Minting Services

There are numerous services and platforms that enable you to mint both fungible and non-fungible tokens on Cardano. For simplicity, we shall refer to these as minting providers.

Minting providers can be broken down into two major categories: “self-service” web apps/platforms and “On-demand” services.

“Self-service” Minting Services

Self-service web apps/platforms enable you to build an NFT collection by yourself, using a set of pre-built tools. These can vary greatly in complexity of the features and customisation options they offer. The best known and the most feature complete self-service NFT minting platform on Cardano is NMKR, but there are numerous services available and even mobile wallets with minting functionality built in, such as the Mantium wallet (iOS only for now).

A few of the self-service minting platforms:

NMKR - The most complex minting service on Cardano, with a myriad of features and an easy to use dashboard. Responsible for minting over a quarter of all Cardano NFTs. Find out more about their full list of features in their documentation.

Saturn - A minting platform specializing in CIP-68 mints, including upgradable NFTs and “wormhole” conversions, that allow existing CIP-25 NFT collections to migrate to CIP-68.

MintMatrix - A unique platform that offers both a Cardano NFT minting studio and an identity management solution. The minting studio has prebuilt templates for a wide array of NFT use cases, from documents and tickets to vehicle ownership registration. The templates include categories for both digital and physical art. To mint physical art tokens you will first need to register and mint an identity token.

Cardano Studio - A comprehensive service capable of complex collection creation and batch minting. Not as user friendly as NMKR, and missing several of its features, however the service is extremely affordable - as low as 0.06 ADA/NFT compared to the minimum of 2ADA/NFT NMKR charges.

The Ars Magna Transaction Editor - A complex transaction editor that allows for wallet connection, and offers a simple token minter. Suitable for small collections with minimal metadata - the fields for each asset need to be inputed manually and each asset only supports 3 metadata fields - name, description and media URI (IPFS upload must be done before mint).

Cardano Native Token and NFT Builder - Basic minter with a clean UI, offers options to mint both fungible and non-fungible tokens.

Mantium Wallet (iOS only) - The minting feature of this mobile wallet can be useful if you want to mint directly from your phone’s gallery or on the go. Wouldn’t recommend using it for more complex projects, but it’s great that the ability to mint from mobile exists.

“On-demand” Minting Services

On-demand services enable you to launch an NFT collection better customised to your needs. Some of the established operations (not intended to be a comprehensive list):

Anvil - Anvil is a one stop shop for everything Cardano NFT related. They offer multi-sig minting by default through their SDK, but depending on the contract you sign with them, they can  set up a mint with complex custom rules, build a customised mint website, a staking platform and more.

Buffy Bot Publishing - One of the first minting service providers on Cardano, brought to you by the same people behind the NFTxLV conference.

Canucks Publishing - Launching NFT projects on Cardano since 2021, they are a team with a proven track record.

A Dedicated Minting Platform - Contract Developers

If you are looking for a highly customised mint offering, that fully brings to life your unique vision, your best option may be to contract a dedicated developer to build it for you. Such customization might include unique minting logic, specialized smart contracts, or integrations with third-party platforms or services. If your project requires smart contract development, for example, you'll need someone with expertise in Plutus, the smart contract language of Cardano, or one of its equivalents, Aiken, OpShin or Helios . In short, the skills that the developer will need to have will depend on the requirements of your project, and whether or not you will need smart contracts developed. Some of the on-demand minting services may also be willing to accommodate the development work required for your mint, however, if not, a good place to start your search is the technical section of the Cardano Forum, IOG’s Technical Community or the Gimbalabs Community .

Marketplaces

Another minting option creators can make use of, is launching their project directly on one of the several Cardano NFT marketplaces that offer minting directly through their platform via a self-service style app. These usually include basic minting capabilities and automated listing on the marketplace. One of the benefits of using marketplace platforms is the added visibility they provide. Should your project be featured on the marketplace's homepage, it can significantly increase the exposure of your NFTs to potential buyers and collectors. Additionally, marketplaces often have built-in audiences and promotional tools that can help amplify your project's reach.

Some of the marketplaces that offer minting options are:

Kreate.Art - Catering more to individual artists Kreate is a platform that aims to bring an art focused experience to Cardano collectors and artists. Their minting service offerings are somewhat basic, but should be sufficient for most artists looking to mint simple image based NFTs or NFT collections.

jpg.store -  Is a self-service NFT generator tool. JPG Studio helps you create and generate entire NFT collections without any coding knowledge.

Grabbit - Is a newcomer to the cardano NFT marketplace scene. It’s set apart by its fully on-chain auctions, that offer a unique way of trading NFTs. Its minter is bare-bones, and doesn’t support collections yet, but it  offers a royalty customisation feature, that creators might find useful.

Note: A more exhaustive list of Cardano NFT minting services can be found on Cardano Cube, in the NFT Tools section.