Rohit Ramesh Updated on Apr 2, 2024 8 min read

How to Create and Mint NFTs on Solana

Learn how to create NFT Collections and mint NFTs on Solana in a few mins using no-code or via API calls. You can also mint NFTs to an email address or a wallet address.

In this tutorial, you will learn how to create and mint NFTs on Solana using Crossmint.

By the end, you will learn how to:

Create and Deploy an NFT Collection on Solana using no-code or via API calls
Create and mint NFTs on Solana using no-code or via the Mint API.

This guide will take you 10 mins to complete (approximately).

Let's get started!

Create and Mint NFTs with No-code
Setup
- Difference Between Staging and Production
- Creating a Developer Account and API Key
Create an NFT Collection on Solana
- Create a Collection
- Verify Collection Deployment
Create and Mint NFTs on Solana
- Mint an NFT on the Created Collection
- Verify the NFT was Minted Using the Action ID
Conclusion
What's Next?
Need Help?

Create and Mint NFTs with No-code

If you are wondering how you can create an NFT Collection and mint NFTs with no-code, please read the in-depth guide linked below that teaches you how to do this with 0 code.

However, the rest of this guide will show you how you can create NFT Collections and mint NFTs on Solana using 2 simple API calls.

Setup

In this section, you will prepare our development environment for creating and minting NFTs on Solana using Crossmint. You will also be learning the different environments at Crossmint, how to create an API key, and configuring the API key with the necessary.

Difference between Staging and Production

Crossmint has two different environments, they are Staging and Production.

The Staging environment is for testing and development purposes, allowing the use of test credit cards and testnets like Sepolia and Mumbai without real financial transactions or asset risks. Access it via https://staging.crossmint.com.

Conversely, the Production environment is the live setting for real user interactions and transactions, accessed via https://www.crossmint.com. Transactions here occur on mainnets and involve actual financial implications.

Production enviroment

Creating a Developer Account and API Key

To integrate Crossmint’s functionalities into your project, you'll need to create an API key. Here's a condensed guide using JavaScript:

Create a Developer Account: Before you proceed, make sure that you have a Crossmint developer account. If not, please sign up - Crossmint Console.
Navigate to API Keys Section: Log into Crossmint's Console and navigate to "Developers" section and click on "API Keys".
Create a New API Key: Click "Create new key" and select "Server-side Key" as the type of key you wish to generate.
Select the Necessary Scopes: Choose scopes relevant to your project needs. For NFT operations, you will need:
1. "nfts.create"
2. "nfts.read"
3. "collections.create"
4. "collections.read"

Create and Mint NFTs on Solana

Create an NFT Collection on Solana

Before you create and mint NFTs on Solana, you first need to create an NFT Collection on Solana using Crossmint. Let's learn how to do that.

Create a Collection

To create an NFT collection, you'll need to send a POST request to the Crossmint API. Make sure to replace "YOUR_CROSSMINT_API_KEY" with your actual API key and adjust the "metadata" fields according to your collection's specifics.

const axios = require('axios');

// Replace 'YOUR_CROSSMINT_API_KEY' with your actual Crossmint API key
const API_KEY = 'YOUR_CROSSMINT_API_KEY';

// Set up the request headers
const headers = {
    'X-API-KEY': API_KEY,
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
};

// Define the collection details
const collectionData = {
    chain: "solana",
    metadata: {
        name: "My Solana NFT Collection",
        imageUrl: "https://example.com/my-collection-image.png",
        description: "This is my unique NFT collection on Solana.",
        symbol: "MYSOL"
    },
    fungibility: "non-fungible",
    supplyLimit: 10000 // Adjust the supply limit as needed
};

// API endpoint for creating a collection on Solana
const apiUrl = 'https://www.crossmint.com/api/2022-06-09/collections/';

// Make the request to create the collection
axios.post(apiUrl, collectionData, { headers })
    .then(response => {
        console.log('Collection created:', response.data);
        // Use the action ID from the response for the next step
        const actionId = response.data.actionId;
        // Proceed to verify the collection deployment (Step 2)
    })
    .catch(error => console.error('Error creating collection:', error));

This code snippet sends a POST request to create a new NFT collection on Solana. The response contains an "actionId" which is crucial for the next step.

