Ever since the popularity of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has risen significantly, questions have emerged regarding how the minting process is carried out and if there are any ways to avoid paying a listing fee.
Over the years, there has been an increasingly high demand for NFTs, and growth within the NFT world continues till date. The quest for minting tokens peaked quite high in 2021 and continues to grow, but not at the level of that in 2021. Nevertheless, NFTs are highly sought-after art pieces, and their resale value can earn big bucks!
Non Fungible Tokens; A Quick Run Through
On the 3rd of May in 2014, the digital artist Kevin McCoy performed the process of what is known as ‘minting’ the first ever known NFT ‘Quantum’ on the coin blockchain. Individuals often think it was in 2021 when NFT minting began.
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However, an uncommon fact about these tokens is that NFTs have been present for a while now. Even though 2021 was marked to be the big year of the NFT, this year does not take credit for their invention, just their immense increase in popularity.
Key terms to understand NFTs
Here are some terminologies and processes that would be useful to familiarize if one is interested in expanding their knowledge about non-fungible tokens.
NFT Marketplace
An NFT marketplace is the hub for anyone looking to deal with NFTs. The name itself suggests the purpose of this platform, i.e., it is a digitized space, providing individuals with a platform to carry out the buying and selling of NFTs.
These marketplace platforms allow buyers and sellers to carry out these token exchanges and display their NFTS, store them, and also sell them for tangible currency, i.e., monetary value or cryptocurrencies. Not all, but some NFT marketplaces also tend to allow individuals on the platform to mint their NFTs using the digital space itself.
This brings us to minting NFTS. When discussing NFT prices, minting costs in the form of minting fees to create an NFT play an integral role in the conversation.
This article will run through what the minting process is, how transaction fees play a role, and the overall minting processing power of this digital art. Different blockchain platforms will also be discussed, upon which how to create an NFT is primarily dependent.
Cost to Create An NFT
To dive straight into the overbearing question of how much it costs to create an NFT, the actual costs of creating these tokens within the marketplace are dependent on a few elements, i.e., as previously mentioned, the blockchains.
In order to better understand NFT art cost, let’s break NFT minting down.
NFT Minting
In layman’s terms, the minting process of non-fungible tokens means to uniquely publish the token onto the relevant blockchain in order to make the token available to purchase.
Minting Costs dependant on Blockchains
The most sought out and popularly used blockchain for minting NFTs is the Ethereum blockchain. This is because it served as the first programmable blockchain supporting digital items being registered. However, in today’s day and age, more options exist in the form of the Polygon blockchain and Solana.
In order to answer the impeding question of “How much does it cost to create an NFT?” three popular blockchains for minting NFTs will be assessed and discussed, alongside implicit costing for each of these.
Ethereum Blockchain
Ethereum, at its core, serves as a globally decentralized software platform powered by blockchain technology. This particular blockchain is known best for its native cryptocurrency, i.e., Ether, also known as ETH.
It serves as a marketplace catering to financial services, such as exchanges within cryptocurrencies, apps and gaming, without data being censored or stolen.
Ethereum & Minting NFTs
As previously mentioned, the Ethereum platform is the most popular network when it comes to minting NFTs. It was also the initial platform to exist and support minters and investors; hence, most of them turning to this blockchain by default.
Coming to the question of how much it costs to create NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain;
Investors with NFT experience can reminisce the times when minting a singular NFT incurred a transaction fee of approximately $50–$100, depending on what time of the day this was carried out as well as the ETH price itself.
Luckily, this does not remain the case today, with NFT marketplaces having found ways around paying such hefty transactional fees. Creators nowadays can mint their own NFTs using the Ethereum blockchain, and it gets better; this can be done entirely for free!
Regular & Lazy Minting Process
Lazy minting is when NFT artists and creators can mint NFTs without paying any upfront costs. Whilst opting for this form of minting, the ‘Lazy’ process of actually registering NFTs on the blockchain will not occur until the NFT has been purchased.
And so, the selling price of the NFT, in this case, covers the cost of the minting fee. Additionally, the buyers are responsible for minting the non-fungible tokens, not the creators.
Regarding Lazy Minting, the creation of NFTs occurs later on, thus reducing the direct need for any computational power.
Polygon Blockchain
Polygon is a cryptocurrency with the symbol MATIC and also a technology platform that enables blockchain networks to connect and scale. Polygon—”Ethereum’s internet of blockchains”— launched under the name Matic Network in 2017.
Polygon is a decentralized Ethereum scaling platform that enables developers to build scalable, user-friendly dApps with low transaction fees without ever sacrificing security.
The Polygon platform operates using the Ethereum blockchain and connects Ethereum-based projects. Using the Polygon platform can increase a blockchain project’s flexibility, scalability, and sovereignty while still affording the security, interoperability, and structural benefits of the Ethereum blockchain.
