How NFT Minting on Solana Works, and How It Differs
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Why Solana Keeps Coming Up in NFT Conversations
If you have spent any time comparing blockchains for NFTs, you have probably seen Solana mentioned alongside Ethereum, Polygon, and Base. It is a separate blockchain with its own rules, its own wallets, and its own way of handling NFT data. Understanding what actually changes on Solana helps you make sense of pricing, wallet setup, and marketplace behavior if you ever come across a Solana NFT, even if you are minting elsewhere.
Two Kinds of NFTs on Solana
Most NFT standards you have read about, including ERC-721 and ERC-1155, are specific to Ethereum and other EVM compatible chains like Polygon, Base, and Avalanche. Solana does not use those standards at all. Instead, NFTs on Solana are built with a toolkit called Metaplex, and there are two distinct approaches.
Standard NFTs: Metaplex Token Metadata
A standard Solana NFT is a token created with the Metaplex Token Metadata program. Each NFT gets its own on chain account that stores a pointer to metadata, similar in spirit to how an ERC-721 token points to a metadata file, but built on Solana’s account model instead of Ethereum’s contract storage. This is the older, simpler approach, and it works well for smaller collections.
Compressed NFTs: Bubblegum and Merkle Trees
For larger collections, Solana creators increasingly use compressed NFTs, often shortened to cNFTs, through a Metaplex program called Bubblegum. Instead of giving every NFT its own on chain account, compressed NFTs store their data as entries in a Merkle tree, a data structure that lets a large set of records be verified against a single on chain root value. The individual NFT data lives off chain in a verifiable form, while only the tree’s root is stored on Solana itself.
This matters because storage is the main cost driver for NFTs on Solana. According to Solana’s own documentation, state compression can make minting dramatically cheaper at scale, since thousands of NFTs can share the overhead of a single tree instead of each one paying for its own account. That is why you will see compressed NFTs used for large drops, event tickets, and loyalty programs rather than one off pieces.
Fees: SOL Instead of Gas Auctions
On Ethereum and other EVM chains, you pay gas, and the price of that gas moves with network demand. During a busy mint, gas can spike sharply within minutes. Solana does not use the same kind of fee auction. Transactions have a small, fairly predictable base fee paid in SOL, plus an optional priority fee you can add if you want faster inclusion during congestion. Fees are generally much lower and far less volatile than gas on a busy EVM mint, though priority fees can still rise during high demand events.
This is one of the main reasons compressed NFTs on Solana are used for very large distributions. The combination of low base fees and shared tree storage is what makes minting NFTs by the thousands or millions financially realistic in a way that is impractical with a traditional one account per NFT model.
Wallets and Rent Exempt Accounts
If you want to hold a Solana NFT, you need a Solana compatible wallet, such as Phantom or Solflare. These are separate from the Ethereum style wallets like MetaMask that work with Polygon, Base, or Avalanche. A Solana wallet address, seed phrase, and signing flow are not interchangeable with an EVM wallet, so if you already use a wallet for minting on an EVM chain, you will need a different one for Solana.
Solana also has a concept called rent, which is a small balance an account must hold to stay active on chain. Standard NFT accounts need to stay rent exempt, meaning they hold enough SOL to never be purged. Compressed NFTs mostly route around this by not giving each NFT its own account at all, which is another reason they cost less to create.
Royalties Work Differently Too
On Ethereum style chains, on chain royalty enforcement has been attempted through standards like EIP-2981, though many marketplaces still treat royalties as optional and enforce them inconsistently. Solana has gone through a similar back and forth. Metaplex has shipped enforcement tools at the program level, but adoption varies by marketplace, and some platforms choose not to honor creator royalties at all. The practical lesson is the same on both ecosystems: royalties are a courtesy that depends on where a collection is traded, not a guarantee baked permanently into every sale.
Which Chain Should a Creator Actually Use
Neither ecosystem is simply better in every case. Solana’s low, predictable fees and compressed NFT tooling make it a strong fit for very large collections, ticketing, or anything where you expect to mint at scale. EVM chains like Polygon, Base, and Avalanche benefit from a larger, more established NFT marketplace ecosystem, wider wallet support, and tooling that many collectors already understand.
If you are just starting out with digital art, collectibles, or photography NFTs and want to mint on a widely supported EVM network without writing any code, that is exactly what the Simple NFT Creator app is built for, with support for Polygon, Base, and Avalanche. You can prepare your artwork, set up your metadata, and mint from your phone on iOS or Android without touching a smart contract directly.
