You've heard creators talking about "minting" their art as NFTs, sometimes making thousands or millions in the process. But what does "minting" actually mean? Why does it cost money? And what are you really creating when you click that "Mint NFT" button?

Here's the straightforward answer: minting an NFT means creating a new token on a blockchain that represents ownership of something—digital art, music, video, collectibles, or even physical assets. It's like publishing a book with an ISBN number, except instead of a centralized ISBN authority, you're registering your unique item on a public, permanent blockchain ledger. Once minted, the NFT exists independently of any platform, tied to a specific blockchain address, proving ownership and authenticity without requiring trust in galleries, auction houses, or marketplaces.

The term "minting" comes from traditional currency production—just as governments mint physical coins, you're creating new digital tokens on a blockchain. The difference is that while governments can mint unlimited currency, NFTs are designed to be unique or exist in limited quantities, creating digital scarcity. Whether that scarcity has value is a separate question entirely, but the technical mechanism for creating provably scarce digital items is what minting accomplishes.

How NFT minting actually works

Understanding minting requires looking past the simple button click to see what's really happening. Your digital content gets uploaded to storage—typically IPFS (InterPlanetary File System) or Arweave for decentralized hosting. IPFS generates a unique content hash based on your file's data. Change even one pixel and you get a different hash, providing cryptographic proof the content hasn't been altered.

Your NFT's properties get described in JSON metadata—name, description, image link, attributes. Then you call a smart contract function that creates the token. The contract assigns a unique token ID, records your wallet as owner, links to the metadata, sets royalty percentages, and emits a blockchain event confirming creation.

This transaction requires gas fees—payment to validators. On Ethereum, minting costs $20-50 normally, spiking to $200+ during high demand. Layer 2 solutions like Polygon reduce this to under $1. Once confirmed, your NFT exists permanently on the blockchain, publicly verifiable on explorers like Etherscan.

NFT standards: ERC-721 vs. ERC-1155

ERC-721 was the original NFT standard from 2017. Each token is completely unique with its own token ID and metadata. It's used for 1-of-1 digital art, unique collectibles like CryptoPunks and Bored Apes, and ENS domain names. Each mint creates a separate token, so minting 100 NFTs requires 100 separate transactions, which gets expensive quickly.

ERC-1155, developed by Enjin in 2018, allows minting both unique and fungible tokens in one contract. The major benefit is batch minting—creating multiple tokens in one transaction dramatically reduces gas fees. It's now widely adopted for gaming items and generative collections. Solana uses SPL Tokens with ultra-low fees around $0.00025 per mint, while Tezos uses FA2.

Traditional vs. lazy minting

Traditional minting means paying gas fees upfront to record the NFT on-chain immediately. The token exists whether it sells or not.

Lazy minting only creates the NFT when someone purchases it, with the buyer paying gas fees. Until then, the NFT exists as a cryptographic signature proving you created it, but it's not on-chain yet. Platforms like OpenSea and Rarible popularized this approach. You create metadata and sign it with your private key, the marketplace displays it as available, and when someone buys it, the platform mints it on-chain with the buyer covering fees.

Lazy minting advantages: no upfront cost for creators, ability to mint large collections without financial risk, and zero barrier to entry. The downsides: the NFT doesn't exist on-chain until purchased, platforms potentially changing metadata before actual minting, buyers paying higher total costs, and centralization risk since the platform controls the minting process.

Platform and blockchain choices

OpenSea is the largest marketplace, supporting Ethereum, Polygon, and Arbitrum. Lazy minting costs nothing upfront, with 2.5% marketplace fees. Gas ranges from $0.50 on Polygon to $50 on Ethereum.

Ethereum has the most established ecosystem with highest liquidity but most expensive fees—best for high-value projects. Polygon offers near-zero fees ($0.50-2) with full Ethereum compatibility—ideal for beginners. Solana provides ultra-low fees ($0.01-0.50) through platforms like Magic Eden. Tezos appeals to eco-conscious creators with generative art communities, though markets are smaller.

Real-world applications

Profile picture projects like CryptoPunks and Bored Ape Yacht Club pioneered generative collections—10,000 unique combinations minted from algorithmic trait layers. Individual artists mint 1-of-1 pieces. Beeple, XCOPY, and Pak sold pieces for millions, though most artists sell for $100-10,000. The math is brutal: minting costs $20-50 on Ethereum, so selling for less than $100 barely covers fees.

Musicians use platforms like Sound.xyz. 3LAU sold an album for $11.6 million, though typically artists sell editions for $10-100—more than streaming where Spotify pays $0.003-0.005 per play. Games use NFTs for characters and virtual land. NFTs also gate Discord access, provide event tickets with provable authenticity, and create transferable memberships.

Environmental impact after The Merge

Before September 2022, minting an NFT on Ethereum consumed approximately 142 kWh—equivalent to 4 days of EU electricity use. Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake reduced energy consumption by 99.95% overnight. Now minting uses 0.01 kWh per NFT—comparable to a Google search. Tezos, Solana, and Polygon always used efficient Proof of Stake. The environmental concerns are largely resolved, though public perception lags behind reality.

The honest limitations and risks

Critical truth: most NFTs don't contain your image—they store a link to content hosted elsewhere. Your NFT holds a tokenURI like "ipfs://QmX7..." while the actual image lives on IPFS, Arweave, or centralized servers.

IPFS isn't permanent by default. Content exists as long as someone "pins" it. If platforms shut down and stop pinning, content vanishes while the NFT with its empty link remains on-chain.

Owning the NFT doesn't equal owning copyright. You own a token pointing to an image but typically don't own reproduction or commercial rights. Bored Ape grants commercial rights explicitly, but most projects don't—you own the token, not the IP.

If OpenSea delists your NFT for policy violations, it becomes nearly invisible despite existing on-chain. Creator royalties aren't enforced on-chain—they're marketplace policy. OpenSea respects royalties; Blur made them optional.

The brutal economics: 95% of NFTs have zero resale value. Minting doesn't create value; market demand does. Poor gas timing can cost $5,000 versus $500.

The bottom line

Minting creates a permanent blockchain record of digital ownership using smart contracts. It's genuinely useful for provable scarcity, creator royalties, and censorship resistance.

But you're creating a pointer to content, not storing content on-chain. You're not getting copyright. You're not guaranteed sales. 95% of NFTs have zero resale value.

The infrastructure works. The economics are brutal. That's minting NFTs in 2025.

Further Reading:

• Ethereum Foundation - ERC-721 Standard - Official NFT standard specification
• Ethereum Foundation - ERC-1155 Standard - Semi-fungible token standard documentation
• OpenSea - How to Create an NFT - Comprehensive minting guide
• Etherscan Gas Tracker - Real-time Ethereum gas prices
• IPFS Documentation - Understanding decentralized storage
• Ethereum Foundation - The Merge - Proof of Stake transition details
• NonFungible.com - NFT Market Report - Market statistics and industry trends