NFT whitelisting is the process of obtaining minting rights for a specific crypto address. Generally, the project’s founding team will pre-approve certain community members to mint the collection’s NFTs before public distribution. 

Whitelisting permits the project’s team to reward early backers and encourage community participation. You can join the NFT whitelist by following the project team’s Twitter or Discord guidelines, often in the form of retweeting, liking their posts, tagging friends, and solving puzzles or riddles.

When your cryptocurrency wallet address is whitelisted for the launch of an NFT project, it indicates that it has been included in a list of first-minting dibs. Typically, this will ensure that you have the opportunity to mint one or more NFTs before the official launch date and at a discounted price.

How do I join the whitelist NFT?

1. Identify projects before their debut

The market for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is saturated with potential projects seeking to attract new customers. 

Before their formal public launch, these new NFT initiatives will most likely provide whitelist spots to their loyal followers. In other words, you must dedicate time and patience to get whitelisted for your favourite upcoming collection. 

However, if you are not an early adopter, ensure you’re mindful of the hazards of placing your trust in an unproven new project. As mentioned in this article, minting is a high-risk, high-reward situation as most NFT collections fall to 0 after a couple of months.

Also, due to the prevalence of NFT fraud, you should always conduct your research before joining a whitelist.

2. Join groups on Discord

After researching and selecting a project, you can up your chances of reaching whitelist via the project’s Discord.

Discord is the primary communication tool for NFT initiatives. It’s where the project’s founders post updates and where community members connect on a deeper level.

The whitelisting procedure may differ from project to project, although information is typically shared on the Announcements channel. In addition, most projects feature a general channel for project-related or other general discussions.

3. Work towards whitelist

After you’ve scanned potential winners and their whitelist requirements, it’s time to put in work to join one.

Whitelist submissions can range from filling out a basic Google Form to actively referring to their project. Some whitelisting procedures even employ a lottery mechanism.

As I briefly mentioned, we typically see a flurry of tweets from the project’s official Twitter account encouraging people to reshare the project’s posts and create hype by tagging friends.

But it isn’t like this all the time⁠—each project has its own set of rules guiding the whitelisting procedure. There is no surefire way to get on an NFT whitelist because the requirements vary, and more often than not, the selection is random.

What is a whitelist in crypto?

Whitelisting is a typical cybersecurity technique involving approval of a list of email addresses, IP addresses, and applications while denying all others. 

Sometimes, whitelists are also referred to as “allowlists.” Typically, it indicates that someone or something is deemed “safe” and is granted special privileges that “permit” something.

NFT whitelist tracker

New NFT projects are announced every day. If you have invested in NFTs or are considering investing in NFTs, I strongly suggest you monitor the most popular NFT initiatives to make prudent investments.

1. BitDegree

BitDegree can be used to identify and analyze market-available NFT collections. It now tracks 357 distinct NFT collections from three protocols dispersed among 58 specific NFT marketplaces.

2. Moby

Moby is a useful NFT tracking tool because it gives the most recent NFT information, feeds, and allows you to track your holdings. However, some of Moby’s features are restricted unless you upgrade to Moby Pro.

3. Crypto.com

Crypto.com is another tracking tool that can provide you with pertinent information regarding the top NFT collections on the NFT market. Additionally, you can obtain data based on the price and volume of any NFT.

4. rarity.tools

Rarity.tools is an easy-to-use resource that provides comprehensive information and aids in locating specific data regarding NFT collections. You should know how to check the rarity of an NFT, as the rarity of an NFT should be a top priority when purchasing one. 

All collectors covet the most valuable NFTs, which have sold millions of dollars.

5. icy.tools

When you first launch icy.tools, you will notice the ‘Trending Collections’ section, which lists the most popular NFTs depending on the timeframe.

An innovative aspect of icy.tools is the “Leaderboard” that contains data about NFTs, including the floor price, volume, sales, and average price. In addition, the intuitive UI makes NFT analysis straightforward for even the noobiest of novices.

What is a whitelist presale?

You can’t answer “what is a whitelist NFT” without knowing the details of a whitelist presale.

The purpose of an NFT presale is to open the minting process to community members or early supporters of an NFT project before the official introduction to the public, typically through a whitelist or mint pass.

Mint passes enable NFT collectors to add their NFT to the blockchain before the public sale. The mint pass is executed by sending an NFT to a specified crypto wallet; hence, the collector pays minimal to no gas due the prevention of a gas war. 

Presale or whitelists can assist NFT projects in their infancy to measure interest in their ventures. In addition, presale and whitelists can help NFT collections reward and incentivize early supporters.

What happens when you get whitelisted?

When the cryptocurrency wallet address is whitelisted for the launch of an NFT project, it indicates that it has been included in a list with unique minting powers. Typically, this will ensure that you have the opportunity to mint one or more NFTs before the official launch date and at a discounted price.

If you have been added to an upcoming NFT whitelist, it indicates that you have met the conditions outlined by the NFT project’s founding team. This signifies that your ETH address has been pre-approved to mint one or more NFTs within a pre-specified timeframe.

How do I get whitelisted for Discord requirements?

For the most part, NFT projects tend to give whitelist to the most engaged and positive community members on Discord. To get NFT whitelist if a project follows this strategy, you must:

1. Stay engaged

Most initiatives provide a whitelist slot to supporters who care about the project and add value to the community. To earn a seat on the list, you must actively participate in the Discord chat and have meaningful conversations with other community members about the project.

The thing is, this can take hours to days of chatting. Thankfully, projects have stopped taking on this unhealthy meta.

2. Invite friends and others

All NFT ventures value backers who attract more prospective investors. You can welcome others to your NFT project by sending your unique invite code to your friends and other Discord servers.

Sometimes, this is even a requirement for a whitelist spot. For example, I’ve seen some Discord servers require up to 20 invites as one of the guidelines for whitelist. That’s right… 20!

3. Make fan art

Create your fan art inspired by the project to show your affiliation to the collection. This is free advertising for the project, and it earns you brownie points.

4. Participate in contests

Most NFT projects hold giveaways on Twitter and Discord in which they ask their fans to share, retweet, etc., to earn a whitelist slot. This is quite an easy way to earn a whitelist spot, but it is pretty random.

5. Arrive early

Some projects freely offer spaces on the whitelist for early backers without the need to complete other requirements. 

Therefore, if you find an early collection with a bright future, join its Discord channel as one of the first few members and make yourself get noticed.

Summary

In sum, the process of completing requirements to get your crypto wallet address pre-approved for minting is known as NFT whitelisting. 

Apart from minting priority, if your address is whitelisted, you may also benefit from reduced transaction costs and unique content, depending on the initiative.

Although NFTs are promising and excellent sources of passive income, there are scammers in the market. Therefore, before busting your tail-end for a whitelist spot, you should ensure the authenticity of a project. 

Red flags include:

• No Discord page
• Spam messages in Discord without any meaningful conversations
• Free whitelist spots offered through Twitter DMs
• Undoxxed/inexperienced team
• Malicious minting contract

As a consumer, being whitelisted for an NFT project is a double-edged sword: it grants early access to the collection’s NFTs and lower NFT prices, as gas wars are avoided. Whitelists can also help creators stimulate demand for their prized possessions, similar to how a VIP list encourages people to attend an event.

The problem? Most projects fail after a couple of months. So if you mint an NFT for a small project, the founders will most likely cash-out and leave you with nothing.