GLOSSARY · BLOCKCHAIN & WEB3
Minting
Minting creates the token and records it on-chain through a smart contract: an ERC-20 is born with its supply, an NFT with its tokenId and its metadata.
Reviewed on
What is minting?
Minting is the operation that creates a new token on a blockchain: a smart contract records it, increases the supply and assigns it to an address. It works the same way for fungible tokens, such as an ERC-20, and for non-fungible tokens (NFTs), such as an ERC-721 or an ERC-1155. The opposite operation is burning, which destroys tokens and reduces the supply.
What does "mint" mean in crypto?
"Mint" is the word for striking coins, and in crypto it means the moment a token comes into existence. Ethereum standards make it visible: ERC-20 says a contract that creates tokens should emit a Transfer event with the sender address set to zero (EIP-20), and ERC-721 emits that event when NFTs are created (from zero) and destroyed (to zero), except for those created when the contract is deployed (EIP-721). That is why a block explorer shows a mint as a transfer from the zero address.
How NFT minting works, step by step
- A funded wallet. Whoever mints signs the transaction from their wallet and needs the network's native currency to pay for gas.
- The collection contract. Already deployed, it exposes a mint function (for example,
mint()orsafeMint()) with its rules: price, maximum supply, an allowlist or dates. - Metadata. Each NFT can point to a JSON file with its name, image and attributes: this is the optional
tokenURIfunction of the ERC-721 metadata extension. - Transaction. The network runs the function and includes it in a block.
- tokenId. The contract assigns the NFT a unique identifier and records the address as its owner. From then on it can be transferred or sold.
Minting vs. burning
| Minting | Burning | |
|---|---|---|
| What it does | Creates new tokens | Destroys existing tokens |
| Total supply | Goes up | Goes down |
| How it shows on-chain (ERC-721) | Transfer event from zero | Transfer event to zero |
| Who can do it | Whoever the contract authorizes: anyone who pays, an allowlist or a minter role | The holder or whoever the contract authorizes |
| Common uses | Launching a collection, issuing tokens or paying rewards | Retiring repurchased tokens, redeeming a token for a good or redeeming an issuance |
More detail in token burning.
How much does minting cost?
There is no fixed price. On Ethereum, the fee for any transaction is the units of gas used multiplied by the sum of the base fee and the priority fee. The base fee is burned and moves up or down by up to 12.5% per block, depending on how full the previous block was (ethereum.org gas documentation). How much gas a mint uses depends on the contract: minting several units at once or storing more data on-chain costs more. On top of that fee comes the mint price set by the contract itself, if there is one.
Lazy minting: minting at the moment of purchase
With lazy minting, the token is not created when it is listed. The creator signs a message with the token's data off-chain, for example using the EIP-712 standard for signing structured data, and the contract mints the token when a buyer presents that signature. The creator does not pay gas for pieces that may never sell: the fee goes into the buyer's transaction. The contract has to verify the signature and prevent it from being used twice.
Who can mint: roles and permissions
The contract decides. In an open collection, anyone who pays the price; in a company token or a regulated issuance, only authorized addresses. The OpenZeppelin library handles this with role-based access control: its documentation defines a MINTER_ROLE and guards the mint function with onlyRole(MINTER_ROLE), an alternative to the Ownable model, which has a single owner. For security tokens using ERC-3643, the standard requires the ability to mint and burn tokens, which the owner or the agents it appoints carry out (EIP-3643).
Minting does not change what the token is legally
A minted token is whatever its content says it is. If it represents a share, a bond or another financial instrument, in the EU it is governed by MiFID II, not MiCA (Art. 2(4)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2023/1114), and in Spain, if it is represented on a distributed ledger system, the issuer appoints an ERIR in the issuance document (Arts. 7 and 8(4) of Law 6/2023). We explain it in token issuance.
Official sources: EIP-20 (ERC-20); EIP-721 (ERC-721); EIP-712; EIP-3643 (ERC-3643); OpenZeppelin Contracts 5.x: access control; ethereum.org: gas and fees; Regulation (EU) 2023/1114, MiCA (EUR-Lex); Spanish Law 6/2023 (BOE, in Spanish).
Framework verified as of October 15, 2026. At Unknown Gravity we develop and audit minting contracts for tokens, NFT collections and regulated issuances: token development. Talk to us.
Learn more: What are smart contracts and what are they used for?
Explained simply
Minting means creating a new token on a blockchain: a smart contract records it and assigns it to an address. It is like striking a coin or registering a unique digital object: from that moment on, the token exists, has an owner and can be transferred. Each mint is a transaction, so it pays the network fee (gas).
Minting: key points
- Minting creates a new token on a blockchain through a smart contract
- It increases the supply; burning does the opposite
- In ERC-20 and ERC-721 it shows as a transfer from the zero address
- It costs gas: units used × (base fee + priority fee)
- The contract decides who can mint: anyone, an allowlist or a role such as MINTER_ROLE
Minting: advantages
- Traceable: every mint is recorded on-chain with its
Transferevent - Programmable supply: the contract can set a cap, a schedule or who mints
- Cost can shift to the buyer: with lazy minting, the buyer pays the gas, not the creator
Minting: disadvantages
- Gas costs that change with network demand
- Code risk: a bug in the mint function can allow tokens to be created without control
- Legal risk: if the token is a financial instrument, securities rules apply, not MiCA (Art. 2(4)(a))
RELATED CONCEPTS
KEEP LEARNING
RELATED SERVICES