Rare Bits
Rare Bits is a zero-fee peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling, and discovering crypto goods, founded in 2017 in San Francisco and serving individual retail participants in the early NFT and crypto-commerce market.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingDigital Commerce or Content
What Rare Bits does
Rare Bits is a private, for-profit company founded in 2017 and headquartered in San Francisco that operates a zero-fee peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling, and discovering crypto goods. The platform was launched into the early non-fungible token (NFT) market and serves as a direct exchange venue for individual buyers and sellers, differentiated from fee-charging competitors by its zero-commission pricing model. Its business model is anchored in the marketplace format with no listing or transaction fees, which removes traditional marketplace monetization levers and constrains revenue capture to potential ancillary streams (none disclosed in the available data).
The company was co-founded by Amitt Mahajan, Danny Lee, and David Pekar (CEO), and has raised a total of $6 million in priced funding through April 2018, led by Spark Capital with participation from Caffeinated Capital, Craft Ventures, First Round Capital, South Park Commons, and SV Angel. An earlier unpriced round in July 2017 included Bragiel Brothers and Kindred Ventures. The company's reported employee count is 1-10, and there is no documented activity, product update, partnership, or follow-on funding event in the input data beyond the 2017–2018 period. The underlying technology stack and any proprietary smart-contract or wallet infrastructure are not described in the available source material, limiting deeper technical assessment.
Rare Bits firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Rare Bits
- Website
- https://rarebits.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Rare Bits is a zero-fee peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling, and discovering crypto goods, founded in 2017 in San Francisco and serving individual retail participants in the early NFT and crypto-commerce market.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Rare Bits industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cryptocurrency & NFT Marketplace
- NAICS
- All Other Miscellaneous Retailers (459999), Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Retailers (45942)
- SIC
- Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Retail-Nonstore Retailers (5960)
- akta.pro primary industry
- General NFT Marketplaces (Multi-Category) (FSADANAA)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- NFT Custody, Wallets & Asset Management (collectibles wallets, vaults, portfolio tools) (FSAPAFAF), NFT Authentication, Provenance & Anti-Fraud (verification, provenance graphs, wash-trade detection) (FSAPAFAH)
Keywords
Where Rare Bits is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Markets served
Rare Bits business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Digital Commerce or Content
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales
Rare Bits product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Rare Bits is a zero-fee peer-to-peer marketplace that lets individual users buy, sell, and discover crypto goods such as NFTs and digital collectibles. The platform connects individual crypto-goods buyers and sellers directly without charging marketplace transaction fees.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Rare Bits Marketplace Zero-fee peer-to-peer online marketplace where individual users can list, discover, buy, and sell crypto goods and digital collectibles directly with one another.
Companies that use Rare Bits
Customer profileIdeal customer profiles1 record
Rare Bits technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Rare Bits partnerships and signals
Strategic signalRecent moves3 records
Expansion highlights2 records
Rare Bits competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- LooksRare: Community-first NFT marketplace with token rewards for traders. Comparable as a peer-to-peer NFT marketplace competing for Ethereum-based liquidity.
- OpenSea: The dominant general multi-category NFT marketplace. Direct peer in product, target user, and fee-based marketplace model; OpenSea is the principal competitor Rare Bits would have to displace.
- Rarible: Multi-chain NFT marketplace with a community-governed token model. Direct peer in product category (general NFT marketplace) and target creator/collector audience.
- Magic Eden: Originally a Solana NFT marketplace that has expanded multi-chain. Comparable as a general NFT marketplace competing for the same creator and collector base, though with stronger chain-native positioning.
- Foundation: Curated NFT marketplace focused on digital art and collectibles. Direct peer in the curated NFT marketplace model and overlap in target audience of crypto-native collectors.
- SuperRare: Curated 1/1 art NFT marketplace. Comparable as a peer-to-peer marketplace for crypto goods where curation and provenance are core differentiators.
- Nifty Gateway: NFT marketplace known for high-profile drops and fiat-friendly onboarding. Comparable general NFT marketplace targeting both crypto-native and mainstream collectors.
- Mintable: NFT marketplace with a focus on minting tooling and gasless transactions. Comparable as a peer-to-peer NFT marketplace targeting creators and collectors with low-friction UX.
- X2Y2: Ethereum NFT marketplace that gained share via aggressive trader incentives and a token-based model. Direct competitor in the same Ethereum NFT liquidity pool.
Emerging players
- Blur: Pro-trader NFT aggregator and marketplace that has rapidly captured pro-trader liquidity on Ethereum. Comparable as a peer-to-peer NFT trading venue, though differentiated by aggregator features and pro-trader focus.
Market position
Strengths3 records
Weaknesses3 records
Competitive moat2 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights4 records
Customer concentration
Rare Bits social profiles
Digital presenceRare Bits financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Rare Bits leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Rare Bits funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds2 records
Investors8 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Rare Bits M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Rare Bits
What does Rare Bits do?
Rare Bits is a zero-fee peer-to-peer marketplace that lets individual users buy, sell, and discover crypto goods such as NFTs and digital collectibles. The platform connects individual crypto-goods buyers and sellers directly without charging marketplace transaction fees.
When was Rare Bits founded?
Rare Bits was founded in 2017. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Rare Bits based?
Rare Bits is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
Who are Rare Bits's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are LooksRare, OpenSea, Rarible, Magic Eden, Foundation, SuperRare, Nifty Gateway, Mintable and X2Y2. Blur is listed as an emerging player.
Does Rare Bits have an API?
No public API is recorded for Rare Bits.
What industry is Rare Bits in?
Rare Bits's product category is Cryptocurrency & NFT Marketplace. Its primary akta.pro industry code is FSADANAA, General NFT Marketplaces (Multi-Category), with a secondary code of FSAPAFAF, NFT Custody, Wallets & Asset Management (collectibles wallets, vaults, portfolio tools). Its NAICS code is 459999 and its SIC code is 6200.