How to Figure Out Who Owns an NFT: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are unique digital assets verified using blockchain technology. Identifying the owner of an NFT can be useful for various reasons such as verification, purchase inquiries, or collaboration. This tutorial will guide you through the steps to find out who owns a particular NFT.

Objectives

By the end of this tutorial, you will be able to:

- Understand what an NFT is and how ownership is recorded.

- Use blockchain explorers to track the owner of an NFT.

- Utilize NFT marketplaces for additional information.

Step-by-Step Instructions (with example)

1. Identify the NFT of Interest

There are tons of projects out there and there are different ways you might discover an NFT, whether that is sale news on Twitter, hearing about a project name and how hyped it is, or just discovering them via marketplaces like Opensea. These are just some starting points. To get to know who owns the NFT(s) that you are interested in, here’s what you need:

- Locate the Token ID: The Token ID is a unique identifier for an NFT within its specific collection or contract.

- Find the Contract Address: This address relates to the particular collection or series the NFT is part of.

Usually, you can find this in the details section of the NFT on any marketplace. Another means to find these bits of info is the project’s website, Twitter, or Discord.

Example: Let’s walk through a popular one. Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) is one of the most successful NFT projects to date, and it’s interesting to explore and understand the people associated with it i.e., who owns what, how much, etc.

So let’s take a look at one of the more ‘rare’ Apes, Ape #4980. It sold for almost $1M just about 3 months ago! Let’s dig in and find out who owns it now.

1. Visit Opensea and search and search for Bored Ape Yacht Club. Verify the authenticity of the project by looking at the verified checkmark on Opensea, project details, volume, and analytics. This is to get a rough idea that THIS is the correct project. (PS: There are tons of derivatives and scammy projects out there so validating the right project is crucial)
2. You can pick any Ape you’d like to validate. I saw the news of Ape 4980’s sale on Twitter and decided to check it out. Initially, I didn't know the ID, so I filtered the collection by traits that I could see: Fur > Golden & Hat > Party Hat. And I found it.

Other discovery mechanisms could include you hearing about a project and then searching through various NFTs of that collection on Opensea, etc.

3. Click on the NFT to find and explore more details about the NFTs like traits, owner, sales and transfers, etc.

2A. Check NFT Marketplaces

There’s a simple way to check for the owner of an NFT, and that is using NFT marketplaces like Opensea. Here’s what you need to do:

- Search for the NFT: Sites like OpenSea or Rarible allow you to search for NFTs by contract address or collection. (like we did in Step 1)

- View Owner Profile: If the owner has a public profile, additional information might be available.

Example: 

On the NFT details page in step 1, right below the NFT name, you can see “Owned by ProjectOnlyGrails”. You can click on the owner's name and visit their profile. You can tell just by first glance that they have a bunch of BAYCs, Azukis, Pudgys, and Punks, giving us a fair idea that they’re a prominent collector.

Often, these profiles are not of individuals but of some other project, DAO, or a product that deals with NFTs (lending, borrowing, etc.).

There’s no foolproof way to identify the real identity of the holder particularly because anonymity/pseudonymity is a norm in the space. But you CAN try looking up certain keywords on social media, or even ENS names for that matter to gather more information.

2B. Use a Blockchain Explorer

Now there are a couple of ways to find who owns the NFT(s) in context. The first was to go through the owner profile on the NFT marketplace. Now, let’s explore another route that explores the ‘on-chain’ details about the NFT, its owner, etc. Here’s what you’ll need:

- Choose a Blockchain Explorer: Sites like Etherscan or PolygonScan allow you to view blockchain data. This will generally depend on which chain the project of our interest is on.

- Enter the Contract Address: Search for the contract address in the explorer's search bar. You can find the contract address either on the project’s website or socials, or find it via Opensea or any other NFT marketplace.

- Navigate to the Token: Find the specific token by its Token ID. This is where it gets a little technical. You’d have to find a particular property called ‘ownerOf’ in the contract details to be able to find who owns the NFT (and its associated tokenID) of interest.

- View the Owner's Address: The owner's cryptocurrency address will be displayed.

Example:

a. In the NFT details page, look for the ‘Details’ section, there you’ll find the contract address, Token ID, standard, etc. Clicking on the address should lead you to the BAYC contract address on Etherscan.

b. In the above step, clicking on the contract address will lead us to Etherscan directly, but you can also copy the address, go to Etherscan (or any respective blockchain explorer), and paste the address in the search bar. Here’s where you’ll end up:

c. Click on ‘Contract’ (tick suggests that it’s verified) > Read Contract > Expand on 12. ownerOf > Enter your tokenID (4980 in our case) > Click ‘Query’. This will give you the wallet address that currently has this NFT. You can click on it to further inspect the wallet activity of this NFT owner.

3. Understand Privacy Considerations

- Cryptocurrency Addresses: Ownership is linked to a crypto address, not necessarily a person's name or email. Anonymity is a norm in web3, and NFTs. Digging up more than necessary might not be taken well unless you are someone like ZachXBT who’s on a holy mission to expose the scammers and make the space safer.

- Ethics and Legalities: Always consider privacy and legal regulations in your jurisdiction.

Tips

- Not all NFTs will have publicly available ownership information.

- Always use reputable sources and tools.

Conclusion

Finding out who owns an NFT is a process that involves identifying the NFT, using blockchain explorers, and optionally checking NFT marketplaces. This guide has provided clear steps to do this, along with a real-world example. While it's often possible to find the crypto address associated with an NFT's owner, it's important to note that this doesn't necessarily reveal personal identity. Always consider privacy and legal regulations when seeking ownership information.