NFT guide
How NFTs work on SPAWN
Create an NFT collection for your project, mint NFTs into it yourself or launch a public mint for everyone, and trade them on Solana marketplaces. Here is what each step involves and what it costs.
The basics
What is an NFT?
An NFT is a one-of-a-kind token on a blockchain. Unlike a meme coin, where every token is identical and you can hold millions of them, each NFT is a single item with its own name, picture and traits. Whoever's wallet holds it owns it, and that can be checked by anyone on Solana.
What is a collection?
A collection is a group of NFTs made by the same creator, such as a set of characters from one project. On Solana the collection is its own on-chain record, so wallets and marketplaces can tell which NFTs truly belong to it and which are copies.
What are royalties?
A royalty is a percentage of each resale that goes to the collection's creator. You choose it when you create the collection. Marketplaces handle the payment, so it applies on marketplaces that honour Metaplex Core royalties.
What is Metaplex Core?
Metaplex Core is the current NFT standard on Solana. SPAWN creates collections and NFTs with it, which keeps minting costs low and means they work with the wallets, explorers and marketplaces that support the standard.
Deploy, mint, launch and trade
1. Deploy a collection
- Sign in to SPAWN, open NFT collections and connect a Solana wallet with some SOL in it.
- Enter a name and description, add a cover image, and choose a royalty from 0% to 10%.
- Check the fee shown, then approve one transaction in your wallet. That transaction creates the collection on Solana and pays the deploy fee.
- Your wallet owns the collection. It is the only wallet that can mint into it, and it receives the royalties.
2. Mint NFTs into it
- Open your collection's page while signed in. Only you see the Mint an NFT form.
- Give the NFT a name and an image. Upload your own artwork, or make an image with AI (each collection gets a limited number).
- Add traits if you want them, such as Hat: Crown. Wallets and marketplaces show traits beside the NFT.
- Mint to your own wallet, or enter another wallet address to send it straight to someone else. Each NFT is one wallet approval.
3. Launch a public mint (optional)
- A public mint lets anyone mint from your collection's page at a price you set. Use it for a whole set of NFTs, from 2 up to 10,000.
- On your collection's page, choose all the images at once. You can add a traits file, and shuffle the order. Then set the NFT name, the price, when minting opens, and an optional closing time and limit per wallet.
- Approve one payment for permanent storage. It goes from your wallet straight to the storage service, and your browser then uploads everything to Arweave. Keep the tab open until it finishes. If it is interrupted, select the same images again and it carries on.
- Approve a second transaction to create the mint on Solana. From then on the page shows a Mint button to everyone. Each buyer's payment goes straight to your wallet.
- NFTs are minted in number order, and the images are public as soon as they are uploaded. The price, times and limit cannot be changed on SPAWN after launch.
4. Mint from a collection
- Open a collection that has a Mint box and connect a supported wallet.
- The box shows the price, the SPAWN fee and how many are left. Press Mint and approve the transaction. You receive the next NFT in number order.
- A mint that is not allowed, for example before it opens or over the limit per wallet, fails without charging you. A completed mint cannot be undone or refunded.
5. Hold, send and trade
- A minted NFT appears in the wallet it was minted to. Wallets that support Metaplex Core, such as Phantom, Solflare and Backpack, can show it and send it to another wallet.
- SPAWN does not run its own NFT marketplace. To sell or buy, use a Solana marketplace that supports Metaplex Core, such as Magic Eden or Tensor: connect the wallet holding the NFT there and list it.
- Each marketplace decides what it shows and how quickly. A new collection may take time to appear, or may need to be submitted by its creator.
- When an NFT is resold on a marketplace that honours Metaplex Core royalties, the collection's royalty is paid to the creator's wallet.
What it costs
- Creating a collection: 0.1 SOL. Wallets holding 1,000,000 $SPAWN or more pay half.
- Minting an NFT yourself: 0.005 SOL each.
- Public mints: 3% of the mint price per NFT, with a minimum of 0.005 SOL. The buyer pays it on top of your price, so you receive the full price. Setting up the mint costs about 0.01 SOL in Solana network costs.
- Permanent storage: a small one-time cost per image, based on its file size. Images can be up to 5 MB, and even the largest costs well under one US dollar's worth of SOL at current rates. For a public mint you pay the storage service directly from your wallet, in one payment, before uploading.
- Solana account rent and the Metaplex protocol fee are charged by the network on top. Your wallet shows the full amount before you approve.
- Royalties go entirely to the creator's wallet. Marketplaces charge their own trading fees.
Good to know
- SPAWN never holds your NFTs or your keys. Your wallet signs every transaction and you can see what it does before approving.
- Creating a collection or minting an NFT cannot be undone, and the name, image and royalty cannot be changed on SPAWN afterwards. Check them before you approve.
- The NFT itself, and who owns it, lives on Solana. Its picture and details are stored on Arweave, a network built to keep files available indefinitely, so they do not depend on SPAWN staying online. Each collection page has a Stored on Arweave link.
- Storage is paid once, when you create or mint, and is added to the fee. What is stored cannot be deleted or changed afterwards, by you or by SPAWN.
- A public mint is run by a program on Solana, not by SPAWN. SPAWN never holds the buyers' money: the price goes straight to the creator and the fee straight to SPAWN.
- The creator's wallet controls a public mint's rules. If they are changed outside SPAWN so that they no longer match what the page shows, minting from that page is paused.
- Only use artwork you have the right to use. Collections that break the rules can be hidden from SPAWN.
- An NFT is not an investment promise. Prices can go to zero and there may be no buyer when you want to sell.
You need a SPAWN account and a supported wallet: Phantom, Solflare, Backpack or SafePal.