Verify Collection Deployment

After creating the collection, you'll receive an "actionId" which you can use to check the status of your collection's deployment. Replace "YOUR_ACTION_ID" with the "actionId" obtained from the previous response.

// Replace 'YOUR_ACTION_ID' with the actual action ID obtained from the collection creation response
const actionId = 'YOUR_ACTION_ID';

// API endpoint for checking the action status
const actionStatusUrl = `https://www.crossmint.com/api/2022-06-09/actions/${actionId}`;

// Make the request to check the collection deployment status
axios.get(actionStatusUrl, { headers })
    .then(response => {
        console.log('Deployment status:', response.data);
    })
    .catch(error => console.error('Error checking deployment status:', error));

This snippet checks the status of the collection's deployment on the blockchain by making a GET request using the "actionId". The response will tell you whether the deployment is "pending", "successful", or if there were any errors.

By following these steps, you have successfully created an NFT collection on Solana with Crossmint.

Create and Mint NFTs on Solana

Now that we have created an NFT Collection on Solana, we need to create and mint NFTs onto the collection.

Mint an NFT on the Created Collection

To mint an NFT, you need to have a collection created as outlined in the previous sections. Once you have your collection ID, you can proceed to mint an NFT to a specific recipient (a web3 wallet or an email address). Here is a basic example of how to mint an NFT:

const axios = require('axios');
const collectionId = 'your-collection-id'; // Replace with your actual collection ID
const API_KEY = 'your-crossmint-api-key'; // Replace with your actual Crossmint API key

const mintNFT = async () => {
  const mintData = {
    recipient: "email:test@example.com:solana", // Specify the recipient format
    metadata: {
      name: "Crossmint Example NFT",
      image: "https://www.crossmint.com/assets/crossmint/logo.png",
      description: "My NFT created via the mint API!"
    },
    // Additional options like "reuploadLinkedFiles" can be included based on your needs
  };

  try {
    const response = await axios.post(`https://www.crossmint.com/api/2022-06-09/collections/${collectionId}/nfts`, mintData, {
      headers: {
        'Content-Type': 'application/json',
        'X-API-KEY': API_KEY,
      },
    });

    console.log("Minted NFT action ID:", response.data.actionId);
    return response.data.actionId; // We'll use this to check the status later
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error minting NFT:", error.response.data);
  }
};

mintNFT();

This code snippet sends a POST request to the Crossmint API to mint an NFT within the specified collection. We include metadata such as the name, image, and description of the NFT. The recipient is specified in a format recognized by Crossmint, which supports delivery to either a wallet address or an email address.

Verify the NFT was Minted Using the Action ID

After minting the NFT, it's essential to verify that the operation was successful. We can do this by checking the status of the mint operation using the action ID returned in the previous step:

const verifyNFTMint = async (actionId) => {
  try {
    const response = await axios.get(`https://www.crossmint.com/api/2022-06-09/actions/${actionId}`, {
      headers: {
        'X-API-KEY': API_KEY,
      },
    });

    const { status, data } = response.data;
    console.log("Mint action status:", status);
    console.log("NFT data:", data);
  } catch (error) {
    console.error("Error checking mint status:", error.response.data);
  }
};

// Example usage with an action ID
// const actionId = 'your-mint-action-id'; // This would be the action ID returned from the mintNFT function
// verifyNFTMint(actionId);

This function performs a GET request to the Crossmint API using the action ID received from the minting operation. It prints out the status of the minting operation, which can be "pending", "successful", or indicate an error. Additionally, it logs any data associated with the NFT minting operation, providing insights into the minting process and results.

By following these steps and using the provided code snippets, you can create and mint NFTs on Solana using Crossmint's API, offering a seamless integration for NFT creation and distribution.

Extra: You can also create and mint Compressed NFTs (cNFTs) on Solana with 0 using the Crossmint Console:

Check the next post to know how to do it:

Conclusion

Throughout this guide, we've walked you through the steps necessary for setting up your environment on Crossmint, creating an NFT collection on Solana, and minting NFTs onto that collection. You have also learned how to set up your environment to make the required API calls to Crossmint.

What's Next?

If you are wondering how Crossmint has helped enterprises and brands by powering their NFT Drops, you can click on the link below to read all our Case Studies.

If you want to learn how to use the Crossmint to create Web 3 NFT Wallets for your users using their Email Address, please watch the YouTube video below.