Unit 2 · Level 1 · Reading transactions
NFT mints & sales
NFTs leave the same paper trail as everything else. A mint appears as a transfer FROM the zero address (0x000…000): the token being born. A burn is a transfer TO the zero address, gone forever, since nobody holds that key. And a sale? One transaction where the NFT goes one way and the payment goes the other.
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What you get asked
An NFT transfer shows 'From: 0x000…000'. What does that mean?
From the zero address = birth. The reverse, TO the zero address, is the burn. Direction is everything here.
Sending a token to the zero address is called ___ it. No one holds that address's key, so it's gone for good.
0x000…000 is a black hole by convention. Projects burn tokens to shrink supply, and you can verify every burn yourself on the explorer.
Match the on-chain pattern to what happened
Four patterns cover most NFT activity. The last one deserves suspicion: 'transfers' between wallets can be one person shuffling their own tokens.
A collection boasts huge trading volume, but the explorer shows the same two wallets selling one NFT back and forth. What is this?
Two wallets, one owner, infinite 'volume'. Marketplace charts can be gamed; the chain shows you who actually traded with whom.
How do you check what an NFT really sold for?
The sale transaction contains both legs: the NFT transfer and the money that moved. If someone claims a record price, the chain either confirms it or it didn't happen. 🐜
The rest of this unit
Transfers, approvals, swaps, mints: learn what each really looks like.