTs?

Let's look at the example of the Ethereum platform, on which most NFTs are based. Every transaction on the Ethereum platform consumes approximately 48.14 kilowatt-hours (

) of energy. To put this into perspective, a single Ethereum transaction consumes the energy equivalent of an average American household in 1.5 days. Other NFT transactions can be even more energy-intensive. For instance, the sale of two digital tokens by an 

creator was estimated to consume over 175 megawatt-hours (MWh) of power. For context, that's the equivalent of greenhouse gases emitted by a single U.S. household over a period of 21 years.

Why Does Trading NFTs Require So Much Energy?

Contrary to popular belief, creating an NFT doesn’t consume much energy. Rather, it’s the process of 

 it which is energy-intensive. The proof of work (

) consensus algorithm, used by many blockchain platforms to verify transactions, is the main reason behind high energy consumption. Let's take a look at the process of trading an NFT in order to understand the reason behind the increased energy utilization:

The mining process is a necessary step to introduce new crypto coins into circulation and maintain a record of transactions on the distributed ledger. The PoW model keeps transactional data secure in a distributed ledger, as it isn’t owned by a single entity.

These complex computational puzzles consume high levels of energy; however, PoW is used as a security measure on the blockchain network to prevent malicious actors from exploiting the transactions conducted. Other related activities — such as bidding for the NFT, the selling process, and the transfer of ownership of these digital tokens — also contribute to the ongoing energy consumption. 

This question can be approached from two perspectives, which we will cover below.

The process of minting unique digital assets and selling them in the crypto space requires massive computing power, which inevitably results in greenhouse gas emissions. With regard to networks that use PoW, many people consider NFTs harmful for the environment, as they emit more carbon than networks that use a 

No: There’s No Definite Way to Calculate the Amount of CO

It’s difficult to point out the exact amount of energy released during the minting process of an NFT because of the many steps involved in the process that don’t have a known carbon footprint. There are also varying views about how much energy is released through the production of NFTs. 

 estimates that a single Ethereum transaction's carbon footprint is 33.4 kg CO

 estimates an NFT transaction has a carbon footprint of about 48 kg CO

. (Editor’s note: Every time an NFT is minted or sold, it's counted as a whole new transaction.)

Let's not forget that other industries contribute to global warming as well. For instance, the airline industry emits more than 2.4% of global CO

 points out that a round-trip flight from London to San Francisco emits 5.5 tons of CO

) per person — more than twice the emissions produced by a family’s car in a year.

You can choose to do your part for the environment and opt for cleaner technologies, while purchasing and selling NFTs. Following are a few criteria to be mindful of.

Proof of Stake (PoS) Instead of Proof of Work (PoW)

Opt for blockchain networks that use a PoS algorithm instead of a PoW algorithm. In the case of PoS, validators can verify legitimate transactions without needing to solve complex mathematical puzzles. This algorithm considers the number of coins staked by a validator. These coins are then offered as collateral for a chance to validate blocks and to keep transactions secure. Once a transaction is made, the blockchain algorithm randomly selects validators based on the amount of their stake, and rewards them with network transaction fees. The PoS model requires less processing power, thus leaving a smaller carbon footprint than the PoW method.

Reducing the Total Number of Transactions

Another way for NFTs to be made more sustainable is to reduce the number of transactions required on a blockchain. Not all transactions need to be on the same blockchain. For instance, NFT auctions can be conducted on 

, and then be sent to the blockchain via a batch process.

 refers to the concept of minting an NFT only after it’s been sold. Typically, marketplaces let creators mint artworks even before putting them up for sale. The downside is that this takes up space on the blockchain, and wastes energy for assets that may never sell. Lazy minting ensures that an NFT only consumes energy for minting when necessary.

Many energy-efficient blockchains are taking measured steps to lessen climate change and global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Here are three platforms from which traders can purchase energy-efficient NFTs.

 is an NFT-optimized network that functions as an Ethereum sidechain, operating independently of, and in parallel to, the Ethereum mainnet. As an Ethereum sidechain, the Palm network provides access to the Ethereum network. It enables assets to be transferred back and forth through a consensus method that prioritizes sustainability, with a close-to-zero carbon footprint.

, which is eco-friendly and enables carbon-neutral minting with zero gas fees. Thanks to its 

 consensus algorithm, EOSIO is energy-efficient and doesn't incentivize server farms for constant mining activities. Overall, NFTs built on this platform are much more sustainable than those of other platforms.

, a carbon-negative blockchain. This assures users that the NFTs they purchase are 

, as they’re created with less energy consumption.

 for more options on environmentally-friendly NFTs. Bybit houses rare NFT art and gaming pieces, including characters/avatars/weapons from top creators such as 

The Future of NFTs (& Potential Solutions)

What Is the Impact of NFTs on the Environment?

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