Minting an NFT refers to taking something and getting it onto the blockchain, whether it’s your own creation or someone else’s. This post is not about creating your own NFTs. Instead, it covers minting (buying) an NFT from other creators and projects when they go live.
I’ll talk about how the minting process works, how to prepare for an NFT mint before the project launch, and how to actually mint NFTs for the first time.
Let’s get started and cover some basics first!
What is NFT minting?
NFT minting is a new way of creating digital assets. It’s a process where you can create an NFT, and then put it onto the blockchain.
NFTs are created by taking an existing asset, such as a picture, video, or piece of text, and turning it into a digital token. These tokens can then be traded or used in games and other applications. NFT minting is done by creating a special file that contains all of the information needed to verify the authenticity of the asset.
» Learn more: How does NFT minting work?
The advantage of NFT minting is that it allows you to create digital assets that can be easily traded or sold. NFTs can also be used in games and other applications.
What do you need to mint an NFT?
In order to mint an NFT, you’ll need a few things:
- An NFT-compatible wallet;
- A cryptocurrency (often Ethereum);
- A compatible wallet browser extension, such as MetaMask;
- Some extra Ethereum (ETH) tokens to pay for gas fees; and
- Knowledge of where and when project mint will take place.
If you don’t have an NFT-compatible wallet, you can create one with MetaMask.
If you don’t have any cryptocurrency, you can buy some Ethereum on one of the crypto exchanges or purchase it with a credit card on Coinbase or inside your MetaMask wallet.
Once you have everything set up, you’ll need to find out where and when the project mint will take place. This information is often posted on the project’s website or social media.
When the time comes, go to the project’s website and follow the instructions. The process is usually pretty straightforward, but if you have any questions, you can ask in the project’s Discord or Telegram group.
How to mint an NFT step-by-step
As an example, I’ll explain how to mint an NFT from the project’s website using your MetaMask wallet.
Here are the exact 8 steps that you will need to go through:
- Go to the project’s website and find the “connect your wallet” button.
- Click on the button and select MetaMask from the list of wallets.
- A MetaMask window will pop up where you need to click the “Sign” or “Connect” button to confirm that you want to connect your wallet to this website.
- Once you’ve confirmed, your wallet is connected to the minting website. Now you can select how many NFTs you wish to buy and click on the “mint” button.
- A MetaMask window will pop up again. You will see information about the transaction, such as how much ETH you’ll need to pay for NFTs and gas fees. Once you review all of the info, click on the “Confirm” button.
- The minting process will start and you’ll see a message saying that your transaction is being processed.
- Once the transaction is complete, you’ll see a message saying that the transaction is successful and that your NFTs have been minted.
- You can now find the NFTs that you’ve minted in your MetaMask wallet.
And that’s it! You’ve now successfully minted your first NFT.
Things you need to be aware of
Now that you know how to mint an NFT, there are a few things to be aware of before you start:
- There are a lot of scams in the NFT space. Make sure to do your own research before you invest in any project.
- If you found a project you like, follow that project on Twitter and Discord. Make sure that you mint NFTs only using links officially provided by that project.
- Don’t connect your wallet to any random websites. Only connect it to websites that you trust.
- The minting process can take some time, especially if there’s a lot of demand for the NFTs.
- Make sure to have enough ETH in your wallet to cover an NFT cost and some extra ETH to pay for gas fees.
- If a project is popular and hyped, the gas costs can be extremely high. Also, the project may sell out instantly and you won’t be able to mint in that situation.
- Try to get a whitelist spot. Most NFT projects will have a whitelist where you can sign up to get early access to the minting process before the sale goes public. If you like the project, review the requirements on how to get a spot on the whitelist.
- Don’t get stressed out! You can always find another project to invest in.
- If your transaction fails, you won’t receive an NFT and will lose some ETH in gas fees.
- NFTs are a high-risk investment. You should only mint as many NFTs as you can afford to lose. There’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to sell them later.
Above are the things you need to be aware of before minting an NFT for the first time. Also, remember that if for some reason you were not able to mint an NFT you can always look into buying it on the secondary market.
Advanced NFT minting processes
Above I showed you how you can mint an NFT via the project’s website. However, as you get more involved in the NFT space you will learn that there are more sophisticated ways for NFT minting. Especially when it comes to some hyped projects.
Here are two more ways you can mint an NFT that I’ve tried using:
- Minting an NFT via smart contract. For that, you need to know the contract address of a certain project. Once you open the contract page you will need to connect your wallet and set the proper parameters to interact with this smart contract. To learn more, read this guide.
- Minting an NFT through a 3rd party apps and bots. This process involves using custom scripts (flashbots) that are designed to help you mint and NFT with higher chances when there is high demand for the project and many people trying to mint it at the same time. Flashbots can also help you with the minting process when there are “gas wars” with hyped projects. For example, I use Cyberbox tools for that. Watch this video to get a better idea of how to use flashbots.
I didn’t want to go into details about these advanced techniques but I’ll create separate guides to show you details on how you can use these NFT minting techniques.
Conclusion
Minting an NFT is not a complicated process, but there are a few things that you need to be aware of before you start.
Make sure to do your own research, follow the projects you’re interested in, try to get whitelisted, and only mint NFTs from the official project websites.
And finally, don’t forget that NFTs are a high-risk investment and probably 90% of projects won’t make it. However, there are a lot of great projects out there and if you find one that you like, don’t be afraid to invest in it.
I hope that this article was helpful to you, and now you know how to mint an NFT for the first time.