Minting

Minting creates a token that did not exist before. For NFTs, minting means calling a function on the collection's smart contract that assigns a new token ID to the buyer's address and records its metadata. For fungible tokens, minting increases the total supply. The word borrows from the way a mint stamps new coins.

NFT collections often launch with a public mint where buyers pay a fixed price plus gas to receive a randomly assigned item. A 10,000-piece collection priced at 0.08 ETH would raise 800 ETH if it sold out. Popular mints have caused gas prices to spike as thousands of buyers compete to get transactions included in the same block.

Minting carries risk because buyers typically interact with a fresh contract that has not been reviewed. Fake mint websites that drain wallets are a common scam. Checking the official contract address and reviewing what permissions a transaction requests before signing are basic precautions.