This page is for anyone who wants to bid in an influencer's HEXA NFT (tweet NFT) auction but doesn't know how!
For NFTs sold at a fixed price in Japanese yen, you can buy right away by credit card, so you don't need to read or do any of the following. See the purchase guide for fixed-price NFTs here. See the bidding guide for Japanese yen auctions here.
Even if you've never bought cryptocurrency before, this guide alone will show you how to buy the cryptocurrency ETH and use it to take part in an NFT auction.
If you already have a crypto account, you can finish bidding in 5 minutes; even without one, you can go from opening an account to placing a bid in 30 minutes.
<Steps to place a bid>
<Steps after winning the auction>
① Buy cryptocurrency (ETH)
You need cryptocurrency to bid in and buy at auctions. For HEXA NFT, you need Ether (ETH). You can buy ETH at crypto exchanges in Japan, such as Coincheck, bitFlyer and GMO Coin.
Open a crypto account at a Japanese exchange
As an example prioritizing speed, here we show how to buy on GMO Coin, which states that it takes 10 minutes to go from having no account to completing account opening and buying crypto. Go to GMO Coin's account opening page and open an account. The steps are easiest to follow directly on GMO Coin's page.
Buy the cryptocurrency Ether (ETH)
Once your account is open, buy ether (ETH) with yen. You can select ETH (Ethereum) and buy it from the "Exchange (spot)" tab. You can also buy from the "Brokerage" section, but the "Exchange (spot)" tab often offers better (cheaper) terms for buying ETH, so we recommend it.
Strictly speaking, the cryptocurrency ETH is called Ether, not Ethereum. Ethereum is the name of the system, and the correct name for the cryptocurrency ETH is Ether. Also, the example above shows the purchase screen for a "market order," which does not specify a price, but you are more likely to buy at a lower price with a "limit order," which specifies the price.
② Set up a wallet
This is how to take your cryptocurrency out of the exchange and store it in your own wallet. To bid, you need to send ETH to your wallet.
Create a new wallet
You will later receive and store the NFT you buy in this wallet, so you need a wallet that supports NFTs. Download MetaMask for a computer, or SafePal or imToken for a smartphone. After downloading, follow the app's instructions to create a new address (a cryptocurrency account).
Never share or lose the seed phrase shown when you create a new address (crypto account). A seed phrase is like a key for recovering your crypto wallet. As long as you have the seed phrase, you can restore your wallet even if you lose your PC or smartphone. But if your seed phrase is stolen, it is the same as having your account stolen, and your crypto can be withdrawn without your permission.
Send ETH to the wallet you just created
Once your wallet is ready, send the ETH you bought on the exchange (GMO Coin) to it, because you can't bid without a balance in your wallet. When entering the wallet address, be sure to copy the wallet address or scan its QR code. If the wallet address is off by even one character, the ETH you send will be lost, and getting it back is almost impossible.
③ Bid on the NFT
On the auction page (e.g. HEXA NFT #1), enter the amount you want to bid in ETH and you can easily proceed to bid. You can also bid lower than the current price to have your name and X (formerly Twitter) link shown among the bidders.
Bid in the auction
You can freely choose the name shown as the bidder name, and you can optionally add a link to your X account to it. When you complete the bid by following the on-screen instructions, a confirmation email is sent. Your email address is used only for communications from HEXA and will never be made public.
Wallet verification
Click the link in the confirmation email to proceed to the wallet verification step. On a computer, you can simply click it to verify your wallet. On a smartphone, however, wallet verification only works if you access the link from the wallet app's in-app browser. So, as shown below for SafePal and imToken, paste the URL from the email into the in-app browser to proceed to wallet verification. To verify your wallet, just follow the on-screen instructions on the page that opens.
Confirming and completing your bid
Once wallet verification is done and your wallet holds an ETH balance at least equal to your bid, you can press the button to complete the bid. Placing a bid alone does not reduce your ETH balance, but once you complete a bid, it cannot be canceled. Shortly after you complete the bid, your name, bid price and X link (if provided) will be shown as a bidder on the auction page.
④ Pay for the auction
When the auction ends, the highest bidder (the person who bid the highest price, earliest) is sent the URL of the payment page by email. Click the link and verify your wallet by following the on-screen instructions. Once verification is complete, please follow the on-screen instructions to make the final payment.
⑤ Receive and store the NFT
Once payment is complete, the HEXA NFT is sent to the wallet address used for payment. You can keep the HEXA NFT you bought stored in that wallet.