Polygon & Minting NFTs
NFTs can be minted on a Polygon blockchain by digital artists as well. Digital artists can mint NFTs on the Polygon blockchain by using various NFT marketplaces. NFTs can be minted and listed for free of cost if the Polygon network is chosen for the respective NFT.
A plus point is that there are no upfront costs for minting NFTs on Polygon. This is possible because the platform uses the lazy minting option as a default choice.
However, various platforms tend to charge a service fee, which is deducted from the selling price of the NFT after being sold initially.
Solana & Minting NFTs
Another popularly used blockchain in the minting game is that of Solana. This particular blockchain is second to being the most popularly used when it comes to minting, with the first being Ethereum, of course. However, taking into consideration the high gas fee on Ethereum, Solana definitely tends to act as a much more affordable alternative for NFT minting.
However, when it comes to minting NFTs on the Solana blockchain, one should keep in mind that this process entails using a wallet that can support the Solana network itself, for example, that of Phantom.
Now coming to how much it costs to create an NFT using Solana; the costs are deemed minimal, as there is only a need to pay a transaction fee on Solana for each on-chain activity on the platform.
It is essential to note, however, that while minting an NFT using Solana, the process incurs three key blockchain transactions, i.e., one for setting a price when listing the NFT itself, and two for approval transactions of the minting process.
Creation Costs: Polygon vs. Ethereum vs. Solana
To comparatively assess the utmost popular blockchains for the creation of NFTs, the NFT creator and investor should conduct extrinsic research on what the best blockchain is for creating an entirely new NFT collection. NFT Artists within this art field should look at the ecosystem for each blockchain as well as the existing community within the marketplace.
When comparing costs, however, there actually is not a massive difference! In fact, the most popular NFT marketplaces tend to offer lazy minting for both Polygon and networks, implying that creating an NFT can be done entirely for free!
Of course, one can always resort to the tried and tested, highly vouched for, traditional, but also the most expensive process of minting an NFT on an Ethereum blockchain, but when there are alternative platforms that spare the cost of spending over hundreds of dollars to list NFTs, why not use those instead?
Even though NFT minting using the Solana blockchain does not offer lazy minting, it only consists of a few minimal network fee charges that surmount to literally less than $1!
Cost Associated with NFTs
When it comes to how much it costs to create an NFT, it is integral to consider the fact that choosing various blockchains to mint the NFT can result in differing costs.
The main costs that are primarily associated with minting and processing NFTs consist of the following:
- Gas fees: This is actually quite essential as all blockchain operations tend to require literally at least one transaction on the blockchain, which will cost a charge for gas fees.
- Listing fee: Some platforms allow minting NFTs for free but still tend to charge for listings, i.e., putting the NFTs up for sale. These can be quite low and quite high, depending on the blockchain used.
- Account fees: An account fee tends to depend on the actual NFT marketplace used for NFTs, the process, and minting as a whole.
Various blockchains have different processes and processing power, so they will have their own individually ranged fees and costs. Even if upon the same blockchain, NFT costs comparatively can differ based on features such as project quality, the data size, the transaction speed itself, when the minting took place, i.e., the time factor, and the integral gas fees cost.
Transaction fees on blockchains tend to respond to the supply and demand of the network. As in the case of the basic principle of supply and demand, when there is a high demand for NFTs, the gas fee surge and sore. NFT creators should also consider the volatility of prices of cryptocurrencies themselves, which greatly influence costs associated with NFTs as a whole.
The prices for minting an NFT approximately range from one dollar to $500!
The Future Of NFTs
Despite some concerns and uncertainties having been expressed regarding NFT minting and processing over the span of the last few years, one factor remains undeniable, and that is, NFTs are not going anywhere. They’re definitely here to stay for a long time and will be imminent within the art world in the future.
The art world and market itself have already taken to immense transformations in recent years, and the impact of the COVID pandemic on this art market actually created an even bigger shift away from traditionalist forms, i.e., modus operandi.
Stirring away from what is known as the age of invention, the big explosion, and experimentation as a whole, there are definitely endless opportunities and most certainly an unlimited potential when assessing the future of NFTs, especially now that they have made way and secured a place to exist within what can be considered the mainstream space.
After having put forward different forms of blockchains, comparing costs, and considering what all is counted when it comes to minting, it is safe to say, the costs incurred are not massive and are deemed minimal. In fact, the process can actually even be entirely free, using popular platforms and opting for the lazy minting method.
It definitely has never been this easy, cheap, or convenient to mint NFTs, but the growing demand and technological developments have ensured that minimal costs will be incurred to create an NFT.